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How loan value is established
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George has pointed out the primary issue in that the population of coaches is so small it would be very hard to justify the effort to amass the data, and then even with some guidelines as to the price range for a given conversion of a certain year those numbers could be invalid for coaches that have been abused or pampered.
The buyers will also impact the pricing to a considerable extent, sometimes artificially. When we went through the financial pains of a few years back and coaches were being repossessed the lenders just wanted them gone so a new type of buyer entered the marketplace. These buyers were buying coaches for prices so low the entire market was skewed. Since the buyers had so little in the coaches they had no incentive to properly maintain the coaches, if at all so when those coaches came back on the market they were not only cheap they had issues. That dragged down the value of everyone’s coach and worse, it created a buyers market in which nobody selling a coach got anywhere near what their coach was really worth.
I think the beginnings of that situation began with the overbuilding of spec coaches in which some converters were dumping their new coaches at substantial discounts. At the time when a new coach was well over $1,000,000 in price several conversions were hitting the market at less than $700,000. There were at least three converters who folded or who were just dumping inventory that were involved in the dumping which devalued every coach.
But that was at a time when the building of new conversions was in the hundreds per year. The times have changed. The new construction numbers today are far less so in the not too distant future it is possible coach values will firm up or maybe stay at their value with little or no depreciation. If the demand for coaches remains strong, there is going to be far fewer 5 to 10 year old coaches available. We are beginning to see that now. The point being if someone is going to create pricing data or guidelines they not only have to try to get actual sales information, they also have to see trends developing and have the ability to consider the impact on values.
To confuse the issue of valuations even further there is a very wide spread in value between coaches that have been maintained to a schedule with documentation, including those with interior updates, tires, batteries, air bags, etc and those coaches that have no documentation and little evidence of any ongoing maintenance or updates.
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Harry
Try this guy John McGinnis he does apprasils on Blue Bird Wanderlodges for insurance companies he maybe able to do it for Prevost.
Certified Appraiser
Our Blog
Our Location
http://www.mcginnisauctions.com
502-417-5681 -
I checked with one of the banks I use BB&T and they told me there loan’s are based on the NADA “Low” prcie. They also told me their current rate is 8% and you can just imagine the numbrt of loans they’re making!
I think what sourprised me more than anything was “no loans over 10 years old”. I can maybe understand that for some motorhomes, but all motorhomes? I realize you can’t figh city hall, that just seems a little bone headed to me.
You’re comments have been great and very appreciated.
Harry
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Harry, you need a lender who knows and understands what a Prevost is. It’s not a RV in the conventional sense. It is a bus conversion. You will get nowhere with somebody who wants to look it up in a book. If you have a relationship with a lender you might be able to explain and show them the difference and then get them to rely on an appraisal. Most likely you will end up with one of the brokers who specialize in financing these things.
A search of advertisers and related threads here and on POG(sorry Tom) will get you started. Also a good resource is some of the established used coach dealers who have relationships with lenders. If you have friends that have financed used high end auto, boats or planes, ask them. Geo. -
No problem Geo, you can mention POG on the PC site in a positive or negative manner, too bad you can only mention PC in a negative manner over there.
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Yeah, but now we have Guru’s…..only have to listen to one person….much easier.
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Damn right. Mr. B. seems to be the only one who posts! Obviously don’t know him personally, but he clearly has a very high opinion of himself. And his comment about PC being a ‘profit center disguised as a forum’. What’s that all about? I suppose he runs Guru’s out of his own pocket with no contributions from anyone. Do I care if. Tom &Jon make a couple of $$ out of PC? Certainly not. These things (especially quality sites) don’t run themselves.
Anyway, back to the original thread…………
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As long as this is about value, but is morphing into a discussion about the value of web sites I hope everyone that owns a Prevost takes advantage of the collected wisdom on forums (any forum) to add to their knowledge of the coach.
I cannot overstate how much I learn from reading posts. That has translated directly into making my knowledge of my coaches significantly greater with the result being my coach has benefitted from what I have learned and I have benefitted by having my knowledge and comfort level increased.
Not everything on any forum is correct. Some advice is off target, mostly because it is very difficult to parse a question and provide the correct answer on the internet. But the information that is correct and shared is often never found in any book and is incredibly valuable. I have shaped my maintenance program as a direct result of my experiences and those of many other forum contributors. I find when someone has a problem it is often common to a lot of our coaches and if it occurs on my coach I know the answer is as near as the search function on the forum.
All of this is to say we don’t realize it directly, but I’ll bet a lot of value added to our coaches has come as a result of the tidbits we pick up on this and other forums. Everything from who to take the coach to for service, to advice on who can replace worn carpets with a wood floor, to where to get tires, to how often to replace shocks and air bags.
Every one who participates on forums adds value because even the newest members who ask the basic questions are making us all think about responses, reminding us of things we learned or need to know. So even if your dues are free, the value of this forum we hope is there and helps you maintain the value of the coach. We make no apologies for collecting a few advertising dollars to help pay for the costs of being here. Last I heard “profit” was not a four letter word.
We just hope that at every opportunity our members tell our advertisers how much they appreciate their support in making PC possible. We have a very high quality group of advertisers and we hope you make them aware of the value of their contribution, both in terms of monetary support, but also the posts some make to add to our knowledge. That’s value.
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I really don’t care if something is a “profit center disguised as a forum”. I really don’t care if I pay $100 a year or access is free because of the business model allows it to be “free”. Anything half ways decent always costs something; someone if paying the freight for all this infrastructure. I wouldn’t log in the PC form almost every day if I wasn’t finding the information to be of value. The market potentional for regular users is pretty small, even if measured in the thousands. So regardless of how the infrastructure gets paid for, I’m blessed and fortunate the forums exist.
Without the forums I would have never attended the All Prevost Show in Tampa and learned a ton, I would never have crossed paths with Camper Joe who early on in our search help educate me on some subtle differences between the converters I would never have figured out myself, I would never have found Jeff Rowe made our purchase of a Prevost coach a success versus what could have been a disaster, and without the forums I wouldn’t be in a position to leave at least one new thing about Prevost coaches almost every day!
Without the forums I would have probably bought a problem riddled coach and by now have dropped it on myself and be only a fading memory to my friends and family.
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purchase of 1998 Vantare XL during Feb 2012. $120,000. Bus air, 33000 miles.
Hope this helps
Trade-ins complicate the equation but if enough people provide DATA,we will have info we need to compare
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Hello Roy,
was your purchase private sale or dealer, how has your experience been to date, is this your first Prevost, have you had other coaches.
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Prevost was MH # 7. Previous was class C, class A gas,and Beaver diesel. We REALLY enjoy the Prevost. Next coach (there is Always another one in the future) will be a Prevost. And probably a Vantare.
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