Financing a converted Van from private seller

[JennKDouglas]

I found a converted camper van that is still listed as a van as far as the DMV is concerned.  I understand I can get it categorized as a RV when I but it for lower insurance and registration.  

However, buying it is first..... how do I get financing for the worth of the whole converted van?  It's from a private seller.  I have excellent credit. 

TIA

[sandsys]

I would start by seeing what your state requires to consider it a conversion. Minnesota has a list of several things of which it must have a certain number but not all. I would then take lots of pictures of the van, including its VIN and those items in the state's list, to show the loan officer. I'd also check CarFax to see if any of the conversion work shows up there.

Linda Sand

[Kirk W]

For the registration, it will depend on what state you are dealing with as some states do not change the registrations for vans. As Linda said, check with the motor vehicle registration office to see what the regulations are. For financing, the best place to start is with the bank that you have an established record. If you are paying more for the van than what it would list for as a used van because of the conversion, you will need to establish what the van's value is with the lender in order to get them to loan more than book value. That same thing will be true for insurance on it. For insurance it is called an "agreed value" policy. The bank will probably want pictures and a statement of appraised value from some RV professional. 

[Sehc]

Netizen, you have  some good answers on this over on your Reddit post.