Found Our Unit - Finance, Insurance and Registration Questions

[judatt]

Greetings, everyone.

We think we have found our unit. We finally were able to look at it today and we love everything about it. It's a 2008 Newmar Mountain Aire with 41,000 miles on it. It looks new inside and out. We have asked the owners to take it in for an inspection of all the moving parts and if that all checks out we will buy the MH. Now the requests for input from those of you with experience.

First, I had said to myself that if we could get 4% money we would finance it. We should be able to earn 4% on our savings so if we could get 4% we'd do that - if not we'd just pay cash. I have a proposal of 4.4% for 180 months and another one from another company for a similar rate but they also proposed 3.9% for 60 months. Payments are hefty but we could do it so am inclined to give that one a try. Any thoughts?

Insurance is another question??? We have used USAA for several years and are very happy with them. I went to their website and they said they offer MH insurance. I started filling out the form and at the bottom of the page it said we use Progressive for our MH insurance. I went ahead and filled out the form and it came back about $3,000 a year for excellent coverage. Could save about $300 by reducing coverage. I thought I had heard you should be able to get insurance for $1 - 2 thousand. I used $200,000 as the value of the unit. Any suggestions as to the best company for insurance???

Finally, a question about registration. We have been thinking about where might be the best place to register the MH. We have lived in Virginia the past 23 years but don't have real ties here. We have thought about Tennessee, Florida and Texas - all of which we have some ties to and all of which have no state income taxes. We don't think we want to go the LLC Montana route???? and are somewhat inclined to just register it in Virginia but would like to hear ideas from others. For what it's worth our daughter and her family are planning to buy our house here in Virginia but won't put theirs on the market until spring so we will be homeowners here in Virginia until probably April. We plan to take several extended trips between now and then but won't officially cut our ties with Virginia until we sell our house to our daughter next spring.

That's enough for now. We really appreciate all the good info that you have given us so far and look forward to hearing your input on these issues. Thank you for all your encouragement so far. David and Judy

[zorro2kita]

I've used Blue Sky Ins for the past 3 years - one awning damage claim (wind gust damage) handled effortlessly with a couple of pics - replaced 5 months later in Las Vegas (my request) as we were on a Caravan tour of AK and Western Canada at the time - I've only experienced a nominal rate increase - others have reported larger increases - a lot of variables go into insurance quotes - send me a pm and I can give you further details - sounds like you have a great plan worked out in a reasonable timeframe -- enjoy the journey !!

[elkhartjim]

Essex Credit is good resource for financing. 3.73% up to 84 months. 3.85% up to 120 months. 4.12% up to 240 months

Insurance costs are based on value, deductible, coverage desired, where and how its stored. I've used Hartford for five years with one $10,000 claim. The premium has increased less than a hundred dollars in those five years.

As far as I know, you can't just pick a state to register the motorhome. It has to be you domicile at the time of purchase.

I hope this helps.

[montyhp]

USAA gave me the best rates (4.24) and progressive (USAA) gave me the best insurance rate.

[jlandon13399]

AAA gave us the best insurance rate at $1600 per year for two cars and a 2015 Tiffin Allegro motorhome.

[lmsooter]

You won't be able to just register the motorhome in Texas without having a domicile there. That would involve having an address in the state, changing driver license to Texas, registering any toad there, etc.

We have lived in Texas all our lives so when we sold our home in 2011, we used Escapees RV Club in Livingston, Texas for our mail forwarding. We changed our driver license, all vehicle registrations and voter registration to the Escapees address.

I know the states you mentioned do not have state income tax but you might want to check on personal property taxes and vehicle registration fees. Polk County (where Escapees is located) does not have personal property taxes but some Texas counties do. Registration is based on weight rather than value as some states use. Ours for this year was a little over $200. Then you have to have an inspection within 90 days of registration renewal which will be less than $20.

This is just to give you an idea of what will be involved in registering the motorhome in Texas.

Good luck and safe travels.

[Glennon2434]

Remember when you are shopping for insurance, don't do the cheap on liability limits. I have seen some people with 100/300,000 bodily injury and 50,000 property damage limit. Picture yourself (not an RVer) being hit by a 40 foot vehicle. You know the guy who hit you is rich. You want primary liability and an umbrella/excess liability with at least $ 2,000,000.