After a Month Long Struggle We Finally Got Our RV!!
Okay, so when I say month-long struggle I mean month-long struggle. This blog post is going to be more of a story so you guys can follow along with our personal journey. We decided to buy an RV back in July of 2022. We hit Facebook marketplace and started looking around. The very first RV we went to look at was absolutely not it. It had excessive water damage throughout the entire RV, and a very terrible engine. The first RV we went to look at struggled to go uphill even at 40 mph. While we were disappointed, we hit up Facebook marketplace again. That is when we found the 1992 Pace Arrow listed about an hour and a half away from us. We went to check it out on July 26th.
For the purposes of anonymity we will be calling the lady we bought the RV from "Ms. Smith". Ms. Smith told us that the RV was her brothers, and that she would be receiving the keys and the title in the mail in the next couple of days, after originally went to look at it. Then a few days later I reached out to Ms. Smith to check for an update on the keys and title. As you can see in the text messages it seemed like she was working on it, and at this point we had no cause for concern since it had only been a few days.
It wasn't until August 4th, 2022 that Ms. Smith went and got a replacement title for the RV. Ms. Smith offered for us to buy the RV without her having the title in hand. That wasn't something that we were comfortable with especially considering we still didn't have the keys to start the RV and see if the engine was good. At this point it seemed like she was being a little pushy, and that raised some red flags on the function of the engine.
Let me backtrack a little bit. When we first toured the RV Ms. Smith was in the process of remodeling. She was going to lay new flooring, put up new curtains, lay fresh paint, and more. Ms. Smith originally listed the RV on Facebook marketplace for $5,000. She told us that she had an extremely busy
schedule, and we negotiated her down to $3,700 for her to not do any of the renovations that she was planning. Although, while we were touring we found water damage in the front on both the driver and the passenger side. Part of our agreement for the $3,700 was that she would have the water damage fixed. Not only that but the agreement assumed that the engine worked perfectly.
Okay! Now that you have a little bit more backstory, let's continue. On August 8th, 2022 we were planning on going to pick up the RV. Ms. Smith claimed to have the title, and that she replaced the ignition cylinder so now the RV started. I had asked Miss Smith if the water damage had been fixed at this point, and she said no. We decided to postpone going to get the RV since the original agreement was that the water damage would be fixed.
Unfortunately, we had more problems. Ms. Smith said that the batteries kept dying. She told me that she went to get them charged, and that didn't help. She then apparently gave a friend some money to go get new batteries. I asked if they were actually new batteries or used batteries. She said they looked new to her. On August 16th, 2022 she said that the batteries were working and everything was up and running. She told us that we could come get the RV, but that the water damage still wasn't fixed. We were going to negotiate price once we got down there.
Once we got to Ms. Smith, the hood was popped, there were no batteries, and no starter solenoid. That morning she had texted me even before I woke up that everything worked. We were there from about 1:00 p.m. to about 6:00 p.m. trying to help her get the batteries and the starter solenoid situated. Although, we have never worked with dual battery setup before, and we were having a hard time with it. Swift had to get to work by 10:00 p.m., and we still had to drive an hour and a half home so we left disappointed.
August 21st, 2022 was our last hope. We decided that we had already driven down there twice before and then disappointed. This was going to be the last time that we drove down there, and we would either leave with the RV or without it. The original plan was to go down after 1:00 p.m., but Ms. Smith contacted us and told us that she wouldn't be available till later that afternoon. The entire time we were trying to buy the RV from her she was very unresponsive, and always pushed things off. Honestly it was getting a little frustrating.
Luckily, this frustrating story ends in a success. When we got down there though she only had one battery hooked up to the RV, so that is something that we will have to fix later. We got it up and running, and test drove it a lot. We knew that the engine was good which we were thankful for. We negotiated with Ms. Smith down to $3,000 since the water damage wasn't fixed, and the RV needed two new batteries. The battery she had hooked up was an old bad one so it would make it home, but not on our long adventure.
We also negotiated down the price since when we called to figure out how much it would cost to register we found out that Miss Smith had fees on the RV. Due to a lack of registering it. Always call and see how much it would be to register because even if the previous owner has fees once you buy the vehicle they become your fees to pay.
We've been very happy since we got our RV even though it was a very struggling journey. We just had a strong feeling that this was the one, and we were able to get it at a reasonable price. The only thing so far that we didn't realize before was that when Miss Smith fixed the roof she did a very terrible job, and we've been in the process of re-fixing the roof ourselves. When we went to look at the RV I was in a boot, and I was unable to climb on top of the RV myself. Although, thankfully so far it has only been a couple hundred dollars to fix the roof which I will definitely be writing an article about once we are done.
The main takeaway from this was that we didn't give up, but we also knew what the RV was worth. We were able to negotiate the price based on what needed done. If you're not sure what to look for or how to negotiate definitely read our article:
We know that we're not professionals by any means, but if we can share our struggle in our story to help you then it's all worth it! Hopefully you have no struggle similar to what we went through, but if you do you will be prepared.
Much love,
Swift & Alice ❤
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