You can sell the trailer private party without a title in hand. When I bought my first trailer the person I bought it from had me make out a money order to his lender and sent that with a notarized note to send the title to me in my name since I aid off the loan. I trusted him and drove away with his trailer until I got the title 5 or so days later.
if you owe more than you can sell for I guess the same thing can work, you'll need to send the full amount to the loan company and have the title sent to the new buyer.
Jim M.
Ditto on all of this. My wife has done credit counseling for much of her career, and she consults for a credit union association.
If you are upside down on the loan (owe more than the "blue book" value), you must come up with the difference between the selling price and the balance owed in order for the lender to release the title to the new purchaser.
Attempting to default on the loan will still leave you owing the difference between (very likely) the lowest possible blue book value and your outstanding balance on the loan. And the lender will very likely pile on all kinds of late fees and so on. It's also likely that if you attempt to finance the remaining balance, the interest rates will be usurous. I'll point out that, depending on the lender, RV loans aren't usually handled by "A-list" lenders. If you didn't borrow from your credit union, don't expect a lot of support from your lender.
Since sales are soft and it's the wrong time of year to be selling, my instinct is to do the following:
- Hold it until spring...make those payments.
- In early spring put it up for private sale.
- In the meantime, create a savings account to pay the estimated difference between the final sale price and what you owe - remaining loan principal.
- Sell your car...unless you are upside down on that loan, too. If you have a lease, you probably have no "equity" in the car, and then the determination is whether or not you can escape the lease...very unlikely.
- Finding the money to do this may involve raiding a retirement fund...or borrowing from one. Borrowing from a 401-K is cheaper than withdrawing from it, because a withdrawal from a pre-tax retirement fund involves a 10% penalty for early withdrawal, PLUS paying taxes on the withdrawal amount, plus jacking your tax bracket for overall taxes owed for the tax year when you take the disbursement. Borrowing from a retirement fund entails none of that, but you MUST substantially overestimate the amount of principal to borrow, or you'll come up short on cash flow and be in a much more difficult jam. It can be difficult to go back to that well a second time.
- Lastly, the housing market is strong. Your most fungible asset is your house...assuming you have equity. Sell your home and downsize. Use the capital from the home to sustain your cashflow until you can dump the RV. Don't expect a miracle in terms of the equity you'll retain, because the costs of selling and buying take a big bite out of that, and you MIGHT also face some tax implications. But your home is your one liquid, appreciated asset. That would be your ace in the hole.
If your financial planner didn't clearly outline a plan of action for you, the planner didn't do their job. A credit counselor or certified financial planner should lay out a roadmap for you to follow that leaves you whole and your credit rating intact. If the original planner did that, and if you can't (or don't want to) follow that plan, your situation is grave. But there's no magic bullet to fix this. And Bankruptcy has gotten substantially more difficult. If you do explore bankruptcy, assuming you have some real equity in your home, you might be able to save it. But bankruptcy is very painful...and all the more so in recent years since bankers got the regulations severely tightened in their favor.
Repeating...loans from your retirement funds and selling your home and downsizing might be your best options. And, at the risk of being glib, you have covered parking for your rig. I presume that's at home. If so, that's a white elephant that suggests downsizing may be in order.
I wish you well, and I'm sorry you are in a tight spot. My wife counseled MANY families who worked in aerospace and other very high-paying industries who were leveraged to the hilt when their employers cut back. It always took these people a long time to wrap their heads around just how "hand-to-mouth" they were actually living. Best of luck.
