Overseas visitor wants to buy small, older RV

[Aussies]

Hi everyone,

Experienced RVers from Perth Australia looking to buy a compact motorhome in the USA. (not a camper van as we're too old to squeeze into those).
We intend to do 2 x 5 month trips, possibly 3 x 5 month, across USA/Canada on all the scenic roads in 2024 and 2025 and maybe 2026, and then sell it.
Obviously, this is a scouting for info post, as we wouldn't actually be buying the van until about March 2024.

Our European motorhome we bought to do the same over there, is 19ft long, 2001 vintage, and whilst we usually have to fix something up on it every year, it was relatively cheap ($20k USD) and has served us well for 6 years of 5 monthly trips around Europe. If we sold it now we would get 15k USD, so $5k + repairs and all the other ownership costs for a total of 30 months of travel around Europe isn't too bad, ha ha. (There's also almost zero cost for overnight stops over there in most countries).

I'm looking for the best place to search for something similar in the USA?
This site looks promising but I'm open to any suggestions about where to find something that we can buy and then sell two years (maybe three without losing too much. We don't have much money so $20k is pretty much the limit. Would prefer less than that to be honest as we aren't planning on selling the UK RV to fund this one.

A bit of research already has shown it's very difficult for foreigners with foreign drivers licenses to buy a car/RV in the USA. A Google search found a legal firm in Montana that sets up an LLC to buy, register and insure the RV (which can be located anywhere) and then the our company allows us to drive it. Apparently that is fine, legally. They email temporary Montana plates to print, until the metal ones are ready and then Fedex them to you to fix on. Service costs $1,000 in the first year, $500 each year thereafter, but apparently little to no sales tax/duty payable in Montana, which makes the service quite affordable especially considering we don't appear to be able to do it any other way, lol. If that's the only way we can do it, then so be it, but I'd love to hear from anyone who has knowledge or experience of this foreign ownership issue, or found another way.

All the best
Andrew and Suzanne

 

[Isaac-1]

It is going to be difficult to find a road ready motorhome in the US bought at a distance for under $20,000 given the current market conditions, though if could you raise your budget to circa $25,000 I suspect you will find candidates much easier, even then you are likely looking at circa 15-20 year old coaches if you want ones that are travel ready.

In the US motorhome market people tend to pay a premium for smaller motorhomes, here smaller means anything less than about 28 ft long, the sweet spot for bang for the buck is usually in the 28-32 ft size range, which is also on the upper end of what is practical to travel in without pulling a towed car around as a runabout vehicle.

Note, I am not saying that there are not deals out there, it is just you are unlikely to find them on dealer lots who mark up the price on trade ins by 100%+, instead these deals are often found by driving around, or word of mouth, occasionally on facebook market, but regardless you must be ware of the chance of scammers out there, and do detailed inspection of the condition of the RV.

As to the part of the country to search in, I would tend to say Florida or Texas, with the better coaches tending to be found in Texas, and cheaper ones in Florida. Lots of people in the US retire to Florida with their RV's then the RV's get sold when people get too old to use them, so you find a lot of used RV's that sat for a long time before being put up for sale, by contrast Texas is a warm state, so no salt on the roads, and has a mostly year round RV season, excluding the middle of winter Dec-Feb. Arizona is a bit like Florida, where old RV's go to die, but due to the heat and sun beating down on them, they tend to be in worse shape.

A quick search on RV Trader for Class C motorhomes show 57 listed within 500 miles of where I live in Louisiana at the moment priced under $22,000, excluding ones built before the year 2000 drops the list to 15, of those most show signs of delamination or other problems even in the relatively low resolution photos on the ads.

 

[SeilerBird]

A $20k RV right now is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Expect to put another $10k into any of them to make them driveable and liveable.

 

[Aussies]

Thank you Isaac. Yes, "current market conditions" is a very good point. It's why my UK RV has held its value so well under the same 'market conditions' over there. Also, yes, Texas makes sense. Dry and warm storage. Our plan in 2014 was to fly in, rent a car for a while, and inspect what's available via private sale. Driving around Texas sounds like fun. The 'premium' for smaller RVs surprised me. Interesting. I really don't want to drive a big coach. Even if we paid more for a smaller RV, I wonder if it would make it easier to sell two or three years later?

 

[Aussies]

A $20k RV right now is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Expect to put another $10k into any of them to make them driveable and liveable.

God to know. I'll start doing some extra saving

 

[Aussies]

Thank you Isaac. Yes, "current market conditions" is a very good point. It's why my UK RV has held its value so well under the same 'market conditions' over there. Also, yes, Texas makes sense. Dry and warm storage. Our plan in 2014 was to fly in, rent a car for a while, and inspect what's available via private sale. Driving around Texas sounds like fun. The 'premium' for smaller RVs surprised me. Interesting. I really don't want to drive a big coach. Even if we paid more for a smaller RV, I wonder if it would make it easier to sell two or three years later?

A $20k RV right now is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Expect to put another $10k into any of them to make them driveable and liveable.

God to know. I'll start doing some extra saving

That's Good to Know, not God to know, although, he probably does as well.

 

[SeilerBird]

Old RVs are commonly money pits. They always need a new roof, tires and rubber items replaced.

 

[Onyrlef]

Thank you Isaac. Yes, "current market conditions" is a very good point. It's why my UK RV has held its value so well under the same 'market conditions' over there. Also, yes, Texas makes sense. Dry and warm storage. Our plan in 2014 was to fly in, rent a car for a while, and inspect what's available via private sale. Driving around Texas sounds like fun. The 'premium' for smaller RVs surprised me. Interesting. I really don't want to drive a big coach. Even if we paid more for a smaller RV, I wonder if it would make it easier to sell two or three years later?

There is no translation in Texas for the word "warm" Either it's a 115° Feb. 6th to 364 days later on Feb. 4th or 5° on Feb. 5th. It rains Mar 17th. for 6 minutes.

 

[Tom]

A bit of research already has shown it's very difficult for foreigners with foreign drivers licenses to buy a car/RV in the USA. A Google search found a legal firm in Montana that sets up an LLC to buy, register and insure the RV (which can be located anywhere) and then the our company allows us to drive it.

As a prior 'foreigner' who purchased new and used cars in the USA, I was never asked for a drivers license; The dealer or private seller was more interested in seeing $$$$.

There are other reasons for using an LLC, including tax and registration costs )the vehicle is purchased and registered using an LLC in a favorable state). There are numerous discussion on these forums about the pros and cons of using an LLC. Try the Search button above.

 

[Onyrlef]

Old RVs are commonly money pits. They always need a new roof, tires and rubber items replaced.

Most depreciating assets are money pits, if something isn't needing replaced or repaired I can always think up a way to spend money on it.

 

[Ex-Calif]

As others have said $20k won't buy you much at all. Also you have already figured out how hard it is to get a vehicle registered in your name.

There are a couple of regular members here who split their time between UK and here so they may have some tips.

Also check out the visa requirements - Standard visitor visas are 3-months but you can ask for an extension.

Interestingly (or not) most of my sibs and relatives are in Melbourne/Ballarat with a niece or two in Queensland. My brother has a travel trailer and I am planning to buy a camper truck and do the east coast from Melbourne to Brisbane. My budget is about the same as yours ($15k US) and thankfully it appears a foreigner can buy a vehicle pretty easily.

Haven't finalized whether I leave the TT with his daughter in Queensland or sell it on with the truck once I am done.

 

[Isaac-1]

If you can take time to shop in person once you arrive, potentially after scouting out a few candidates online shortly before you arrive, would likely be best. Last year I spent some time helping a guy from New Zealand do something similar (he was searching for Safari Trek motorhome, same model I have) to what you are doing now, I even went by and looked at potential private seller coach for him while I was passing through an area on vacation (on a day my wife was doing laundry), and almost ended up driving around to look at 2 more over the course of a couple of months, then someone else that was helping him find one, found a candidate coach that he ended up buying on the west coast.

I say this to preface what I have found to be an all too common private seller situation, the coach I looked at for him was the same brand and model as mine, just a couple of model years newer. He had found the for sale listing on the Trek owners forum, and had made all the arrangements for me to drop by and do an informal pre-inspection in a couple of days as I was passing through the area. I got there, the seller was a nice guy, but knew almost nothing about the coach, which had been his fathers, who had passed away a couple of years ago, so it was mostly a what you see is what you get. I think the asking price was around $34,000 for a 29 ft 2004 Safari Trek, this was about 10 months ago, though I did not get into the money side of it much, I thought the price was high given the state of things. The seller had done ZERO prep for making it sellable, the coach was sitting out behind his mother's rural house in Arkansas (he lived 50 miles away), had grass growing up around it, and obviously needed new tires, both due to DOT date code, and cracking. I spent about an hour looking at it (note I went through the NRVIA RV inspector class a few years ago, just never really hung out a shingle and used it for anything), and walked away having no clue if it was a deal or not, cosmetically it looked fairly good, no signs of water intrusion, there were no major obvious problems other than the tires, and batteries. This is where the good news ends, there was no electricity or running water available where it sat, plumbing system was winterized, the batteries were dead so the engine and generator would not start. We eventually were able to get the generator started from a jump start battery pack, but it did not have enough power to start the main engine. In the end I walked about with 70% of my preplanned checklist in the could not test column, and could not say if it was a good coach or not. Past experience with such situations is part of the reason I have never went into business doing RV inspections.

Ike

 

[Kirk]

Let me suggest that you start by reading this article that was written by Australian friends who kept an RV in the USA for more than 30 years. If you find it helpful, I'll be happy to check with the author for permission to share his email address with you so that you could contact him directly. Bruce & Pam live in Gold Coast.

 

[Tom]

Also check out the visa requirements - Standard visitor visas are 3-months but you can ask for an extension.

The visa waiver program (ESTA) allows entry for 3 months for visitors from participating countries (inc Aus) with NO extension. B2 visa allows up to 6 months stay, and has provisions for extension.

 

[Isaac-1]

On a separate point, something a lot of foreigners are not aware of is that vehicle sales, taxation, and registration is handled at the state level in the US, and all of them differ in their process, though not as much as they did 30-40 years ago. Meaning what holds true for buying a vehicle in New York, may be very different than buying one in Texas, or Florida.

Tax rates, and registration fees are all over the place, some states charge sales tax on private party sales, some only on dealer sales, tax can range from 3-10% (3 is the lowest I have seen, some may be lower), registration may range from $25 per year up to over $1,000 depending on the state. Some state have vehicle inspection stickers (blow the horn, check the lights, pay us $25) which may or may not include emissions testing, most of these are annual inspections, though some offer 2 year stickers.

Then there are other quirks of how each state does things, Texas for example handles all registration centrally, and it takes about 6 weeks to get the paperwork back with the permanent license plate (we live in Louisiana, but very close to the Texas state line, and my wife has bought her last 2 cars from dealers in Texas), compared to Louisiana where it is handled at the local DMV level and one can get registration and license plates the same day, in fact here banks are licensed as a special class of dealer and can handle all the paperwork if they are financing a private sale between two parties, something I am not aware of happening in other states.

 

[Tom]

Check out the sticky posts at the top of this forum, dealing with Border patrol/visa stuff, buying a used RV in the USA, and visa extension. Kirl's linked article is helpful, as is Forum Moderator Jackie's article (written from a British perspective).

Be aware that things change, especially in the immigration/CPG world, so you should read and become familiar with the most recent information (links included in sticky posts above).

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Our European motorhome we bought to do the same over there, is 19ft long, 2001 vintage,

Do you consider that an example of the "compact motorhome" you are looking for? Cause in the USA even Class B vans are that big (or bigger) and the smallest Class C (RV body on a van chassis) starts at about 22 ft and most are 25-30 ft.

 

[Aussies]

Let me suggest that you start by reading this article that was written by Australian friends who kept an RV in the USA for more than 30 years. If you find it helpful, I'll be happy to check with the author for permission to share his email address with you so that you could contact him directly. Bruce & Pam live in Gold Coast.

Thank you for this. Reading that was very helpful. Very. Not quite sure what the protocol is for sharing email addresses on this forum but if allowed I'm certainly happy to share one of mine to discuss further with them if they are willing.

 

[Aussies]

Do you consider that an example of the "compact motorhome" you are looking for? Cause in the USA even Class B vans are that big (or bigger) and the smallest Class C (RV body on a van chassis) starts at about 22 ft and most are 25-30 ft.

Yes, I've noticed that. My wife will be delighted if there is a permanent bed !! I think around 22-25ft would be fine but nothing longer than that I hope.

 

[Kirk]

Not quite sure what the protocol is for sharing email addresses on this forum but if allowed I'm certainly happy to share one of mine to discuss further with them if they are willing.

The easiest way would be to go to the envelope icon to the upper right corner and click on it to send a private message. I attempted to send you a private message but you have them blocked.