When it's time to sell, do you leave your rig as-is, or pull parts for the next build (if you can)?

[zuren]

The title pretty much says it all. I'm in the process of cleaning up my van to sell and I'm debating on letting it all go, or if there are parts that I should keep for my next build?

I built the "house" electrical portion of my rig to be pretty modular, so it could be fully removed (the house battery, isolator, breakers, etc.) and the house could function off the starter battery. It has always been communicated to me that I should not expect to recover much if any of the cost of DIY modifications to a vehicle, so I'm trying to think about what the mods will cost to duplicate in another build versus keeping parts that I've already spent the cash on. Keep in mind that everything I just mentioned (the house battery, etc.) and everything connected to it is 7+ years old at this point.

The buyer is potentially a friend who has liked my van from Day 1, but he tends to be a minimalist; I'm not certain that house batteries, inverters, etc. is what he would want. Working on cars terrifies him. I was thinking about chatting with him on this, but wanted to get feedback here first. I'm questioning - do I offer to remove some things and sell at a slightly lower price, or offer it as-is including everything at a higher price, let it be his choice/problem what to keep vs. remove, and plan to start from a clean slate with a new build (which may not be for a year or 2)?

Just curious how others have approached selling their built-out rigs and moving to the next chapter...

Thanks!

 

[45Kevin]

50/50

You hardly ever get back the cost of what you have done to improve a rig, but, the closer it is to turn-key the better chance it has to sell.
If you already have a potential buyer, negotiate with them.

 

[Theshwed]

Typically I leave everything EXCEPT electrical. At a minimum, I usually pull the main supply wire from the house batteries to the distribution block. For some reason I am uncomfortable with selling a vehicle with heavily modified/added battery and electrical systems. In 300k+ miles of van modifications, I've never had an issue, but I can only imagine the liability if there was one.

As far as leaving everything else, I am usually selling because I have a different goal in mind or want something new and shiny, so it doesn't make sense to me to pull stuff.

 

[Mwilliamshs]

Leave it. It's 7 years old. Surely there's something you'd do better/different next time; here's your chance. Time and labor to remove it plus the risk of damaging something along the way should be considered.

 

[vintageracer]

Leave it all as it may add value to a potential buyer or may make your vehicle to appeal to more buyers!

So many times with used vehicles the buyer is spending all their money just to purchase the vehicle and not be able to afford to make any upgrades or changes that require cash or credit soon after their vehicle purchase. Being able to buy a complete working vehicle without any "Needs" is a big selling point.

The best example of this is tires.

Rarely can person who is buying a used vehicle buy the vehicle and then go spend another $300-$1000 cash or credit for new tires. If the new tires are already on the vehicle and included in what they pay for vehicle when they buy it they can and will pay more for that vehicle. In most instances they are financing the vehicle and the monthly payment is just a little more per month with the new tires already on the vehicle than it would be without the new tires.

Remember most people are BROKE when comes to cash on hand!