RV sale

[prss2625]

What is the best way to get payment for private sale of motor home?

[bobmar]

Cash is king!!!! Or certified check from their bank.

[txcpl]

Cash or wire transfer through your bank. If it was me, I would check with my bank and get the $$$ and title transferred through them. May cost a bit, but worth it. They do these deals all day long and know how to keep from getting ripped off better than you or I do.

[timjet]

Cash is unreasonable except for a cheap RV. A wire transfer to your bank is safe provided you wait until the bank confirms the money has been deposited before you hand over the keys. Each state has their own title transfer requirements so some research is needed.

[Spdracr39]

Agreed. Take over 10k cash to the bank and see how many hoops you have to jump through just to deposit it.

[momdoc]

We used a wire transfer when we sold our previous coach and it worked fine.

[wnytaxman]

Originally Posted by Spdracr39

Agreed. Take over 10k cash to the bank and see how many hoops you have to jump through just to deposit it.

When you deposit more than $10,000 in cash the bank is required to report it to the IRS. That’s more than $10,000 in one calendar year. In other words, don’t think about doing $9,999 today and another $9,999 tomorrow. They keep track of the deposits in cash during the year.

[Blastvalve]

Originally Posted by Spdracr39

Agreed. Take over 10k cash to the bank and see how many hoops you have to jump through just to deposit it.

In the Banks defense, there are rules they need to follow for amounts over $10k, just Google Currency Transaction Report.

For those looking to play the “just deposit $9999”game, Google “Suspicious Activity Report”. =)

[Bsipe01]

We purchased our coach from a private seller who had a lien on the title. Had to pay off the lien in order to release the title. Payoff was via wire transfer, with a 2nd transfer to the seller's home bank for the balance of the purchase price. The fly in the ointment is that the bank takes about 2 weeks to release the title, and without the title it's difficult to register the coach in another state. Plus, the title must be re-issued in the new state. The seller must receive the title, re-assign the title to the purchaser, and forward it. The bank that holds the title would call the shots on whether a cashier's check would be acceptable. Wire transfers are the most secure and easily verified. There may be a fee.

The process can go sideways for many reasons, so at the very least, make sure you have documentation of the sale via a legally sound bill of sale. It wouldn't hurt to have the bill of sale notarized, check with the state(s) that are involved with the sale & re-titling.

It may be a good idea to have someone process the paperwork for a fee, we did not go that route, and the process was completed, but not without a bit of angst until the paperwork finally was resolved. Took several weeks.

We ended up driving the coach back to our FL home base on the seller's MS tag, but we had insurance coverage confirmed in our name. The bill of sale was our proof of ownership.

FL required that we present the coach in person at the local tax collector to process the out of state title and registration and of course, pay the sales tax. That process took three hours because the clerk at the tax office used the MS "type" designation on the title as "MH" to file the application in FL. In MS, the "MH" designation is motor home, in FL "MH" is mobile home, and in FL a mobile home is not a motor vehicle, thus can't be tagged. It was a mess to get that simple typo un-baked. But we persisted and it finally was resolved with the help of a supervisor and several phone calls to Tallahassee. We left with a new title, tags, and $7,000 lighter!

Document, document, document! Keep every piece of paperwork!

[pushtrk99]

We took a $10,000 deposit personel check and give them a written receipt that they purchased said MH and held the MH and title till checked cleared, actually took 10 working days- then I insisted the other $22,000 be CASH-They agreed and we had a real smooth transfer-By the way they came to ILL from Texas-Product was a 2001 Winney Adventurer in very good shape-40K miles- 1yr old tires- So they did good and we got our money back from original purchase

[brobox]

I let my banker handle it. Last 2 sales I gave my title to the bank to hold waiting for the wire transfer. Both times they certified to the transferring bank they had the title and it would be FedEx'ed upon receiving the funds. Both times the sale was perfect. Both times the bank opened a temporary account to transfer the money into, then closed it. They said it was for safety that nobody outside of my bank would have my account information.

[dbircky]

Originally Posted by Spdracr39

Agreed. Take over 10k cash to the bank and see how many hoops you have to jump through just to deposit it.

There’s one form.

[bobmar]

Originally Posted by timjet

Cash is unreasonable except for a cheap RV. A wire transfer to your bank is safe provided you wait until the bank confirms the money has been deposited before you hand over the keys. Each state has their own title transfer requirements so some research is needed.

Agreed. I was thinking cheap as in <$10K. (But then there is nothing cheap about an RV!)

[Gary RVRoamer]

Certified or cashiers checks are no longer all that reliable - too easy to counterfeit with modern technology. The Bank can accept a check for deposit, then remove it a day or two later when it proves to be phony. No check is "good" until the transaction has cleared the ACH (banking system check-clearing house), but once it does a personal check is as good as a cashiers check. ACH clearing usually take 24-48 hours.