Selling Bus

[dalej]

Dale, no one can tell you to buy a bus or sell a bus, just where to buy or sell a bus, so try prevost-stuff or fmca or Phil Cooper or .... you get it!

[dale farley]

Roger, I agree with everything you said. I'll be 60 in August, and I am very much aware that I don't have as long to do things as I once had.

[garyde]

Ahh... the eternal question...when to sell, when to buy, when to trade up. You never know what tomorrow will bring , so enjoy it while you can.

[jello_jeep]

Geez dale, you just got er all fixed up and ready to rock & roll.

Anyone with lots of responsibilities needs rest and relaxation to keep away from the rubber room!

You should carefully consider selling, for say ..,, oh ... 10 years or so, then you will know the decision is right !!

Besides we need all the Marathon owners we can get

Sometimes Marathon owners sell before they have another one in site too... cough, cough, TRUKMAN, hurrumph

[Will Garner]

Dale,

Carole and I looked for almost two years before finding a 1991 Country Coach. It too was all we could afford.

Initially Carole was not in favor of buying the Prevost. I intended some commercial use of it. Now Carole says no way are we using it commercially, that she cant' imagine travelling in anything but the Provost, and that I had better not think of selling it!

Right now it is in the shop getting some rookie panel damages repaired. We have taken it on three week plus long trips since purchasing it on 1 January 2007. We also use it to take weekend day trips to historical sites with the grand kids, or simply go to a restaurant we have heard something about that is within a day trip away with some friends.

My advice based on my experience is that you need to check with Paulette before you list your Prevost for sale anywhere!

We too hope to be in Branson as well as the Prevost Car celebration next July. I'd like to get a rolling caravan going on the East Coast starting with Florida members and gathering more members as we head north arriving at the Prevost factory as a single group, the Prevost Owners Group that is.

By the way, I turned 60 on 1 February 2007. Exactly one month after purchasing the Prevost. I've logged about 4,000 miles thus far this year and am looking for more mileage accumulation opportunities. Oh yes, I still work a fully time job as well as one part time job between January and June.

[dale farley]

I doubt that anything I do is going to mean a quick sale. Although there are always people looking for a Prevost, there is a limited market in general, and it will take someone like me that is specifically looking for something under $160K. Regardless what I do, I don't intend to stop using it or maintaining it.

[Ray Davis]

Dale,

I'm in a similar position in many ways. Purchased a '93. That was the limit of my finances. I'm 55 and still working, so I outfitted it to work on the road. Has basically never happened, not because the bus isn't up to it. Logistics of getting on the road for any extended time with a home, dogs, kids etc isn't working.

I've thought of selling, and purchasing later. BUT, a strange thing happened. Kathy likes traveling in the bus. She really enjoyed both POG rallies we've been to, and we're planning on POG4 (at this point). So, If I get 30 days a year out of it, I'm doing great.

But, for now, I'm sticking it out.

Think perhaps of doing something like Bluevost (ken and janet). They have used their previous bus to work for Habitat for Humanity for a period.

I had lent my bus to my neighbor, who was heading down into LA to do work with another church for Katrina victims. They were also going to stop at Bible Study Fellowship and work for a week (in Texas I think).

If you can't use it all that much right away, perhaps people you trust would be able to minister with it?


Ray

[dale farley]

Ray, It does seem like I should be able to come up with something that makes a little sense. I am my worst enemy in situations like this. I want everything to be justifiable, and at the same time I know some things can't be or shouldn't have to be justified.

I guess I am just a little frustrated, because I had thought I knew exactly what I was going to do when we retired, and now it seems like those things are not possible. I guess I need to just make some modifications to my plans and accept things as they are.

Of course, for years I had planned to live at our cabin in the Smokies part of the year and on the bay at our beach house in Navarre the rest. I rented the beach house out about 5 years ago and only go to the mountain cabin a couple times a year. I don't want that to sound like I am wealthy and can afford two summer houses. They are both very small/modest places. My point was that "what I thought I would want to do once I retired" has changed. Now I find myself tied down to a horse farm and heavily involved in our church, so we don't have a lot of time to do what I thought I would be doing at this stage of my life. Maybe I am just haviing an "old-life crisis". I've already had my mid-life crisis several years ago.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I was going to remain silent because this is a personal situation, but I see others have shared their personal choices so here's ours.

We owners of these coaches are likely to have earned them the hard way. We worked for them and whatever else we have.

My 6 place plane and my bus were at one time used extensively and for a while exclusively for business. The guilt about spending what we did to acquire them was erased when our use of them was primarily for business, with the weekends in a part of the country we had never visited being our "vacation" time. They were used so I could do seminars, attend trade shows as an exhibitor, visit customers and to meet with vendors.

Then I got unemployed and the business use of both tapered down to zero. The frequency of use also dimished greatly. We were occupied finishing the construction of our home and we really did not have reasons to travel as extensively. But....

The expense of owning them doesn't affect our lifestyle or impact us greatly, so after we got past the attempts to justify having the plane(s) and the bus we realize when we do use them we enjoy them. The point is that it took an attitude adjustment that previously was to justify everything we had because we were in the money making mode. We are no longer in business and it has taken a long time, but we are getting to where we now own things because we enjoy them, not because we can justify them. FWIW it is a hard transition, so Dale....if you enjoy the bus hang on to it for a while because the longer you are unemployed the more your thinking shifts away from what it was when you were working. Accept the fact the bus is a toy, a depreciating asset, needless, and a pure luxury. You earned it and the right to own it whether it makes sense or not.

None of these make sense. But who cares?

[dale farley]

Jon, I had been wondering why you hadn't said anything, and I do realize that what you said is the truth. I have been retired for five years now, and I am still in the adjustment mode and suppose I will be from now on. I felt guilty for the first couple years because I no longer got up at 0430, but that time has now shifted to a more comfortable 0700.

I don't intend to make any significant effort to sell the bus at this time. Within the next few weeks, we will probably be going to a local campground where Paulette loves to fish. I know that even if I do sell the bus, I will be looking for something else a few months after, because we've just about always had some form of motorhome or 5th wheel.

I will list it on RVtrader and see if anything comes of it. If not, I can always tell myself I made an effort to sell it but didn't have any luck. Maybe that will sooth my consicence a little. I don't need anyone else to play mind games with me; I can do it myself!