We found it – our dream home.
18 months of research, planning and prep had led to this moment. It was just a phone call and 714 miles away…
They didn’t list a phone number, so I sent an email:
“Hello!
My wife and I are interested in your 5th wheel trailer for sale. Not only are we interested, we are approved for financing and we are ready to purchase (pending an inspection, of course).
We are currently in the Dallas, TX area, so we will have to travel.
Thanks, and we look forward to hearing from you!
Andy and Lezlie”
Then, we waited…and waited.
We waited for years. (Full disclosure, it had been 4 hours.)
Soon after, Lezlie casually suggested that we send them another email. I laughed, thinking it was a joke. It wasn’t. But, I thought it was still too soon.
A day of distracting ourselves with lightweight travel planning was getting old, and we were getting fidgety. The agony of waiting for a response was growing strong.
Lezlie: “Have you checked your email recently?”
Me: “Yes. Nothing.”
We went to bed, knowing our excitement and anxiety would keep us twisting and turning all night.
So, after 48 hours, I sent another email. Maybe the first one didn’t go through, or they didn’t see it. Or, possibly one of a thousand other reasons we didn’t get a response.
The short of it is, we never did a response. Lezlie believes to this day that they, ‘never existed’ and that the post was ‘just a scam.’ It is possible; especially since the trailer was listed for such a good price.
We were certainly disappointed, but we weren’t giving up that easily. After all, we had spent over a year and half sifting through travel books, blogs and forums, manufacturer specs, RV shows and dealers, and online ads looking for the right rig for us to work and travel full time.
Quite fortuitously, we found a nearly identical make and model rig (one year older) a few days later while searching local dealer sites. This rig was only an hour away, and we could go see it the next day!
That evening, Lezlie and I began to realize how close we were to our goal. We knew it was time to get serious about some of the plans we’d made. Up to now, everything had been speculation and fantasy based on research and day dreaming. Were we really ready for this?
Monday, June 12th, 2017. 6:00am. The day after we found our (possible) new home.
We discussed the plan. “If anything looks or feels weird, walk away.”
During our drive to see the trailer, I tried to think about all the research I’d done on things I was supposed to be looking for when buying a used rig, like water damage, tire dates, and general system functionality.
When we arrived at the dealership, we were pointed in the direction of the trailer and then left on our own. We found out later that the dealership was a consignment lot, so no pushy sales person to deal with. That was a good start.
Me: “The trailer looks really nice. Like, ‘only driven to church on Sundays’ nice.”
We inspected everything we could see, touch, and open to make sure it was all good. The rig wasn’t plugged in, so it was just a visual inspection at that point, and it passed. We spent some time sitting in the chairs, standing in the shower, pretending to kitchen prep together, etc. until an employee eventually made his way out to us. We asked a few questions about the trailer’s back story, and then, we took the next step and made an offer.
We waited until the next morning to receive a call with the seller’s counter offer. Our dealer contact assured us (from his experience) that if we didn’t accept this offer, the seller would come down even further by the following day. Sure enough, that is what happened. It all seemed a little staged to me.
While Lezlie was on the phone with the dealer, credit card in hand to put down our deposit, I got funny feeling. I had my laptop, so I did a quick search on the dealership and found that there were many negative reviews. One review in particular was very detailed, and instantly, my stomach dropped.
Me: “Hang. Up.”
Lezlie gave me a confused sideways look, but gave a quick excuse to the dealer and ended the phone call.
Me: “Shit. Shit! …we can fix this.”
From my research, I had come across the NRVIA (National Recreational Vehicle Inspector’s Association), so I went to their site first to investigate further. I figured if we got the rig inspected and it passed, we should be fine, even if people have had problems with the dealer.
I found a super nice NRVIA licensed couple, sent them an email, and had an inspection lined up.
Unexpectedly, Lezlie got a phone call that her Grandmother needed surgery. Our deal was put on pause. (Don’t worry, Lezlie’s Grandmother made it through just fine.)
We made sure to communicate our plans with the dealer, but since this was a consignment deal, we were not in direct contact with the seller, and we didn’t want to put any money down on an uninspected rig. So, despite our interest, the seller moved the trailer to a different lot and we had lost our opportunity.
Double shit.
When we called the dealer to set up an inspection time, we were told that the seller had decided not to sell the trailer, but instead move it down to southern Texas.
From the online reviews, we knew this dealership might be shady and we thought the story might be fake, but we didn’t have direct contact with the seller, so we were out of luck.
Feeling a little defeated, we returned to the daily grind of sifting through online classifieds.
2 days later, we found a nearly identical trailer the next day.
Me: “Wait. This trailer looks really similar and has the same furniture, and the same…it’s the same trailer!”
We compared VIN numbers, and then immediately called the dealership that posted the ad, 150 miles further away than it had been a few days before – sigh – but, at least we found it again!
I immediately felt better about the whole deal after I spoke to a very nice lady at the dealership. Having seen the trailer already, we knew it had a small seal leak by the toilet. So, I used the leak to gauge whether this place would be honest with me or not. It worked! She told me about the leak and said they would fix it before we came down. Awesome.
So, we headed to Austin, TX, bought the trailer and are now full-time travelers.
We plan to document, review, share, and otherwise be transparent in the ways of doing business, and traveling full time alongside our 60lb dog, in a 5th wheel RV.
We’ve been traveling for only a short time now, but already have tons of information to share, good, bad and ugly. Check out The 19 Things that went Wrong in Our First Month of Full Time RV Travel.
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