Roman Holiday Motor
Homes offers used RVs
By Ron Maloney
The Herald-Zeitung - New Braunfels, Texas
Published February
13, 2005
We all see them on the
highway and at RV parks around South Texas.
Long,
sleek, motorhomes — the
ultimate in housing for the ultimately mobile.
But
what wage earner or worker about to retire would seriously
entertain the idea
of owning one of these modern status symbols — gleaming
chrome and plastic proof of having “made it”?
One
who goes out to Roman Holiday Motor Homes located in the 5200
block of Interstate
35 North about three miles north of town and learns that motorhomes
aren’t only for the wealthy.
Not
all motorhomes are the multi-hundred-thousand-dollar models
that look like they’re
two football fields long — even without the Saturn-in-tow.
And if you let someone
else take that first depreciation hit that comes with driving
one brand-new off the showroom floor, many of them become surprisingly
affordable.
That’s
the motorhome market niche Buzz Roman is looking to fill. He
and John Pratt,
a 20-year executive in the RV industry, went into the used RV
business to cater to retiring baby boomers.
“We formed Roman
Holiday to uniquely meet the demand for used coaches. Boomers
have exacting standards for their vehicle purchases, have flocked
to brands such as Lexus and BMW and want no less from their RV,” Pratt
said. “They also understand the 35-percent depreciation
of first-year ownership, so they want new quality — but
in a pre-owned coach.”
So
what Roman and Pratt look for when shopping for their customers
are what they call “pampered
pre-owned” RVs.
At
Roman, you’ll
find no old coaches ready to be towed to their final placement
at the hunting lease. What you will find instead are about 30
coaches ranging from $20,000 starter homes to $200,000 “high
end” coaches — all in like-new condition.
“We search the
country to buy clean coaches,” Pratt said, noting they
bought a couple just Friday at a big RV auction near Fort Worth. “Typically,
we buy them two- to three years old with low miles.”
Top-quality coaches
are also accepted on consignment.
Each
coach is gone through, thoroughly cleaned, decorated and upgraded
as needed. Every vent
and line is cleaned, cabinets inside and out are scrubbed and
every coach on the lot — more than $2 million in inventory — is
hooked up to campground-style facilities and ready to roll on
a test drive.
“It’s a
new toy, and we want it to be just as new as we can make it.
We feel it’s important,” Roman said. “Many
RV places have only a small inventory of used homes. All of ours
are used, and they’re the best you’re going to see,
anywhere.”
Decorated?
As in interior decorating? That’s right — by Roman’s
daughter, Lee.
“It’s a
motorhome and we want it to feel like a home,” Roman said. “We
had two customers buy and say, ‘We bought it because of
the decorating.’”
“This might be
the only dealership south of Dallas that has toadstool campground
type electrical to each coach,” Pratt said. “Batteries
are a constant battle on coaches, so we wanted our customers
to not have a dead battery facing them on a test drive.”
In
just a few months, the reception has been remarkable, Roman
said. “The thing
that gets me the most is the excitement of people who buy these
coaches,” he said.
Part
of that might have to do with the atmosphere at Roman Holiday
where, Roman’s
wife, Hazel, answers the phone and helps with the paperwork.
There is no sales staff, just two partners having fun in their
own family business.
“You don’t
have to go to the manager to make a deal — you’re
talking to the managers,” Roman said. “Our coaches
are open, and you peruse them without us hovering, looking over
your shoulder. We don’t pull any of that ‘dealership’ stuff.
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