Advice for Selling Your Motorhome RV on Consignment in 2022

Living the motorhome lifestyle is a joy in itself, given how much control and freedom you have over your activities, time, and resources. You also have the leisure of not being bound to one location as you are allowed to explore and discover new places at a reduced cost while answering to nobody but yourself.

However, you may have to part ways with your motorhome at some point. Some motorhome travellers opt to retire the lifestyle, while others feel the need to upgrade their motorhomes to the latest models available. Now the question that comes to mind is, “what happens to their old vehicle?”

The logical answer would be selling it, but the issue is that selling a motorhome yourself can be a hassle, given the amount of time and dedication it demands. Of course, many motorhome owners may not have the luxury of enduring this process. An option to consider if you belong in this category of motorhome owners is to hire a consignment agent to handle the motorhome’s sale for you. This article will highlight everything you need to know about a motorhome consignment.

What is a motorhome consignment?

To understand what motorhome consignment is, we look at the word “consignment,” which translates to assigning someone the responsibility of handling a task. In this context, motorhome consignment refers to hiring or assigning a consignment agency responsible for selling a motorhome. The consignment agency charges a separate fee from the profits of selling a motorhome.

Benefits of a motorhome consignment

Specific factors highlight how beneficial motorhome consignment is to a motorhome’s owner, and these benefits include:

Quick selling period: The downside of trying to sell your vehicle yourself is that it takes longer to find a buyer. However, with motorhome consignment, it is different because they have a network that allows them to find buyers quickly; plus, there is the possibility that before your motorhome came into consignment, an existing buyer was looking for a motorhome. Hence, you get to sell your motorhome in a quicker time.
Profits: These benefits can go both ways, there is the possibility that you make more profit if you choose to sell your motorhome yourself, but you can also encounter losses. However, in motorhome consignment, profits are guaranteed because you gave the motorhome to the consignment agent with a price you want the motorhome to be sold for.

Tips for a motorhome consignment

There are specific things to note when hiring the services of a motorhome consignment agency. They include:

Experience: You want to check that the agency you are hiring has the experience to show.
Security: You only give custody of your vehicle to the consignment agency and still retain responsibility for any damages uncured before a sale. Hence, ensure the agency has a trusted security system and take measures to secure your vehicle.
Reputation: This should accompany the experience criteria when doing your research. You want an agency with a proven reputation.
Consignment insurance: As mentioned earlier, you still retain responsibility for your vehicle before a sale. Hence, acquire consignment insurance for your vehicle. Note that regular insurance does not cover consignment risks.

A fast and profitable way to sell your motorhome without the hassle involved is through motorhome consignments, and this article has highlighted what you need to know about them.

There are many things to know about motorhomes, but this article will focus on motorhome consignment. The article will provide a guide on everything you need to know about vehicle consignment, from frequently begged questions to the merits and demerits of motorhome consignment.

What are the reasons for motorhome consignment?

There are two primary reasons for motorhome consignment, although both involve making money off the motorhome. These reasons are:

For rentals: This involves giving a consignment agency custody of your motorhome with the permission to rent it out to people or families looking to rent a motorhome. Here you get to keep the more significant percentage of the money gotten from rentals.
To Sell: The process of selling a motorhome can be demanding as you will need to look for buyers, organise meetings with them, and more. Those who cannot meet these demands give their motorhomes to a consignment agency responsible for looking for a buyer.

How does motorhome consignment work?

It is similar to any consignment protocol, where you assign the agency custody of your vehicle depending on what you want them to do. In the consignment contract, you have an agreement of how you intend to pay the agency either on a flat rate or via a percentage from the motorhome’s sale or rentals and the period the motorhome will be in the agency’s custody.

How Long Does a Motorhome Consignment Last?

The period of a motorhome consignment cannot be specified as it depends on the nature of the contract and the duration specified. However, for a sale consignment service, the contract can span a period of 2-3months.

Where to Find a motorhome Consignment Service?

The primary place you can find a motorhome consignment service is at motorhome dealer shops because most dealerships offer this service as one of their various services. However, some firms offer consignment services independently.

Benefits and Pitfalls of Selling a Motorhome on Consignment

Before we talk about motorhome consignment, we will discuss some of the reasons people opt for motorhome consignment. This gives a better understanding of what motorhome consignment is all about. The motorhome lifestyle is one that almost everybody wants to experience because of the maximum freedom you get to enjoy, among other benefits.

However, those already living the motorhome lifestyle will agree that there comes a time when they wish to disconnect or retire from it. This often translates to them parting ways with their motorhome because keeping a vehicle they will not be needing or using contributes to unnecessary expenses. An excellent option is to sell the vehicle, and motorhome consignment offers this possibility while relieving you of the responsibility of selling the motorhome yourself.

Another scenario where motorhome consignment is helpful is for motorhome owners looking to upgrade to the latest version available but lack funds. Hence, they raise funds by selling their motorhome. It also helps motorhome collectors who feel they have more than enough motorhomes in their collection and want to reduce their collection. The point is motorhome consignment offers a channel for selling a motorhome.

Positives of Motorhome Consignment

The following section highlight the unique benefits of motorhome consignment over selling the motorhome yourself. These include:

Access to better advertisement media: If you choose to sell your vehicle yourself, you will encounter some challenges when advertising because the process itself consumes time, and you will spend more to access a broad audience. However, consignment dealers are already in the business of selling vehicles; thus, they have their standard advertisement media that covers a broad audience. By choosing this option to sell a motorhome, you get access to these media at a reduced cost.
Quick selling time: Consignment dealers already have a working network of customers, making it easy for them to quickly and easily find an excellent buy for your vehicle at a suitable price. If you choose to sell it yourself, it will take longer to get a buyer.
Stress-free: The ultimate benefit is avoiding the hassles of selling a motorhome, from looking for buyers to appointments and more. All this responsibility is assigned to the motorhome dealers to handle for a price.
Additional Services: The ultimate goal of a motorhome consignment dealer is to get the best deal on your vehicle. This translates to making your motorhome look presentable for a prospective buyer, and they have the additional services to help achieve this.
It saves time and effort because you can avoid the hassle of renting or selling a motorhome.
You can access a wider audience because the agency will use its advertising channels to look for a suitable buyer for your vehicle.
The consigner will help you look for the perfect region where the demand for a motorhome will be high.

Pitfalls of Motorhome Consignment

There is bound to be a bad side to every good side, and motorhome consignment is no different. Some of the potential downsides of selling your motorhome on consignment include:

Avoidable costs: These costs are avoidable because if you had addressed the conditions that incurred the costs before taking your vehicle into consignment, they would have been avoided. It costs more for repairs and cleaning once your vehicle goes into consignment.
Limited access to the vehicle: Consignment dealers have a strict policy that prohibits motorhome owners from coming to take their vehicle while under contract to avoid disappointing prospective buyers when they come around.
Reduced profits: You get to share the profits from the motorhome’s sale with the consignment dealer as they are paid for the services they tendered.
You are responsible for any damage while the vehicle is in Consignment.

All information provided above gives you an outlook of what is involved in motorhome consignment. It has also highlighted the merits and demerits of motorhome consignments and some tips for successfully selling your motorhome in consignment.

How Consignment Can Be Used by Dealerships to Expand Their Fleet

Every entrepreneur understands in every context how important it is to build an investment from the ground up. Building an investment from the ground up involves minimising your expenses while maximising your profits to save for expansion. Running a motorhome rental business can be very expensive to start from scratch if the investor wishes to buy all the vehicles that make up a rental fleet.

This is because acquiring a motorhome is pretty expensive, not to mention the cost of maintaining it. However, like every business, there is a cheaper alternative to starting a motorhome rental, which involves motorhome consignment rental.

A motorhome consignment rental combines the services of a consignment and a motorhome rental, where the rental fleet comprises contract consigned vehicles. To better understand what motorhome consignment rental is, you need to understand what motorhome consignment is. This article will teach you just that.

What is Motorhome Consignment?

Consignment refers to giving custody of an item to an agency or firm to sell or rent that item. In this context, motorhome consignment refers to giving agency custody of your vehicle to raise income via rental service or sales.

Technically, in motorhome consignment rental, your agency is the consignment agency that is assigned the custody of a motorhome for a rental service. This type of business can be operated in two forms:

The motorhome owner is the custodian of the vehicle, but you are given the freedom to rent out the vehicle while in the owner’s custody, or you are the custodian and can rent it out.
This is a hybrid format where you have motorhomes acquired and owned by your agency, but in a bid to expand, you reach out to motorhome owners looking to make passive income from their investments.

Tips to Build a Successful Motorhome Consignment Rental Agency

Have a functional consignment program
Build trustworthy and reputable partnerships with motorhome owners.
Create a catalogue of all consigned vehicles under your agency’s care.
Have a defined pricing system.

You do not necessarily need to spend big to have an extensive working fleet of motorhomes for rentals. A convenient solution would be motorhome consignment rentals, and this article has highlighted what you need to know about this service.