SeilerBird said:
I am always suspicious when someone dumps thousands of dollars into an RV and then wants to sell it. Not logical to me.
I don't think there is anything logical to owning/maintaining RV's (or sailboats!). ;D
It seems to be pride of ownership. Some people want to maintain and upgrade their rig during their ownership, then when plans change, those upgrades etc. sell with the rig and one doesn't normally get their money back dollar for dollar.
I never knew when, how or why I would be selling my 94 Class C, but during my 8 years traveling in it, I kept repairing, maintaining and upgrading it. For the time I had it, I seriously wanted to enjoy it and it was important to me to keep it well maintained with all systems working. Also I wanted it aesthetically appealing to my senses and lifestyle, so I probably spent money that others would have done without. For instance my rig came with a working functional kitchen faucet, but I hated it. At some point I had upgraded it to a beautiful faucet with extra options that was a joy to use and lovely to look at. Someone else who rarely cooked may have seen this as wasted money in their eyes and never bothered to upgrade it.
Everyone has their own level of pride and ownership.
Recently I bought a 92 5th estate because I stumbled into a desperate deal on a rig that seriously appealed to me. Suddenly I was writing an advertisement to sell my 94 Class C. As much as I wanted to keep her, I just couldn't justify trying to maintain two rigs and I wanted the cash to pour into my new love (the 5th wheel).
As I went through all my records and manuals to come up with an attractive list of equipment and enhancements, for the ad I was amazed at how much effort I had put into maintaining and upgrading it. I wasn't just selling an old 94 rig, but I was selling a well maintained RV that had a lot of fun left in her for the next owner to enjoy. I decided NOT to focus on the year in the title of the advertisement.
I put "Reliable Class C in Excellent Condition" in hopes that lots of folks would at least go read my ad rather than skip over it because of the 94 year. Of course the ad disclosed the year, just that I chose not to include the year in the title of the ad.
In the past 8 years, I often joked about doing a $300 repair that will increase the final value by $20 but in my way of thinking, I got $280 of "fun time" in my rig by having things working right or upgraded options I enjoyed such as nice faucets or a heaven-on-earth bed.
Ironically when I finally put the ad up for sale, I warned myself that due to the fact it was a 94 with no slide outs, that it might take months and months to sell it. I was competing against much newer rigs, many with slideouts. I stuck my price way up high. It was not a sale of desperation, so I was prepared to wait it out. I could always lower the price, but it's hard to raise a price once the ad has published.
Incredibly, less than 36 hours after the ad went up, it sold to a new owner who was impressed with the overall condition.
I was amazed, as I had stripped out anything I could remove that could be used on the 5th wheel I had purchased yet all systems in the Class C were working when I sold it, save for one, the propane hot water had just recently died, but the electric hot water was working beautifully so I saw no need to repair the propane part just to sell the rig.
I was previously planning to replace the worn out flooring with new vinyl, but since I was now selling it, I simply cleaned the floor up then covered the rough spots with my throw rugs (which were spotlessly clean) same way I had been enjoying it. I figured the new owner could choose new carpet or vinyl to their liking or just leave it as is.
While making up the bed with sheets, quilt and pillows wasn't going to increase the sales price, it was going to show better to have a made up bed rather than a naked mattress.
There could be many reasons someone added new wallpaper to the rig (in the original post above) besides water damage. One being that glue can fail after a few decades or maybe there were holes or stains from dirt and grime. If wallpaper isn't periodically cleaned, then the dirt and grime can become permanent.
Perhaps the old wallpaper just wasn't aesthetically appealing. While moving out of my 94 rig, I removed all my wall baskets and many of my after market mirrors before selling my rig, so I had holes in the wallpaper but fortunately it was nice appealing original abstract paper that was still glued in place. Some holes I filled with bone colored calk that seemed to vanish into the abstract design and others I filled with matching screws which seemed to blend in as if the wall was simply screwed in place.
There was one small area of wall in the Class C that was a problem to look at after I had removed some things, so I hung up a big working wall clock that came with my 5th wheel that I wouldn't miss as I didn't care for it anyhow. I carefully cleaned it up to look shiny new. Amazingly, the big wall clock looked beautiful as if it had always lived there. When the old battery died a day later, I replaced it with a new battery. It's hard to claim a rig is well maintained if one can't be bothered to pony up a new battery and reset the clock to the current time. :
Another small area of wallpaper had a mysterious stain that just wouldn't budge. It had been there since I bought the rig and a wall basket I had removed had hid that weird stain for 8 years. I covered it up with an old used but working weather station that told time, temp, humidity, date etc. The digital gadget looked impressive and it cleverly hid the small mysterious problem stain.
To the original poster... if the rig you are looking at appeals to you and seems to have a lot of bang for the buck, then go for it and enjoy!
