RV Depreciation - How To Minimize It And Save Money

[Music] hello everyone and welcome to the RV inspection and Care podcast and video I'm Dwayne and I'm a certified RV inspector and today we're going to be talking about RV depreciation what it is and how you can minimize it and save money on your purchase of an RV well what is depreciation anyway I mean we hear that term used a lot it's simply something that occurs when something you buy loses value over time now it often happens with vehicles like cars and trucks and with RVs as well so why do they depreciate so fast well because especially with RVs new ones are coming out every single year with new features and new capabilities and so that means the older ones are not quite as valuable also from year to year there's going to be wear and tear on the RV so that's going to lessen the value as well so the thing I want you to keep in mind is that RVs should not be considered an investment in any way they're all going to lose value somehow over time but the question is how fast do they lose value how much well most new RVs that you buy are going to lose about 20 percent of their value within the very first year or so of your ownership and then after that they will lose more from year to year but it's not going to be nearly as much as that first couple of years now here's the good news though depreciation does drop off fairly quickly in the first five years but after five years it tends to slow down in its drop in value from there in fact by year five most RVs have depreciated somewhere around 35 percent on the average but by year 10 it's only dropped to 50 or 60 percent so I think you can see it started to level out a little bit between year five and ten but different brands different manufacturers lose value at different rates and why is that well that's because some brands are known for Quality they have a great reputation so their value holds longer these are Brands like Airstream Casita all over Newmar and maybe even Grand Design we could put in there and there's others as well I can't go down the whole list but there's quite a few high quality brands that just hold their value better and on the other side of the equation these typical high production RV makers you know the ones that you see everywhere at almost any dealer you go into and they've got tons and tons of models and all price ranges and so on typically they are the ones that often lose their value quicker faster so just keep that in mind now how can you slow down this loss of value in this RV that you have bought well we're going to share three ways you can do that and number one we've actually already covered that is try your best to buy a Quality RV brand from equality RV manufacturer now how do you know what is quality or which are the ones that have the best reputation I know it's a challenge that's why I created several guidebooks to help you in that quest to identify the quality brands in the kind of RV that you're looking at so that can be a big help for you but now let's move along to our second point on keeping the depreciation loss as low as possible and that is maintain your RV as well as you possibly can now this is something and I've got to say this honestly that a lot of RV owners don't really do very well they buy the RV and they kind of treat it like a home that it it'll never have issues or they'll be a long time before they've got to do anything to it but the truth is are these constantly need maintaining and it doesn't take an awful lot to learn what to do and it's not difficult eighty percent of the things that need to be maintained or repaired around an RV can be done by the average RV owner so try to maintain it keep it in really good shape and keep a record of what you are doing as you do it any maintenance you do or any repairs that you make to that RV keep a record of it let me tell you that impresses a buyer when you go to sell that RV and you hand over these records that show exactly what you've been doing to keep that RV in excellent shape automatically in the buyer's mind the value of that RV has increased all right let's go to number three on our list of slowing depreciation loss and that is keep your RV updated if you can as you go with newer technology and newer Styles and appearance this is important because a lot of times people are looking for the latest things the latest technology it the things that make rving more easy for them also you know if you look at older RVs you're going to see colors that just aren't anything near what we are into these days you will see things like carpet used everywhere all through it instead of hardwood floors and you'll see things that clearly date that RV well try to keep your RV updated as much as you possibly can and then when you do the money you put into it that way is not only beneficial for you and your use of the RV but in the mind of the buyer who's looking at that RV when you sell it that's an important point it increases the value of the RV to them okay so then now the question is when is the best time to buy an RV to prevent value loss in other words where's The Sweet Spot in depreciation loss where you should be buying an RV honestly it's somewhere between year five and seven that's when like we discussed earlier depreciation has been going down pretty fast and then it kind of just sort of starts to level out a little bit and you can get a great RV for a great price that's depreciation stable at that point so here's another question should you never buy a new RV then because of that big depreciation hit that you take right off the bat well I'm not saying that not at all there's actually several very good reasons that people buy new RVs for instance they may just want that bumper-to-bumper warranty that comes with it they don't want to have to worry about paying for any repairs and so on also a lot of people like new RVs because nobody's used it before them you know they know how that RV is going to be used because nobody has had it before and done some bad things to it so they like that they also like the idea that there's not been anybody who smoked in it or had pets in it or things like that that's especially true with folks that have allergies also people like to buy new RVs for the latest features like we talked before the latest technology and there is nothing wrong with any of those reasons at all and here is an important point if you plan on keeping your RV and I'm talking about keeping it for many many years maybe 10 years or longer well then honestly depreciation doesn't really factor into the equation very much at that point because all those years of depreciation you are keeping that RV instead of selling it now if you think though that you may sell your RV within the next few years or so though then it is important for you to make sure that you factor in the depreciation loss of value in the cost of that RV and then try to minimize it as much as possible in the ways we talked about today well that's it for now have safe and happy travels my friends on until next time [Music]

Channel: RV Inspection And Care

Views: 4,650

Keywords: rv depreciation, rv value, buying an rv, selling an rv, rv life, rv living, motorhome tips, rv tips

Id: _8rKpsfZAts

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 04 2023