Retirement and Financing RV

[Strings55]

Been the part timer route with gas Class A back in 2008-2015. On the cusp of retirement and going with Diesel pusher this time, within a year. How difficult is it to get financing on Class A DP AFTER retirement?

[Ray,IN]

I went a different direction. I refinanced my house to buy the MH, then doubled or tripled up payments until the MH amount was paid off. This way I got the money for 3.5% vs 8% from their finance bank. (2013)

Naturally this requires a lot of self-discipline or one can lose the farm.

[Gary RVRoamer]

Retirement isn't really a factor. The criteria are your income (even though it is pension, IRA, SS, etc) vs obligations and your track record on previous financing. If the lender thinks you can afford the payments and can be relied upon to actually make them regularly, they will love you, retired or not.

[Mudfrog]

I don't believe simply being retired has a whole lot to do with anything. A bank/cu/lending company is mainly going to look at your financial situation and credit history to determine eligibility and rates.

Of course, I would imagine that it might be more difficult to get a 10 or 20 year loan if your age is way on up there. I'd also imagine though, that a person could add optional credit life insurance to the loan to cover it.

[Mike8253]

I retired the end of 2012 and purchased/financed my current MH new in 2016. It's all about your credit score and history, plus verification of some level of income.

[777 Driver]

Originally Posted by Gary RVRoamer

The criteria are your income (even though it is pension, IRA, SS, etc) vs obligations and your track record on previous financing. If the lender thinks you can afford the payments and can be relied upon to actually make them regularly, they will love you, retired or not.

That's the answer.

It's much easier to show income if it's been established for a while. I faced a challenge when I retired 5 days before closing on a new home.

Wanting to be completely honest with the lender (a good idea) and recognizing that the lender could do a verification of employment right up to the closing, I let them know that my employment status was going to change 5 days before closing.

I had adequate income before I retired and enough wealth to assure adequate income from investments and pensions after retirement. But, I hadn't established any pattern of income from the investments. The mortgage lender got nervous that my employment income, on which they had based their assessment of my suitability for the mortgage, was going to cease right before the closing.

It wasn't a big problem, but, it would have been much easier had I closed before I retired.

Take care,
Stu

[PKI]

Slightly different thought process. A house appreciates, generally. An RV depreciates unless you are a magic flipper and that is not retirement. Since most of us are users, we should be paying for the RV when we buy it. Going on the never-never plan is a bad idea. Don't retire until you can pay the freight.

The exception - If retirement is an on-going annuity/pension, then a loan is just a budgeting plan for a future revenue stream. The down side is you are giving up part of that stream in interest. That is a bad idea if there is any other option.

However, one last consideration ..... we usually retire to enjoy the remainder of our life span. It may be a year or much, much longer. Enjoy every bit of that time. If you want to travel, travel. If you want to camp, camp. Folks do those things with a sleeping bag and a backpack; a truck, topper and a mattress; a homemade trailer; a used RV; and their dream RV. Do it with what you can afford - not what the salesperson gets you to sign to pay.

One final note - If you are not careful, an RV can be more expensive than your house. Do the research before you buy and know what your risk is.

[LandKO]

As others have already said or implied. It depends on your financial situation, existing debt and expected future income.
I retired in 2012 with no debt. Expected income was my pension, SS (DW’s+mine) and IRA RMD.
In 2015 we bought a 26 ft TT with a 5 year loan. Paid it off in 2 years. In 2018 we upgraded to a class C. They gave me a 30 year loan, why, I have no idea but it will be paid off in 5 years.
During this whole time we’ve been able to maintain an excellent credit rating.
Now I realize that not everyone has a pension or an IRA, so everyone’s situation is different. Buy what you can safely afford based on your finances.

[EcoRick]

I just went through financing a DP and there was no sound logic to the process. Based on my recent experience, consistent income is the key. If your loan is below a certain threshold, you’re breathing and have good credit, you’ll get a loan. Over a certain limit, you’ll have to provide more data to support the loan. We are owners of a single member LLC and no bank wanted to look beyond one number, adjusted gross income. If you’re purchasing from a dealer, be sure to get in front of finance early so you don’t waste time and effort. In the end, I had to spend and borrow more money than I wanted to get better financing.

[akeagle]

For what its worth, State Farm was eager to finance our Minnie Winnie.

[JerryP]

This story is not quite the same, but here it is.

I am already retired. We decided to downsize our house situation. We found a house we wanted, but we still owned our old one. It was free and clear. We had the money to outright buy the new one, but I would have to take some of the money out of IRA accounts to complete the deal. I did not want to do this. We decided to borrow part of the money needed to get into the new house until we could move and sell the old house. Selling the old house would pay off the new one. It was a pain to get the loan and satisfy the loan officer. The key is monthly income & cash flow. I never had any trouble at all in the past getting loans for houses or cars. It's much more difficult to get loans after you retire. Even if you have the cash in the bank. Especially if you try to borrow from "Mr. Cooper" loan company. This is a national company, ( it used to be called Nationwide"). Obviously I don't recommend Mr. Cooper.

Good Luck,

Jerry

[momdoc]

As long as you have a good credit rating and can document a good income stream then depending on how much (percentage financing) you should be fine.

With no pension (only SS) and personal investments we did have to work on the lender to accept our investment income as "personal income"

We did go through a credit union for the best rate.

[Dutch Star Don]

Originally Posted by Strings55

Been the part timer route with gas Class A back in 2008-2015. On the cusp of retirement and going with Diesel pusher this time, within a year. How difficult is it to get financing on Class A DP AFTER retirement?

Why don't you just buy the DP a few months before you retire, to eliminate the issue.

We bought a used 2004 Fleetwood Terra that was to become our interim RV, for about 5 years, until we retired and bought a DP for retirement. Luckily, we hated the Terra, which had both brake and black tank issues that were not repairable (bad design). We ended up buying a new DP, a year later and about 4 years before I retired. I'm glad we did, as the market crashed and RV companies started going out of business, leaving fewer choices. We happily oved into retirement with the 2005 Diplomat in 2011.

[wwestman]

We just went through this to buy our new DP. Our issue was that we did not owe anyone anything. We lived on our boat (for which we paid cash). Had not mortgage and had no sticks and bricks.

Got turned down by everyone because, even though we had a credit score in the top 99%, we had no installment history. Funny, they will only loan you money if you already owe money.

Ended up going to a local community bank here in Washington where we could actually talk to a real person. Once the boat sells we will probably pay most of the loan off, but plan to make payments for at least a year just to establish that we do know how to make payment.

I guess owing nobody anything is bad for you. Who knew.