Finding and Purchasing Our RV

As Amanda and I entertained different options for temporary housing while I build our house, we initially considered the idea of buying a used camper in the $10k or less range.
This seemed like a very reasonable option and plus we could sell it after we moved into the house and recover some of our investment.  I had stumbled across Jesse & Alyssa’s YouTube channel, Pure Living for Life, and this was the route they decided on.  It appears to be working pretty good for them, but it’s just the two of them and we’re a family of 5.  And there were some drawbacks we considered:

• We don’t have a vehicle that can tow a camper and aren’t interested in buying one.
• VERY limited space.
• RVs are built cheap and we would more than likely wear it out, making it pretty worthless for resale.

We really didn’t want to tie that much money up in a temporary home.  So while still looking for another solution, my dad suggested an RV that he knew of and was sure he could get it at a really great price.  At first, I really wasn’t interested in it.  Again, something else that was going to cost money and I just didn’t want a motorhome.  So I wrote it off at first, but as I entertained the idea a little more, I began to see the potential for going this route and started to think this might actually be a really great idea.  So he sent me some photos of it and it looked promising even though it needed some work.

It has only about 50k miles on it and started up just fine.  Then my dad told me the guy would sell it for $1,200 and that he would likely go a little lower if I purchased it without the generator.  Dad said the generator had a lot of hours on it and it looked pretty heavily worn, so he pulled it and gave it to the guy and the price dropped to $600.  I asked dad to make sure the engine runs fine and if so, I’d send him the money and move ahead on it.

Dad discovered it needed a fuel pump and went ahead and put a new one in it for about $100 and the motor ran just fine after that.  So for $600, we were the proud new owners of our very first 27-ft 1996 Ford E-350 Four Winds Motorhome and I still hadn’t seen it in person.  For $600 and it starts and runs just fine, I figured I really couldn’t go wrong on it and my dad made it sound promising.  He did mention that it had some pretty bad water damage and needed a little “T.L.C.”, but he thought it was a great deal overall and would suit us well for our temporary home while I built our house.

It all sounded really great and then I finally saw it in person ….