Community Forums

Wundertaker · 08-19-2016, 10:04 AM

Hi all... My wife and I are nearing the purchase of our first Class "A"!!! We have the finances to put a very large down payment on whatever we choose OR put a much smaller down payment, say 10-20% and finance the balance. Any loan for us will be no issue as we have a credit rating score that well exceeds 800+, so that's no problem.

Would anyone be willing to share with us some Loan/Financing Companies that you may have worked with that may work specifically in the RV Industry and have been fair and worked for you??? We could do a local bank/credit union but there may be some that offer much better deals and may specialize in the RV industry. Since we've not been in this position before, we would not know who to contact that may work out better for us financially.

Also, if you have an opinion as to what worked for you...either paid cash, financed 50%, or 80-90% of the RV would be interesting to hear about. I know everyone's situation is unique and different but we are lucky enough to be able to go down several different financial paths. I'm just trying to look at "all of our BEST OPTIONS"!!!

My wife likes seeing the money still sitting in our investments/bank, BUT, at the same time, SHE VERY MUCH DISLIKES LARGE MONTHLY PAYMENTS. We know we can't have it both ways...just want to try to go down the best path for us.
Thankyouawholebunch!!!

Crasher · 08-19-2016, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wundertaker

Hi all... My wife and I are nearing the purchase of our first Class "A"!!! We have the finances to put a very large down payment on whatever we choose OR put a much smaller down payment, say 10-20% and finance the balance. Any loan for us will be no issue as we have a credit rating score that well exceeds 800+, so that's no problem.

Would anyone be willing to share with us some Loan/Financing Companies that you may have worked with that may work specifically in the RV Industry and have been fair and worked for you??? We could do a local bank/credit union but there may be some that offer much better deals and may specialize in the RV industry. Since we've not been in this position before, we would not know who to contact that may work out better for us financially.

Also, if you have an opinion as to what worked for you...either paid cash, financed 50%, or 80-90% of the RV would be interesting to hear about. I know everyone's situation is unique and different but we are lucky enough to be able to go down several different financial paths. I'm just trying to look at "all of our BEST OPTIONS"!!!

My wife likes seeing the money still sitting in our investments/bank, BUT, at the same time, SHE VERY MUCH DISLIKES LARGE MONTHLY PAYMENTS. We know we can't have it both ways...just want to try to go down the best path for us.
Thankyouawholebunch!!!

Like you said, everyone's situation is different. We do not like monthly payments either. I financed the last three motorhomes through a local credit union. They were the only one that would allow me to make annual payments and I only financed for 2-3 years. Plus, they had the lowest rate. 1.8% three years ago. We are receiving annual payments from a business we sold, so the annual payments on the MH worked well. Unless you are making more return on low risk investments than what the finance rate would be, I would make as large of a dwn pmt as the budget would allow. If buying new, it will depreciate a lot in the first two years and you could be upside down on the loan with a small amount down. If buying used, leave some money in a slush fund, as you will need it for unseen repairs.

Good luck and enjoy the RV lifestyle

Mr_D · 08-19-2016, 10:36 AM

We could have paid cash for the Magna, but found we made more on the money than we pay on the contract so we took out a loan.

Wundertaker · 08-19-2016, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crasher

Like you said, everyone's situation is different. We do not like monthly payments either. I financed the last three motorhomes through a local credit union. They were the only one that would allow me to make annual payments and I only financed for 2-3 years. Plus, they had the lowest rate. 1.8% three years ago. We are receiving annual payments from a business we sold, so the annual payments on the MH worked well. Unless you are making more return on low risk investments than what the finance rate would be, I would make as large of a dwn pmt as the budget would allow. If buying new, it will depreciate a lot in the first two years and you could be upside down on the loan with a small amount down. If buying used, leave some money in a slush fund, as you will need it for unseen repairs.

Good luck and enjoy the RV lifestyle

Would like to buy used...2-5 years old. probably 20% down with 15 year loan to keep monthly payments as low as possible. I was hoping to hear from folks that know of RV Specific Loan Company's that are well respected. I'll see what comes across the wire... Thank you...

NevadaNick · 08-19-2016, 11:36 AM

Ours is through Ally Bank. Essex, Mountain America Credit Union and i am sure there are others.

Wundertaker · 08-19-2016, 12:14 PM

Thanx Nick...appreciate the info...trying to cover all the bases.... :-)

jarata · 08-19-2016, 12:17 PM

If you can afford a bid down payment why would you finance for 15 years

Wundertaker · 08-19-2016, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarata

If you can afford a bid down payment why would you finance for 15 years

Because we could then have a "scheduled" low monthly payment with "our option" to put a lot more down if we want. We also Flip Homes and I make much more with my $$$ in Flip houses than put it into a non money-making motorhome.

Tom-NC · 08-19-2016, 01:40 PM

Hi,

At our age we decided to take out a loan and we did it through US Bank. We could have paid for it but would have spent all our savings and then would have nothing when we would need it. This way we make monthly payments and if anything happens to us they can have the RV back.
I for one would not tap in our investments or savings. I would make a down payment of whatever in our case it was a teade in and then finance the rest. If you have an income coming in from a job then the interest is tax deductible as it is considered a second home.
Good Luck and enjoy!!!!!

vsheetz · 08-19-2016, 01:46 PM

As others have noted a loan can be a good thing - cash preservation, tax advantages, etc. Notwithstanding, we opted to pay cash. Our retirement goal has been to be debt free and have a comfortable income from investments. We are fortunate to be able to have met the goal. So the finance or not decision is a very personal one - depending on financial position, personal wants, and goals.

Tom-NC · 08-19-2016, 02:03 PM

Vince you are indeed blessed to do what you did. I had paid for my 04 with cash but as you get older you think that what happens if you get real sick and bills start piling up.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that everyone should have some rainy day money and those that have the cash well by all means pay it off and still have rainy day money.

Enjoy!!

JohnBoyToo · 08-19-2016, 02:10 PM

With house, cars, kids, etc... we had to finance, but we used our great credit score and sample screen prints from advertised rates to get a very good rate..

Look at places that do rv financing like good sam so you have something to compare it to.. https://www.goodsamrvloans.com/rates/

Whew, they've gone up

Smitty77 · 08-20-2016, 10:05 AM

We went with Essex/Bank of The West.

We put 50% down, vs paying all cash. A few reasons why this seemed to be the way for us to go:
> Interest Rates were/are low
> Schedule A assist on the Second Home Mortgage, lowers the interest rate even more
> We wanted to hit a retirement budget fitting monthly cost on this loan
> We felt that inflation would crop again, and we'd be paying the loan off with a lower valued dollar
> We kept the other 50% in our liquid DRIP stock investments

This works for us...
Smitty

Gary RVRoamer · 08-20-2016, 02:41 PM

I don't think the choice of the bank makes any difference in your decision, though there may be differences in the loan rates for your particular situation. You are basically asking about the trade-off between a large down payment or a smaller one and that largely depends on how much you are earning on your investments vs how much you pay on the loan. Given the rate of depreciation on even a top-end motorhome,I would try to keep the loan to 10-12 years if I could, and make the down payment big enough so that I thought I could handle the payments even if times got tough again (like in 2008). Just where that balance falls depends on your income, investments and loan size.

Make sure the bank will apply any extra (early) payment immediately and directly against the loan balance (principle). And that there is no fee for an early payoff. Most do these days, but double check.