One Family’s Journey Toward Buying a Campervan

This is our personal, first-hand experience of researching, selecting, and purchasing our first campervan. Learn from what we did right and what we could have done better.

Our experience includes major repairs and upgrades we tackled right out of the gate. Learn more about the options available in a campervan, the pros and cons, potential pitfalls, costs, and the hoops you may have to jump through along the path to purchase an RV.

The Process is Personal

As you might expect, every experience is different based on personal interests, expectations, needs, and financial position. That said, much of what we went through when buying a campervan may be relevant to our readers.

Tailor the Purchase to Fit Your Own Situation

You need to consider your own personal situation. Understand your finances, credit, time frame, and your tolerance for risk.

Do some research and learn more about the local market conditions. And, be prepared for the unexpected.

In hindsight, our campervan purchase process was smooth. That was due in large part to how quickly we found the best rig for us.

From the time we started looking for a van until the day we drove it home was ten days.

Yes, I said 10 days.

Is Something Seriously Wrong with Us?

Some people take 10 weeks or 10 months (or much longer) in the research and planning phases. Large purchases require big decisions.

For whatever reason, that is not how we are wired. When it comes to life-altering purchases, we seem to leap frog the planning phases and skip right to the purchase.

When we see the right option, we know it. Then we move fast…mostly without fear (Julie drags me along when I do occasionally become mired in decision-making limbo).

You get the idea. We may move faster than most, but we don’t regret any of our rapid decisions. More importantly, it’s not necessary to move that fast when buying your first campervan.

Quick Decisions Work for Us

I think we have just developed a tolerance of expecting and dealing with the unknowns and have learned to trust our gut reactions to large purchases.

What makes this possible? We are resilient and willing to adapt in order to make things work without much fuss.

That said, the most important reason we can search, find, and buy an RV so quickly is we do so not in pursuit of perfection, but in pursuit of adventure. That’s our top priority.

Find Out What Process Works Best for Your

While we seek adventure above all else, I encourage you do take that into consideration as you read this post about buying a campervan.

We don’t encourage rash decisions. Nor do we recommend doing things our way.

Rather, we want to share our experience. We do hope you (a) enjoy the story, and (b) find some helpful information.

Buying a Campervan

The RV market is nuts! Completely and utterly nuts. So, if you are taking your first steps: please brace yourself.

One particular conversation I had with an RV salesperson in Texas put everything into perspective. I contacted him about a new campervan we saw listed online.

The location of the dealership was a two hour drive. So I wanted to first make sure the campervan was still on the lot and available for us to tour.

Yeah, not so much.

The State of the RV Market

Guess what. Not only was that campervan not available, there was not a single Class B or campervan on the lot. Not one. You might be thinking it was a rinky-dink little dealership with low inventory.

But you would be wrong.

RV Inventory Moves Fast

In fact, this Dallas area RV dealership claims to be “the #1 Volume Selling Motor Home Dealer in the World”. Yes, the WORLD!

And yet, they didn’t have a single Class B or campervan on their lot. Simply incredible.

The sales rep said the dealership typically has 1,200 different motor coaches on the lot at any given time. And that’s based on his 30 years of experience.

The day I spoke with him? They had a total of 50 motorcoaches (Class A, B, C, C+) available to view.

Now remember this is a big business with world leading sales. So of course they had inventory orders outstanding. In fact, they had 2,000 motor coaches on order from different manufacturers. Unfortunately, they also had no idea of when those RVs would be delivered.

On top of that, they already had 450 non-refundable deposits of $5,000 from customers wanting to purchase a motorcoach. Meaning many of the RVs arriving in the next year were already sold!

If we had waited and bought a new rig from the dealer, we would’ve had more big decisions to make. A non-refundable downpayment is required.

A big downpayment. At that time, 5% of the purchase price was required as a deposit for a new Class B campervan. To reiterate, that deposit is non-refundable.

We weren’t willing to wait. Even if submitted a deposit, we would be left guessing about the delivery date.

The only available strategy for a new RV would be to cross your fingers and maybe get an RV in six months.

Time to Pivot into the Used RV Market

A new Class B or campervan was not in the cards for us. We were not willing to wait that long. Nor did like the lack of certainty around when the rig would be delivered.

As I mentioned, we are resilient people. And we had already been poking around the private sale market for used Class B options. (Check out Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.)

We found a couple of options near our home. One in particular had an almost identical layout to the new unit we hoped to view at the dealership.

First Thing, First, Tour the RV

Time to take our first tour! I contacted the seller of a Carado/Hymer Sunlight Van with 40,000 miles. We met at a local shopping center about three miles from our house on a Friday afternoon. Easy.

The seller (and original owner) gave us a rundown of the campervan features. We discussed the van’s history and had a straightforward, honest overview of areas that needed attention.

The primary problem was an interior cosmetic issue that we knew we could manage.

Overall, we liked everything about the van, a fact we we worked hard to disguise as we toured. And we felt confident that we were dealing with an honest, trustworthy seller.

Putting Down a Deposit On a Campervan

We agreed to put down a $1,000 non-refundable deposit. The seller offered us nearly three weeks to arrange financing and close the deal.

These were better terms than I expected. We felt good about this opportunity because the van was a perfect fit for us. It also helped boost our confidence that we felt good about the seller’s intentions.

By Friday evening, we decided to pull the trigger. Despite a total lack of certainty about our financing options, I handed the seller $1,000 in cash the next morning.

Overall, we felt there was less risk compared to other options in a highly competitive new RV market. It was time get moving on the financing. It’s important to understand the interest rate, loan duration, and monthly payment (including insurance, gas, storage, etc.).

RV Financing Has Tight Conditions

Because we had previously purchased an RV (our first and only), I thought I knew what to expect next.

Based on the $68,000 purchase price for this campervan, I expected the following loan terms:

• A 15-20% ($10,000-$13,000) down payment
• Finance for 15-20 years
• Monthly payment under $600

RV Loan Capped at $35K

As an Air Force veteran with another vehicle financed through USAA, that was a logical place to start. And what a start…

It was a shock to find out that USAA would only loan a maximum of $35,000 on ANY RV. That was the max, regardless of credit score, or vehicle age and condition. No exceptions.

Regardless, I was neither willing nor able to increase our down payment to $33,000 for this campervan. The search for RV loan financing continued.

RV Loan Financing Terms are Not Flexible

Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union (RBFCU) is another military-affiliated banking institution. I used them in 1998 when I joined the Air Force. Conveniently, there was a branch located nearby. So RBFCU was the logical next choice.

I was pleasantly surprised when I checked initial information and learned they offered many different loan options, including interest rate ranges, monthly payments, and loan duration terms up to 180 months (15 years). Perfect!

At a purchase price of $68,000, I felt confident that we could secure a 10-15 year financing term with RBFCU. We jumped right in and applied online, requesting a 180 month loan. What a rush!!

Within hours, we had a response from the credit union. Another surprise. Unfortunately, the response was not what we were hoping for.

It wasn’t all bad news. We were approved for the loan amount and received the lowest rate available. Yay!

However, they did not accept our request for a 180 month term. The bank offered us a term of 84 months. The loan would need to be paid off within seven years.

That reduced term increases the monthly payment.

In this example, if we borrowed $68,000, the difference is $340 more each month!

Discuss RV Financing Options with the Bank

The new numbers scared me. Part of me wanted to walk away. Maybe it wasn’t the right time for us to make such a huge purchase.

Instead, we called RBFCU to discuss the details of their financing offer live. Unfortunately, 84 months was the highest term they could offer on a $68,000 loan amount.

I was floored. And it was time for some deep breathing.

On the bright side, we only needed about $2,000 to close the financing deal (excluding excluded tax, title, and licensing fees). This was much less than we originally anticipated. I was expecting to need about $10,000-$13,000 for a down payment.

Making a Final Decision to Finance Campervan

All in all, this is how it stacked up with the RBFCU loan option:

Good and bad, pros and cons, like anything else in life, right?

We had to decide if it truly made sense for our current situation and set our emotions aside for a moment.

Review Options With an Objective Lens

When we stopped to look at it objectively, we realized we needed to reframe our perspective and shift the plan:

Despite a much higher-than-expected monthly payment, we chose the RBFCU financing and aimed to seal the deal quickly.

Bringing the Campervan Home!

As quick recap: We started “getting serious” about the campervan search the week of September 6th, looked at this campervan the evening of September 10th, put a $1,000 deposit down on September 11th, applied for financing with RBFCU on September 13th, completed Q&A with the credit union on September 14th, received the financing and closed the deal on September 16th.

Once we picked up the checks at the credit union, we drove to the seller’s house to finalize the sale. I drove away in our perfect (for us) campervan with my head spinning at the speed of this whole ordeal.

She Fits in the Driveway

One nice little added bonus of having such a compact RV? We can easily park her in our driveway rather than incur the cost and inconvenience of using an RV storage lot.

This saved us $100/month or so and a lot of hassle and headache of having to go back and forth to the lot to work on her, prep her or bring her back to our house before an excursion.

When you buy new or used, be prepared to became a “tinkerer.” There are a lot of things in an RV to diagnose, adjust, repair, and clean.

RV Insurance

Speaking of taking care of our new campervan, we highly recommend researching insurers. Understand all your options before choosing an insurer for your campervan or RV.

There couldn’t be anything more stressful than getting in a major RV accident and then finding out that your insurance carrier is NOT going to take care of you or your RV!

Don’t let this happen to you. The newest “kid on the insurance block” that you’ll want to check out is Roamly. It’s an insurance company built by RVers for RVers.

We found Roamly to be a great resource. It may be able to help alleviate many of the headaches you could potentially face with an RV insurance claim.

The Learning Curve Has Been… Wet

One thing that stood out when maintaining the travel trailer we previously owned was this: Water is the enemy!

In the trailer, we experienced several water related crises: a leaky roof, frozen and cracked water pumps, etc… Mitigating water issues is a huge part of RV maintenance and repair.

Needless to say, things started off in much the same way with our campervan. It was wet.

I won’t go into all the details. You know by now we love hiking trails, and campsites and beautiful rivers. However, that doesn’t hold true when the river is inside our van.

Thankfully, several towels and lots of time with the hair dryer took care of the mess. We diagnosed and repaired the issue within a couple of days.

Our Maiden Voyage

We started to explore the area in our campvan. We took her out to enjoy a few nights in nearby locations, about an hour or so from our home in Austin, TX.

Short excursions allowed us to really get to know her. Then we worked out all of the kinks (and controlled all of the water sources).

Everything went very smoothly on our maiden voyage. We feel now, more than ever, that this campervan is the perfect “couple’s getaway capsule” that we were hoping for.

At only 19.5 feet long, she can safely and conveniently take us anywhere and everywhere we want to go. In the months and years to come, we will be adventuring together across the continent.

In the coming weeks, we will continue to share the details about “Kona the Campervan”, including lessons learned. For now, we’ll share how we came up with the name. We lived in Kona, Hawaii for 8 months.

While we were there we rented a campervan very similar to this one. We absolutely fell in love with that van. So I guess the name is based on love and good memories.

We are so excited to share all of it with you! Stick around as we put together upcoming travel plans in the next couple of months. Maybe we will be able to cross paths with you in our travels.

Until then, keep on Trekkn!