nccamper
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1962 Forester- 1956 Shasta
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Post by nccamper on Jan 30, 2018 5:09:12 GMT -8
I followed the advice in a thread under the "insurance" heading and went with an agent out of Iowa. They gave me three appraisers that Progressive would accept without question, none of whom where closer than 1000 miles from me. vintagetrailertalk.freeforums.net/thread/8417/appraisal-insurance-new-policy-forestervintagetrailertalk.freeforums.net/thread/3850/appraisal-vintage-ham-insuranceThey all asked for a lot of photos. Not just of the finished camper but to prove the work was done right. Close up of framing, plumbing, electrical, etc. The appraiser we went with was nervous at the end with a $14,200 estimate as if it would be lower than I expected. In a nice way they told me Forester was too much of an unknown brand to command top dollar. I think anything over $12,500 would be top dollar and it might take more than 6 months to sell at that price. If it doesn't have wings, the price will never reach new heights! (Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun.) If it's not a ham, buyers can be piggish with their offers. (Sorry again.) If it's not small, the offers will never be large. (Okay, okay, I'll stop.)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2018 11:35:51 GMT -8
I'm waiting to hear back from my agent on the subject, but that was the premise of my initial question on the forum. In other words, who determines "book" value? What these things are really worth?
Kind of like cars that go across the auction block at Mecum or Barrett-Jackson. It is the buyer that ultimately determines value. There isn't a bunch of comparables out there for an insurance company to use. The custom car folks use specialty insurance companies like Hagerty to insure their vehicles. Not sure why vintage travel trailers would be any different.
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mobiltec
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Post by mobiltec on Jan 31, 2018 21:16:30 GMT -8
I'm waiting to hear back from my agent on the subject, but that was the premise of my initial question on the forum. In other words, who determines "book" value? What these things are really worth? Kind of like cars that go across the auction block at Mecum or Barrett-Jackson. It is the buyer that ultimately determines value. There isn't a bunch of comparables out there for an insurance company to use. The custom car folks use specialty insurance companies like Hagerty to insure their vehicles. Not sure why vintage travel trailers would be any different. This hobby is comparably new. There isn't really a lot of precedence out there to set prices yet. It's still in a growing pain era of existence. But it seems that canned hams tend to peak out around $15k and anything over that price takes a long time to sell. So who determines the value? The market in most cases. And that is how an appraiser must look at it. Comps......
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2018 0:55:20 GMT -8
You are right on Mobiltec...
My Farmers Insurance agent connected up with the folks at Hagerty, and in addition to doing a little of my own research, this is a summary of how they approach "vintage" or "collector" vehicle insurance. "Vehicle" would also include motorhomes, travel trailers, boats, motorcycles, airplanes, etc.
- 1st: Comps as Mobiltec mentions above. This is basically similar vehicles recently recorded through public sales.
- 2nd: Published figures in guides. NADA is probably most commonly used but there are niche market guides out there as well. He was not aware of anything respected in the travel trailer world.
- 3rd: The appraiser's own knowledge of the market, which can be very subjective.
- 4th: Other factors including documentation, originality, history of the vehicle's lifetime (owned by a famous person, used in a movie or parade, etc.) This is know as "provenance" in the industry.
As Mobiltec states, because vintage travel trailering is relatively new, there just isn't a lot of documentation out there to support "data based" valuations. Therefore the 3rd factor above is probably used as the primary determination.
Is it possible that Heinz has an in house expert that is placing the value on a given trailer? A friend of mine does appraisal work and always uses the wording "in my professional opinion" to shield himself, to the greatest extent possible, from legal liability.
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nccamper
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Post by nccamper on Feb 1, 2018 8:01:57 GMT -8
- 3rd: The appraiser's own knowledge of the market, which can be very subjective.
Good points to bring up. Our NC insurance agent gave us a "Fair market" policy for $20 a year but said any policy that cheap is going with the bottom dollar estimate of what the camper is worth. That's why we all need the value agreed upon before hitting the road. The appraisal was not cheap but if the camper is totaled or stolen I get $14,200... not $150 after the deductible. Since I used one of the insurance appraisers approved by the insurance company it removes the unknown "worth" question. The sticky issue is what a claim will pay (for example) for damage that tore a gash all along the side requiring new skin installed. Who gets to say where the skin comes from, and what kind of paint job is good enough, who decides what your time fixing it is worth? (vikx, hopefully I’m not getting off subject.)
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