Camper - Buy for Vacation and then sell?

I've done a lot of camping - In other people's campers. But I know very little about campers themselves.
We are thinking about buying a camper for a specific vacation, and then selling it afterwards. Is it reasonable to think that if we buy it right, we can get most of our money back afterwards?
That's one question. If the answer is yes, then I would like to get informed on campers as much as possible. I need something that will sleep 4 comfortably, with a dog, and not be too crowded. I can pull anything, I don't have time for a project, so I want something nice that needs nothing, and we want to stay under $5k.
What say you?

Just rent one,and save the hassle of buying, registering,and insuring only to sell it later on,and deal with shiny happy people from CL or the like. I know you can rent RV's and pop-up's so maybe even larger sized tow behind trailers.

Seems that most campers sit the majority of the time. I agree with the rent idea. That could be for a formal operation like this... http://www.cruiseamerica.com/

You might find the local RV shops do some trailer rental.
Or, you might try a CL listing of "want to rent" and find an owner who only uses his for 2 weeks a year that might like the income to offset expenses.

As far as buy then sell, I get the impression that campers do not flip quickly.

I agree with renting unless you can afford to tie up $X for awhile. IMHO, you might be able to find a trailer for $5K that needs nothing and is ready to go... but I wouldn't bet my life on it. By the time most people are ready to sell their RV, it's been sitting for years and has been generally neglected. Especially in that price range.

www.cruiseamerica.com is a big rental chain, but they only seem to rent powered RV's, not trailers.

I know of a local RV storage place that advertises rentals as well - I'm not sure if they have their own rentals or they are middle-man renting clients' RV's. I've been meaning to stop by some day and see if they rent slide-ins (since my truck is already set up for one). So along those lines, that's what I'd do: call around to various RV storage/sales dealers and ask if they rent them as well. For me personally, it's not the money as much as I have no place to store an RV, trailer or even a slide-in.

YES!

that is exactly what we did in 2010.

http://celebrating20.blogspot.com

we looked at renting, but OMG! is is super expensive, then they charge you for linens and dishes and silverware.

buy, use it, then sell it. Mine needed some work, but I did the work (rather, my father and I did the work) it performed well for us, and then we sold it.

check out my blog, PM me if you want any details.

This is for a 36 foot motor home that we drove to Alaska and back, for something that you can tow, see my post below this one.

bravenrace wrote: I've done a lot of camping - In other people's campers. But I know very little about campers themselves. We are thinking about buying a camper for a specific vacation, and then selling it afterwards. Is it reasonable to think that if we buy it right, we can get most of our money back afterwards? That's one question. If the answer is yes, then I would like to get informed on campers as much as possible. I need something that will sleep 4 comfortably, with a dog, and not be too crowded. I can pull anything, I don't have time for a project, so I want something nice that needs nothing, and we want to stay under $5k. What say you?

A pop up is what you are looking for. they can be had in really good condition, everything working, heat and A/C for about $4K.

this is my current pop up, I paid $2700 for it:

Bingo: http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/rvs/2989942948.html

Bango: http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/rvs/2994437821.html

Boingo: http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/rvs/3000067181.html

In reply to EricM:

That first one looks nice. I've never seen or heard of a pop-up with an inside shower, which was always the biggest down-side to them for me. Hmm...

Its easy to get a pop up from under $5k. We have had three.

Four people and a dog in anyting affordable is going to get old pretty quickly. I hope you are all good friends.

mine has a shower, a potty, Inside AND outside stoves, sleeps 8 (if 3 of them are kids or dogs) a sink, holds 20 Gal fresh water, has a pressurized water hook up, has a grey water tank. It has a 6 gal hot Water heater. It has a 30 Amp cord for when you have service, a 12 Volt battery for when you don't have service. It has a refrigerator that runs on Propane, AC or 12V DC electricity. I carry one 15lb propane tank, but have space for two, one tank lasts for a while even when running the furnace.

It has AC, because camping is cool, but camping with AC is super berkeleying awesome.

Self contained. We will be two weeks in the smoky mountains this year, 6 nights of that without hookups.

EricM wrote: mine has a shower, a potty, Inside AND outside stoves, sleeps 8 (if 3 of them are kids or dogs) a sink, holds 20 Gal fresh water, has a pressurized water hook up, has a grey water tank. It has a 6 gal hot Water heater. It has a 30 Amp cord for when you have service, a 12 Volt battery for when you don't have service. It has a refrigerator that runs on Propane, AC or 12V DC electricity. I carry one 15lb propane tank, but have space for two, one tank lasts for a while even when running the furnace. It has AC, because camping is cool, but camping with AC is super berkeleying awesome. Self contained. We will be two weeks in the smoky mountains this year, 6 nights of that without hookups.

Did you have to do any repairs or upgrades to it that cost beyond that $2700? I agree about renting. We looked into it last year for a trip to Yellowstone - Wow, it's outrageous! But I also saw a lot of rented campers and motorhomes when we were there, so apparently many people don't think so.

What about brands, equipment, any other details and things to look for when shopping for a camper?

I know up here a pop-up is pretty well all you can rent and you are looking at $650 a week to rent them, so if you can buy and sell and lose less than that you are ahead.

If you buy, do a little fixing, use, then sell, you might even make a little $$$.

bravenrace wrote:

EricM wrote: blah blah blah

Did you have to do any repairs or upgrades to it that cost beyond that $2700? What about brands, equipment, any other details and things to look for when shopping for a camper?

I replaced the dead 12V battery for $57 (at rural king) I have to put the right wiring harness and trailer brake controller on my jeep ~$60 with all the wires and stuff. I took the empty propane tank and traded it in at rural king for a full blue rhino one that was ~$17.

Basically all pop ups are made in Indiana, finished with different brand names, one is as good as another. When buying just look over the material condition of the camper, no big secrets.

Oh, a lot of Europeans fly over, pick up a rented camper and travel, then fly home.

In reply to EricM:

That makes sense as to why I saw so many when we were out west.

EricM wrote: YES! that is exactly what we did in 2010. http://celebrating20.blogspot.com we looked at renting, but OMG! is is super expensive, then they charge you for linens and dishes and silverware. buy, use it, then sell it. Mine needed some work, but I did the work (rather, my father and I did the work) it performed well for us, and then we sold it. check out my blog, PM me if you want any details. This is for a 36 foot motor home that we drove to Alaska and back, for something that you can tow, see my post below this one.

That blog is pretty awesome. What work did you have to do to the motorhome to make this happen? How'd you find the BAMH?

Xceler8x wrote:

EricM wrote: YES! that is exactly what we did in 2010. http://celebrating20.blogspot.com we looked at renting, but OMG! is is super expensive, then they charge you for linens and dishes and silverware. buy, use it, then sell it. Mine needed some work, but I did the work (rather, my father and I did the work) it performed well for us, and then we sold it. check out my blog, PM me if you want any details. This is for a 36 foot motor home that we drove to Alaska and back, for something that you can tow, see my post below this one.

That blog is pretty awesome. What work did you have to do to the motorhome to make this happen? How'd you find the BAMH?

We had to fix the self leveling jacks (solenoid replaced ~$100) Had to fix a number of pressurized water system leaks (near faucets) I had to buy a chassis batter (series 31) and two deep cycle house batteries. (about $100 for the 31 and $69 a piece for the house)

We lubed the chassis (father had all the stuff for that so $0) I bought two spare tires at $115 a piece. We charged the chassis air conditioning, forgot how much I spent there.

The previous owner tried to do something with the stereo, I had to trace a bunch of wires around, but found three amps in a hidden compartment, hooked all that E36 M3 back up.

The refrigerator did not work at all in the BAMH, so I got a replacement cooling coil from the Amish who make them for $300 with a $125 core on the old one and we pulled the fridge and replaced the cooling coil, the freezer kept ice cream rock solid.

misc other stuff.

On the trip we repaired teh Jeep once, and the motor home once (replaced the starter solenoid) we paid in Canadian and it was about $500 us for both.

It was a great trip.

We found it on Craigslist over in Indianan (we are in Illinois) and went and got it. When we got back we listed it for $1000 more than we paid, but with all the repairs and the two new spare tires, and it being "road ready" we felt justified. We sold it exactly 6 days after we got back, we got the asking price.

I'd give it a shot. I just bought a chipper/shredder off of CL, used it off and on for a few months to get rid of debris from a fallen tree, and sold it for what I paid. Granted, you'll be in for more than that, but in theory, it is possible!