Experiences of selling private

[Twincam Escort]

Just been reminded of when I sold my last moho, over 10 years ago now and thought there could be some funny/weird people stories around.
With mine I had taken the day off work to meet a keen potential buyer at home. He arrived around 10am after a long journey, with the car full of people. 5 in total.
There then ensued continuous rounds of toilet visits, drinks, demonstrations of every system and TWO longish test drives.
Finally at about 4.30pm when they had exhausted themselves and me, they asked if I could recommend a good local pub as they wanted to go and discuss the purchase over food. That was the last I heard of them!!
It sold the same week to a trader who walked inside, around the outside and asked for my bank details to transfer the full price. First time I had ever heard of bank transfer and I remember being very nervous about it being a scam of some kind.
I suppose this must be normal for the trade but I wonder if some people just use it as a day out with the family.
I know they do with house buying!!

PS If you are reading this...................you know who you are.

 

[tribalbrit]

Years ago I once advertised an old Hymer for sale think was around the £10,000 mark.
Two Irish blokes turned up took a decent test drive and seemed very interested. On leaving they said, we're going for a drink and will ring you in half a hour and ask you how much you want for it. If what you answer matches with what we want to pay we will buy it from you, if not we'll walk away.
Sure enough they rang, said what do you want for it, to which I replied £10,000 they hung up and that was that! Weird!

 

[Lenny HB]

We sold our first van privately, had a lot of wasted phone calls from people who didn't have a clue. As for people coming to see the van we had a couple of tyre kickers , they were locals. All the serious ones were prepared to travel to look at the van and came quite a distance.

 

[nicholsong]

I can tell you my story from the other side of buying privately.

I had done a couple of years of research and had written up a specification of what I wanted. Initially I had concentrated on Hymer 644G till I saw a N&B Arto 69GL, which matched the same spec., so I searched for one.

The point of this is that I was able to relay that info to the seller. After a few questions on the phone I went from London to Eastbourne with an auto mechanic/bodyworker to inspect it. Went back made an offer, split the difference so arranged to collect it for cash - the Police Sargeant seller did not trust Banker's Draft as he said too many forged ones, so I arranged to pick up cash at the Eastbourne branch of my bank, handed it to him, we both went across the road to his bank and saw money satisfactorily paid in.

If sellers want to learn anything from this story it is

1 Find out what the potential buyer knows about your model and why they want to buy one.

2 If that is passed, then discuss funds available and method of payment, because if they have not thought about that they are probably time-wasters.

As an aside, when I went to dealers and showed them my spec they knew immediately that I was serious so did not try to sell me anything they had which did not match, so saved time for both of us. That also lead to one dealer where I asked for a Hymer 644 and he said 'None now, but I have a Niessman which matches' I immediately sensed the superior quality, thus my changing searches.

Geoff

 

[Jev88]

Discussed many things before visiting our privately bought old MH. I knew I was talking to a serious seller when I asked about the AlKo tortion rear axle and he said don't worry, the damn thing collapsed on us three years ago and cost me £3000 for a replacement to be fitted.
The fact he knew that much made me confident to visit a small holding (huge barn) in middle of nowhere Lincolnshire.

Made us a brew and talked us through history and things that did and did not work. Threw in a new second hand Carver boiler, generator and rear shocks, TV (240v) , Portuguese inverter and a new MOT with oil and cambelt change. It was nice to be on a similar level of knowledge as I had done my homework.

In contrast I sold my dearly loved Toyota Celica before moving out of marital home and a buyer drove up from Exeter to near Peterborough to drive and collect, paid cash. Talked him through the known problems I had sorted (leaking power steering pipes, under trays, engine cover and some sound proofing)...... He made it to Birmingham and although I can't prove it dropped into 2nd gear from 5th and over did the engine and blew it. (For the tech minded this was the Lotus used engine that jumped onto a bigger cam over 6000rpm).

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[Allanm]

We sold our last van, a Swift, from here in France, advertised on ebay. I had a phone call from someone in Dorset, he flew over, I met him at the airport here with the van. He took it for a quick spin, gave me cash then headed back home with it on a pre booked ferry crossing.
Second easiest sale I’ve ever made!
The easiest was our 1976 VW camper. ( quite a few years ago) A couple came to see it, sat on the rock and roll bed for about 5 minutes. I asked them if they wanted a test drive, they said no, they’ll buy it, they paid cash and drove it away.

 

[jongood]

I can tell you my story from the other side of buying privately.

I had done a couple of years of research and had written up a specification of what I wanted. Initially I had concentrated on Hymer 644G till I saw a N&B Arto 69GL, which matched the same spec., so I searched for one.

The point of this is that I was able to relay that info to the seller. After a few questions on the phone I went from London to Eastbourne with an auto mechanic/bodyworker to inspect it. Went back made an offer, split the difference so arranged to collect it for cash - the Police Sargeant seller did not trust Banker's Draft as he said too many forged ones, so I arranged to pick up cash at the Eastbourne branch of my bank, handed it to him, we both went across the road to his bank and saw money satisfactorily paid in.

If sellers want to learn anything from this story it is

1 Find out what the potential buyer knows about your model and why they want to buy one.

2 If that is passed, then discuss funds available and method of payment, because if they have not thought about that they are probably time-wasters.

As an aside, when I went to dealers and showed them my spec they knew immediately that I was serious so did not try to sell me anything they had which did not match, so saved time for both of us. That also lead to one dealer where I asked for a Hymer 644 and he said 'None now, but I have a Niessman which matches' I immediately sensed the superior quality, thus my changing searches.

Geoff

Before buying our first Arto a 2004 69GL we were also looking at 644G's and had seen a few that for various reasons we discounted and then a dealer suggested we looked at an Arto they had and as soon as we stepped in we were sold. I think it was mostly lack of awareness that more of the earlier models werent sold.

Hope all is good with you Geoff.

Jon

 

[Mr Colpot]

We sold our Laika privately. One family came to look and seemed geniune until the guy asked if I would downplate it from 4250kg to 3500kg as he was inside the LEZ. The couple that actually bought were lovely. He was spanish and she was heavily pregnant and drove her mums car to ours to do the deal. Money all went through by bank transfer all ok and then they tried to insure it for the husband to drive it home and they couldnt as he only had a spanish licence. They were so upset that we ended up driving it down to Weymouth for them.

 

[gus-lopez]

and they couldnt as he only had a spanish licence.

I van never understand why that is a problem in the UK.

 

[B-well]

Searching for Hymer 534 for 2yrs then came across 3 of them, x2 dealers one in Devon and another in Eastbourne but limited info from them re feed back , the third was a private sale in Yorkshire guy gave me everything i wanted to know plus known faults, caught train up with bagful of cash and after test drive struck a deal. I drove back from Yorkshire to Kent and wipers packed on the way only to restart again when i was a mile from home.
Sold my other younger Hymer 534 to guy who had no idea about motorhomes but could see i had looked after it, paid full asking price and not even tried to negotiate,,,,,,,,,,, he has since been in touch telling me he drove down and around Portugal covering 5000 odd miles it never missed a beat the only problem the chrome end on the exhaust fell off.

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[Twincam Escort]

the chrome end on the exhaust fell off.

Typical poor quality of continental brands