Travel expert: Many RV owners are 'trapped' in high interest-rate loans

Mon, Oct 4, 2021, 1:07 PM 2 min read

The pandemic reignited the country’s interest in the RV market, and one expert said demand is higher than ever, but shoppers are saddled with bad financing options.

“Consumers have gone crazy for RVs. It’s a surging industry,” online RV marketplace Outdoorsy CEO Jeff Cavins recently told Yahoo Finance Live. “But strangely enough, 90% of RV owners… don’t shop for loan alternatives, and many are trapped in interest rates of 12.99% on an asset that they’ll finance for 20 years.”

An RV purchase is second to only a home as the largest investment someone will make in their lifetime, Cavins said, yet buyers are making unfortunate financial decisions when it comes to financing.

(Photo: Getty) · SolStock via Getty Images

To meet the surging demand and provide buyers with better options, Cavins explained that Outdoorsy is now offering RV financing and RV refinancing in its marketplace for individual buyers and wholesalers.

“RV refinancing is important because [RVs] are a depreciable asset [and] banks don't offer refinancing services,” he said.

Calling 2020 a “record year for the company,” Cavins added that year-over-year growth was 4,000%. Since then, growth hasn’t slowed and has increased by another 150%, proving that the RV trend remains in place.

“It's a surge in industry that everyone's essentially having a hard time keeping up with," he said.

Citing a nearly $16 billion manufacturing backlog, dealers (and buyers) will be waiting until late 2022 for more inventory to hit the lots.

The profile of RV enthusiasts has changed in recent years, Cavins explained. No longer a hobby associated with retirees, millennials and Gen Zers have taken interest in the vehicles and brought their own value set.

Preferring “lightweight, small footprint, and easy on the environment” models, Cavins said that younger buyers account for 89% of the company’s growth.

“We like to say, millennials built Uber and now millennials and Gen Z are building Outdoorsy,” he said.