There Must Be A Reason

There is an old saying that everything happens for a reason. I might add that sometimes you need to listen to reason.

I once got an e-mail from a gentleman asking my advice about an RV purchase. He wanted to buy a motorhome that he said was an excellent deal, $35,000 less than any comparable RV he had found at any of the different RV dealers where he had been shopping. The unit was being offered by a private seller, which is not a problem, but it had a salvage title, which could be a big problem.

The seller was vague as to the RV’s history. He said he didn’t know why it had a salvage title and that he acquired it from a friend of a friend. The potential buyer said that his bank refused to loan him money on that motorhome, though they have approved him for considerably more money for the purchase of a different rig. He planned to get past that problem by borrowing the money from his mother, who was going to refinance her home to get the funds, and he would make monthly payments to her. But with that hurdle overcome, his insurance company told him they will not write a policy on it.

He wanted to know “What is everyone’s problem with a salvage title? This is a great deal!” Yeah, it’s a great deal for somebody. But that somebody may only be the seller trying to unload it. Banks and insurance companies understand risk. They spend a lot of time and money researching what is a safe investment and what is not. I told him that If both his bank and his insurance company didn’t have enough confidence in this particular RV to want anything to do with it, there was probably a darned good reason. Just like there’s a reason that a motorhome is priced at $35,000 less than anything else comparable on the market. You get what you pay for. And you also don’t get what you don’t pay for.

I was reminded of that gentleman yesterday when I got an email from somebody asking if I knew anything about a campground in Pennsylvania that they are considering workamping at. The person said that they saw the job listing online and contacted the campground owner, who told them he would only hire them if they signed a contract agreeing to stay until he closed for the season on October 31st.

They said that was fine and his reply was that they would be his sixth workamping couple this year, so he wouldn’t hold his breath on them staying. They asked why the other couples had left and said he gave them a long litany of complaints. They were all lazy, they were all incompetent, nobody wants to work anymore, none of them were good with people, and on and on. He then started telling them that the customers were no better, always expecting something for nothing, always complaining, just a bunch of jerks.

By now they were hearing alarm bells going off in their heads and wondered if I knew anything about the campground or had any advice for them. While I had never heard of the place, I told them that it stretches the imagination that five workamping couples had all left in one short season and every camper who pulled into the place seemed to be a jerk.

They had mentioned that the season for this campground is from April 1st to October 31st. It’s now mid-August, which means this place has gone through a workamping couple on average of less than a month at a time. There must be a reason for that. Couple that with the campground owner’s obvious blanket dissatisfaction with not only his employees but his customers, and it’s a red flag I would not ignore. My advice was to look elsewhere for a workamping gig.

Thought For The Day – You know you are on the right track when you have no interest in looking back.