repldorsey

Have done more research since Friday and learned about the S.A.F.E. Act which took effect in January 2011 in response to 2008 meltdown of the financial industry. Apparently the Act requires banks to maintain an escrow account and collect property taxes and insurance from fulltimers who borrow to purchase a motorhome; it is a hassle for them so therefore they have chosen to discontinue to lend to fulltimers. it has nothing to do with whether the purchase is to be done within or without an LLC; it is the matter of deciding the state or local taxing authority of the fulltimer's address of record. Spoke with the VP of Finance for Lazy Days and was told their only source of funding for full timers is Essex Credit. Spoke with Essex and they do not loan money to a Montana LLC, though they lend to other LLCs. The net result is that those of us who, for whatever personal reason, have enjoyed the life full time rvers are paying dearly for the greed and mistakes of the financial industry. No longer will federal and state accepted addresses provided by mail forwarding services be accepted by the lending industry for the purchase of recreational vehicles. If you are a full timer without a "real" address and are considering upgrading to a new vehicle, please don't trust any dealer who tells you "no problem" in getting financing. I wish we had known this before expending the energy we did in locating a vehicle and the embarrassment of being told we were turned down by the bank. Tomorrow we will have a discussion with our dealer as to why his finance manager didn't know about this change, which took place almost 2 years ago!

For the first time in 46 years of marriage and paying all of our bills on time and in full, today we were refused a loan by a bank. The reason: we have been full timers for 10 years and don't "live" anywhere. It doesn't matter that we have excellent credit; recently paid off the loan for a 2008 Allegro Bus and are buying a gas model motorhome a fraction of the cost of the Bus. It doesn't matter that the IRS accepts our "address" as our permanent residence and the State of South Dakota accepts our mail forwarding service as our address for residency and for voting registration. After talking to the Finance Manager at the dealership, I contacted John Bennett's office in Montana where I established an LLC four years ago before purchasing the Bus. Our attorney confirmed that the majority of banks in the United States will NOT fund a loan for a full timer because they can't "find" us if we default on the loan. Credit rating and payment history apparently count for nothing; this certainly is contrary to what all of us old-timers were told through our work years. I wonder if other full timers have recently encountered this shocking policy (amazing how we're paying for the past sins of the lenders). Would love to know if there is a solution to our quandry. We are reeling from the shock and wondering what we are going to do now.

We have been full timing for 8 years. Our first motorhome was 33 ft. and our second was 38 ft. with two slides. Never had a problem with finding a campground for either of them. Two years ago we purchased a Tiffin Allegro Bus that is 43 ft. with 4 slides. While we love the spacious feel additional benefits of the longer coach (residential refrigerator, extra roominess in the bath area) we have encountered many more campgrounds that cannot accommodate our length, including many state parks. So you have to consider the trade-offs and determine how you use your motorhome and how important space is to you. When we made the change we knew we wanted extra room for when our grandchildren wanted to stay in "their" motorhome. So, in spite of the need to plan ahead more for campground stays, we are loving having the extra space. repldorsey