How to Sell Your RV Privately
Selling an RV privately isn’t complicated, but there are a lot of small steps, and the ones people skip are usually the ones that cost them later. Here’s the order I’d go in.
1. Work out what it’s actually worth
Before anything else, find out what your rig realistically sells for. Not what you paid. Not what you owe. What comparable units are selling for right now.
Three places to look:
- Comparable private listings. Search your year, make and floorplan and see what similar units are asking. Asking prices aren’t sale prices, but a cluster of them tells you the range.
- A valuation guide. NADA Guides and J.D. Power both publish RV values by year and model. Treat these as a starting point — they don’t know about your new tires or your soft floor.
- Your own condition. Be honest here. Delamination, soft spots, a roof that’s due, or a slide that sticks all pull real money off the price, and a buyer will find them.
I wrote more about this in What Is My RV Worth?.
2. Fix the cheap things, disclose the expensive ones
There’s a difference between preparing a rig and hiding problems.
Worth doing: deep clean inside and out, replace burnt-out bulbs, reseal obvious gaps, service the batteries, dump and flush the tanks, and make sure everything that should turn on does.
Not worth doing: a new roof, new tires or major appliance replacement right before selling. You rarely get that money back. Price the rig accordingly and tell the buyer what it needs. A disclosed problem is a negotiation. An undisclosed one that turns up during a walkthrough ends the sale.
3. Gather the paperwork before you list
Nothing kills momentum like a buyer who’s ready and a seller who can’t find the title. Get these together first:
- Title, in your name, and know whether your state requires notarization.
- Lien release, if there was ever a loan on it — even a paid-off one can leave a lien recorded.
- Registration, current.
- Service records, whatever you have. Receipts for a new roof or fresh bearings are worth real money at the negotiating table.
- Manuals for the coach and the appliances, if you still have them.
If you still owe money on the RV, call your lender now and ask how they handle a private sale. Most will walk you through a payoff at a bank branch. Figuring this out after you have a buyer standing in your driveway with a cashier’s check is a bad time.
4. Take photos that answer questions
Photos are the whole listing. Buyers scroll past anything they can’t see clearly.
What to shoot, in daylight, with the slides out:
- All four exterior corners, plus straight-on front and rear
- The roof — yes, really. Buyers want to see the seals and it signals you have nothing to hide
- Every interior space: kitchen, dinette, bathroom, each bed
- Appliances, control panels, and the water heater and furnace
- The tires, including the date codes on the sidewall
- Anything that’s damaged or worn
That last one feels counterproductive. It isn’t. A photo of the scuffed corner means nobody drives three hours and then walks away over it.
Tidy up first — remove your personal gear, make the beds, open the blinds, and turn on the interior lights.
5. Write a description that pre-answers the questions
You’ll get asked the same things every time. Put the answers in the listing:
- Year, make, model and floorplan
- Length and dry weight (buyers need to know what can tow it)
- Sleeping capacity
- Mileage, for a motorhome; axle count and tire age for a towable
- What’s been replaced or serviced recently, with dates
- Known issues, stated plainly
- Whether the title is clean and in hand
- Why you’re selling
That last one matters more than people expect. “We’re moving up to a fifth wheel” reads very differently from silence.
6. Decide how you’ll handle contact
Give some thought to how buyers reach you before you post your phone number on the open internet. On AllVHub, messages run through the app, so your number and email stay private until you decide to share them — that’s specifically why we built it that way.
Wherever you list, expect some junk. If a message doesn’t reference anything specific about your actual rig, it’s a template.
7. Show it safely
- Meet in daylight, in a public place if the rig is small enough to move. A bank car park or a busy shopping center lot works.
- Have someone with you.
- Let a friend know when and where.
- Don’t hand over keys for a solo test drive of a motorhome. Ride along, or don’t go.
- Ask for a driver’s license photo before any test drive.
8. Take payment that can’t be reversed
This is where private sales go wrong, so be stubborn about it.
Safe: cash for smaller amounts; a wire transfer you’ve confirmed landed in your account; or a cashier’s check you and the buyer walk into the issuing bank together to verify.
Not safe: a cashier’s check you accept without verifying, any personal check, any payment app for a five-figure sum, an escrow service the buyer picked, or anyone who wants to overpay and have you refund the difference.
The rule that covers almost everything: do not release the title or the keys until the money is irreversibly in your account. Not pending. Not “the bank shows it”. Cleared.
I’ve written up the specific scams doing the rounds in RV Scams to Avoid.
9. Close it out properly
- Sign the title over exactly as your state requires. One wrong field can void it.
- Write a bill of sale, two copies, both signed — price, date, VIN, and “sold as-is” if that’s the deal.
- Take a photo of the signed title before you hand it over.
- Notify your state DMV that you’ve sold it. In a lot of states you stay liable until you do.
- Cancel your insurance after the title transfers, not before.
- Remove your toll transponder and any tracking devices, and factory-reset anything connected.
A realistic note on timing
RVs are seasonal and they’re a considered purchase. Spring is when buyers start looking and late fall is when they stop. A correctly-priced rig listed in March has a very different experience from the same rig listed in November. More on that in When to Sell Your RV.
Take your time on the photos and the paperwork. That’s where the work actually is.