gdh11

Here's my recommendation for what it is worth. My wife and I bought a used RV at a bankruptcy auction in NC a few summers ago. It is a 2003 model and the asset was kicked around the court system for close to three years before they finally ordered it to be sold. The nubs were still on the tires, cutting boards still in the wrapper, along with the labels on the blinds...it was like a brand new one. The auctioneer told me that the trailer was seized a week after the previous owners had bought it and it had been in storage since. The NADA books are readily available online or if you belong to a good bank they should be able to figure it over the phone for you. Right before the auction I called my bank and walked around it and inside describing the options and they gave me the numbers. At the time it retailed at $20K, loan $18K and I bought it for $9K with only one dude bidding against me. We have used it a number of times for family vacations and we can even pull it up to the house for more space if we have too many visitors to handle. We love it and use it often. Knowing what a great deal we got and the great condition it is in makes it even better. Before the auction we were about a day away from buying a brand new one and paying retail. Just look around, there are tons of good deals out there and you can find one if you are patient.

I would not recommend buying over the internet unless you inspect it yourself in person, pictures of these can look much better than they really are. We checked out one RV that was listed on E-Bay described as an extremely clean, very nice trailer and it turned out to be a nasty junker that had a list of deficiencies and damage. It was owned by a smoker that apparently used the furniture and floor as the ashtray. Even with the list of problems that I pointed out that were not described to me over the phone the owner was steadfast in his description, so be careful and good luck.