Used SMB Purchasing Experience

CharlyBaltimore · 03-29-2009, 10:46 PM

Have been drooling over the SMB website and the used 4x4s listed there. Wondering how others have enjoyed their used SMB purchasing experience? It appears that if you buy a rig that is in the possession of SMB, the entire transaction is handled by SMB and the vehicle is sitting, waiting to be sold. If the seller retains possession of the rig, the buyer then must come up with a offer, and when the offer is accepted, SMB gives the buyer the seller's contact info and the real dealing begins.

Made an offer on a unit still held by the seller, and upon contacting the seller, we were told that they were going on a family vacation in the rig the following week.

There was some misunderstanding about the amount offered for the rig. We were turned off by the fact that the SMB was still being taken on vacations to 4x4 havens even though it was listed for sale (and not exactly for a cheap price either).

Just wondered if this is typical for private sales and if it is unreasonable for us to think that a rig for sale is not being used on family vacations?

j.whitbread · 03-29-2009, 11:06 PM

Buying and selling demands mutual respect. Maybe you don't want that one.

Business 101. Anytime someone gets in between the buyer and the seller it's called? A middle man.

saline · 03-30-2009, 07:10 AM

Our process was pretty painless. The SMB that we purchased was, and still us on the SMB website. We didn't end up contacting the owner through SMB,the owner just happened to be a friend of a friend. We set a time and date to go view and drive the van and actually ended up making a face to face offer that day. The owner accepted and we set a date to pay for and pick it up a month later, we also gave him a $500 deposit as a show of good faith that we were actually going to follow through.
Of note is the importance of getting financing approved ahead of time. The previous owner had two other couples come to look at the van, one all the way from Texas and they ended up not being able to get financing.
After reading about the toils of financing on this forum we ended up getting everything lined up ahead of time to help smooth the process.

ed1 · 03-30-2009, 07:24 AM

I can understand why it is still in use. Most likely the seller is remaining an RV enthusiast, but want to buy a bigger/smaller one or one with different options (toilet, seating, beds, kitchen, etc).

The seller may intend to use the proceeds of sale as down payment on a new one. Or the seller will be using to money to pay off the bank note and can not afford to have two loan payments for RVs (both old and new) and must wait for the sale to buy the new one.

No reason to stop taking vactions until the thing sells and ya get the new one.

SMB doesn't take trade ins. RV dealers that do take trade-ins are going to have an inventory of used RVs that are not in use. Much like a car dealer that owns the used cars. All SMB is doing is acting like craigslist matching potential buyers and sellers.

**BroncoHauler** · 03-30-2009, 08:40 AM

I completely agree with Saline re: the financing aspect. Ours popped up on either Cars.com or AutoTrader.com, and we pounced on it, making a handshake deal within two days, and taking possesion within a week. We didn't need to establish a loan, so that's the only reason we could move on it so quickly. Just like selling a house. If you get two comparable offers, but one has no contigencies and is pre-qualified, which one would you accept?

As for continuing to use the SMB, when the used SMB market was moving, and moving fast, I could see putting the SMB aside while it was on the market, but some SMBs (like all other RVs) can remain unsold for a year or more depending on their asking prices, so I can't see letting such a large investment sit idle while it remains unsold.

Good luck in your hunt.

Herb

CharlyBaltimore · 03-30-2009, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ed1

SMB doesn't take trade ins. RV dealers that do take trade-ins are going to have an inventory of used RVs that are not in use. Much like a car dealer that owns the used cars. All SMB is doing is acting like craigslist matching potential buyers and sellers.

You are correct that SMB does not take trade ins. They do, however, per their own website, take possession of rigs that are for sale, and charge a fee to sell them. And when this happens, the rig sits on their lot, unused until it is sold. Now in looking at the used web pages for all three SMB locations, it appears that the Texas location has the most units in its possession for sale.

As for whether or not the unit is being used by the owner while it is for sale; I guess that is something we will have to get over.

As far as financing goes; we were prepared to do a cash deal. My point was, that the owner was not prepared to hand over the vehicle because there was a vacation planned the following week.

adventureduo · 03-30-2009, 10:45 AM

We bought ours off the SMB website and it was painless. SMB had nothing to do with it, except give us the phone number of the person listing the rig. We took it from there. Just like Saline did. The rig was never on SMB's lot. It was at the sellers home. I think this is the vast majority of rigs for sale, they're not in SMB's possession.

CharlyBaltimore · 03-30-2009, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saline

Our process was pretty painless.

Quote:

Originally Posted by adventureduo

We bought ours off the SMB website and it was painless. SMB had nothing to do with it, except give us the phone number of the person listing the rig. We took it from there. Just like Saline did. The rig was never on SMB's lot. It was at the sellers home. I think this is the vast majority of rigs for sale, they're not in SMB's possession.

Thanks saline and adventureduo for sharing your encouraging experiences.

We hope to have a similar experience one day. It is a very new feeling; committing so much money to something sight unseen. No local rigs to choose from; everything is 300+ miles away. Time to take a few road trips.

saline · 03-30-2009, 01:51 PM

No problem! I would definatly take the time to go see the prospective SMB's in person. I actually had never driven one until the day we looked at it.

adventureduo · 03-30-2009, 02:31 PM

Same here. The test drive was my first time. I even went to test drive and check it out without a loan. The PO was so nice that i gave him a good faith check to hold it and then i searched for the proper loan and came back. We looked at one SMB and it was the only one. I was wiling to drive much further to find one, we got lucky and found ours like 20 miles away.