"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Friday, July 11, 2008

Negotiations

For those who are curious, I'll give a few details about the negotiations that went on tonight. I'm not posting this on the other blog and will, in fact, remove some stuff about the negotiations from the other blog because the current RV owners will be reading it. So, those at OIT get extra content!

At any rate, I showed up with some ads for other comparable rigs.

They were asking for 32,000$. A class C sells for about 18,000$ if it's in impeccable condition. That's a significant difference!

So, after I showed them how I got my 18,000$ figure, I opened the negotiations at 20,000$. The owner said that he had posted for 32,000$, and was hoping for 28,000$. His wife didn't want to join the conversation yet.

I then reconfirmed that they were willing to include the tow system with cables, worth several thousand dollars, as well as a solar panel and inverter. Yes. I went up to 23,000$. I could see his wife getting a little bit antsy. I didn't budge, let her gather her words. She finally said that she couldn't imagine letting the coach go for anything less than 25,000$.

That was the maximum I wanted to pay (and was pre-approved for) and, truth?, what I think that the coach is worth. I even think it's a bargain. I have a rig that's in absolute perfect condition AND I don't have to go through the hassle of finding the tow hitch, and then paying to get it installed. The solar panel and inverter aren't cheap toys, either. I'll need a more powerful inverter, but had wanted a smaller one, too, which I've got now. I've also got a luxury unit with a lot of little features, an incredible amount of carrying capacity, a huge basement, a more powerful engine than most units being sold, and the exact layout I wanted. And let's not forget the incredibly low mileage.

So, I gave her words a moment of silence, smiled, and said that I could live with 25,000$. We shook on it, then we went out to my new home so I could give her one more look over before we do the transfer of ownership next week. We talked about my plans and they gave me some tips and even offered to let me go home with all the instruction manuals. I resisted. I just want to do this in the proper order and those manuals aren't really mine yet.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the United States to pick up a Wonder Wash someone is giving me, and then I'll head to Watertown, NY, for some serious cross-border RV shopping. I'm aiming to come back with at the absolute minimum a GPS, a back up camera system, an uninterrupted power supply, and a surge protector. This bird found out recently that there is no duty on all electronics other than televisions, and some Googling revealed that there are serious bargains to be had south of the border. It'll make for a fun day; there's nothing like pulling out the passport and foreign currency to spice up the week even if you're only going to the good old US of A. :-)

It's been a good day.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your new home!!!

Blessings galore on your journey ahead

Rae said...

Thank you!

Anonymous said...

You GO girl! Great job of negotiations,... and you have a cream puff of a rig to show for it!

Rae said...

Careful, I'm already insufferably pleased with myself! :-)

Seriously, though, it's am amazing feeling to know that I got the perfect rig for me at this time in my life for lower than what I expected to pay--I was sure I'd have to shell out 27K. So, yeah, I've been patting myself on the back a lot. :-)