Should I buy or rent a camper?
I’m asked this question often and I want to address it in two ways- “Is it right for you?” and “Is now a good time?”
Is buying right for you?
Before buying, make sure to consider these factors:
Financial - Most people camp less than 14 days per year. Renting a travel trailer costs around $200/night after taxes and insurance, so you’re looking at up to $2800/year. Compare that to owning a camper which typically costs around $5000/year. (Don’t forget to include depreciation when considering the cost. Pre-COVID depreciation was 10% per year on average.)
Be realistic… most people buy a camper planning to camp “all the time” and then their busy schedule doesn’t permit it.
Repairs - How handy are you? Can you handle minor repairs yourself or would you have to take everything to a dealer? Do you want to winterize the camper and do preventative maintenance? Most dealers charge over $100/hour for labor and are backed up for weeks or months.
One head’s up: camper manufacturers have been working overtime since COVID boosted sales and quality control has gone downhill. MOST new campers will need repairs in the first year. (Read reviews online.)
Storage - Do you have a place to store the camper? If not, a camper typically costs over $100/ month to store. If it is in a storage lot and something happens (roof leak, mouse, etc) you may not know about it for months and the damage will have gotten worse.
There are some “pro’s” to buying:
Convenience - It is nice to keep everything you need in your camper. If you have a good system, you can usually hitch up your camper and go but it does takes practice to perfect your system.
“Pickiness” - I don’t have a better word for it, but some people just don’t like to use other peoples’ stuff … Plus you get to decorate the camper the way you would like.
Is now a good time to buy?
The price of campers, like everything else, has skyrocketed in the past couple of years. I begrudgingly paid $26,000 for a new camper in February of 2021 after prices went up for most of 2020. The same camper now sells for $38,000! I don’t think the price of new campers will come down much because manufacturers still have back orders they can’t fill. Add the increase in interest rates and the cost of buying new probably won’t improve.
However, I think the used camper market will get soft at the end of the year. There were a lot of people who bought campers recently for the first time who have learned they don’t use it as often as they thought and will be selling. Unfortunately it looks like our economy will be slowing down and when that happens people sell their toys. We personally will be shopping for lightly used campers this winter.
(Two perks of buying used: the original owners had to deal with the warranty work I mentioned earlier and typically take the biggest depreciation hit. Also, you don’t pay sales tax in Georgia when buying from an individual. That automatically saves me 7%.)
I don’t mean to downplay the advantages of owning a camper. We owned three campers ourselves before we began renting them out and loved it. We are members of a private campground at a lake near our house, so we do camp more than most people. We also take many great trips with our campers, including trips to the Florida panhandle.
If you do end up buying, there is a way to help “Finance Your Getaway” - renting it out!
Seem overwhelming? We can help! We have been doing this for years and literally wrote the book on how to “Make Cash With Your Camper.” We also manage campers for other owners, provide coaching, and have a “Rentership” program where we help you rent out your camper. You can pick the level of involvement you want with renting out your camper!