We searched all over the area for the best deal on a 5th-wheel trailer. After around a month of looking, we found a 36-foot trailer for $12000. Seller runs a good sized dealership. We drove to the lot and looked at it. It looked great, in perfect shape.
I'd seen dozens of these things by this point so I knew the questions to ask. Guy says literally everything works and that they check the trailers top to bottom before selling them. His business seems to have a good reputation and it's the best possible deal we can find. I talked him down to 11,000 and signed the papers. He even delivered it.
Here's where the problems begin. We get power to it (my dad is a jack of all trades and helped us out with all the following), and the AC, fridge, furnace, stereo system, and half the plugs won't work. Every time I turn anything on, the fuses blow. We get water to it and discover the tubing seems to have been literally chewed through. When trying to fix the furnace, we discover huge amounts of rat droppings.
I spend a week calling the guy and he sends his helper out to fix stuff after days and nights without air conditioning or heat. The guy gets the fridge working after replacing the parts. Discovers the furnace is completely jammed full of dirt dobber nests. Cleans it out. Gets the A.C. working. Replaces the chewed up tubing. Asks if we're square and leaves.
It's a week later. I've discovered that whenever we shower, the water completely soaks the floor in the crawlspace beneath it. More leaks, and what appears to be old rot. Mold. The kitchen sink is somehow soaking the carpeting in the living room and mildewing. The wooden floor beneath is rotten. There is now an abhorrent smell of rot we live in. The furnace (now with full gas tanks) only blows cold air, no matter what guide I follow to fix it.
There are another 5 or six problems that I've found over the course of the past week. I already paid the guy through the bank. I've already made my first loan payment. My wife got to work the day we got it painting everything to make it look more modern in here and we WERE planning on replacing the flooring until we found the rot. Our initial goal was to buy a trailer and increase its value through a remodel -- but now it feels like we're totally screwed here. It's borderline unlivable, and we don't have any more money right now. This was a long-term plan kind of thing.
We're a newly married couple, 24 and 25 years old. This is really putting a stop to all our plans. It's really a horrible feeling when you put yourself out there and make a big life step for it to literally crumble around you.
Sorry for the huge wall of text. But do you guys know of any way we can come out of this on top?
Submitted November 25, 2017 at 11:17PM by Psythrowe http://ift.tt/2A9gIac
