 Buying a bus is a lot harder much much harder than you would think Before we get into this informational advice type video, we got a couple people thank for joining patreon So I want to thank Keith Darborn. Thank you very much And the next one will be bubble warbucks. I see you in the comments all the time. Thank you so much I really appreciate it Up next we got terry minion. Wow, that's very generous of you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that and Let's see next one Jarragai, I think that's how I pronounce it. Thank you very much. It's almost like jerkies You should check out their channel if you're not familiar But it is much appreciated Next one we got Darcy done. Thank you very much Darcy. It's much appreciated and Going on the list here. We got Georgina someone edited their patreon pledge Georgina. Thank you so much for that I really appreciate it and we have last but not least Dave Harold. Thank you very much Thanks for joining the family join the club and You know, thank everyone for the support and if you Don't join the patreon Many many ways to help out the channel if you like Just you know word-of-mouth is great tweet it tell your friends about it I put a whole funny list of things you can do down in the comments So let's get right into this next video. I just need to sit down and Take a break my gosh You know I Thought this was gonna be easier the second time around So here's here's what's happening. I Don't have a bus and That last bus I looked at was the ask in price is 3,500 Several days after I went to look at that bus mysteriously a Service invoice was found and they supposedly did three thousand dollars of work on it So they basically called me back and said oh Yeah, it's not 35 and a hundred bucks anymore. It's 65 and The only thing I could think was wow these guys are trying to rip me off and That I think is a fair logical Next step right in your mind if this happened to you I mean what other business? Sends you a counter offer Higher than the original price. So which by the way, I don't think I'm gonna Recommend them. So I'll probably not mention their name Because I don't Still don't know if I can recommend them. I don't know if this is a good company or if it's another First student type shady place where they just tell you whatever you want to hear just so they can sell a bus one thing to keep in mind when you buy a bus from a You know like a bus servicing company or Not just servicing mechanically, but servicing like provide the drivers and routes and all that stuff and they kind of team up with school districts and things like that is that These buses After a certain amount of years They can't use them There is zero Value outside of people like me and you and other people who want to purchase one to use it as an RV Or a tiny house or whatever you want to call it bus life and life So that is something to keep in mind. They just want to get rid of these things a lot of times are trade-ins And if there's something wrong with them They will scrap them because it's cheaper than trying to fix them and then sell them and all the headache and stuff So just keep that in mind this isn't like You know That one auto Place that takes in a bunch of used cars. I can't think of it has a blue and yellow Logo car max it's not like a place where you can go and you get something and it's like It's also so so just keep that in mind and let me tell you also that if you have any sort of time restraint or Rush forget about it Just just forget about it. Something's gonna go wrong. Just just factor that into your budget Take your time learn about the buses even the engines Learn about it as much as you can get on the forums watch videos Ask people who have converted a bus Because you it will benefit you in the long run. So that part is on you if you want to buy a bus What else can I recommend You know find a good engine there's a bunch of different engines out there And so you will you will learn that when you Google it I'm gonna try and find a DT 466 as inline 6 version of the 7.3 power stroke which I had before which is Made by international was made by them and it's known as a T 4 4 4 e Those are good. There's also Cummins and other ones, but do your homework Resource engines because you could get a really bad one So here's the situation right now I test the bus I test drove Right, so there was another bus. I couldn't test drive and that one was the same price So when I got the message when they said oh by the way, we're jacking up the price But we'll give you this great deal of 5,500 which is still two grand more than they were originally asking and since I Have since found out the work they did on that and it is not even worth two grand more So they said oh, we're also bumping up the other bus which you didn't drive the reason I didn't drive it because it didn't start Imagine that hey, yeah, I know you test drove this great bus and it run great. You were very happy with it But you know, we're gonna bump the price on that and we want to sell you the one that that wasn't starting so That's why I'm not gonna mention this company Because it could have been an honest sick. I don't know. I can't say that for sure I'm gonna take that sales lady seems like a nice person. It also seems like They got more turnover that a bakery in there. So usually that comes from the top In companies, you know upper management the owners. It could be real assholes. I don't know. I haven't met them I know they didn't respond to my email Once I countered to me with a higher price. I countered to the owners with hey, you should give me free bus It didn't work out They don't see the value in it and I don't think that's there. Yeah, anyway, so here's So this is what I'm gonna do I'm gonna drive up there tomorrow and I'm gonna check out the bus that did not start The reason is The other bus It's not worth the price They're charge. They want to charge me for the labor that they did It's it's not my fault that they lost the paperwork and apparently it could have been caused by an unhappy employee just trying to You know kind of a Cost the company more money. So I'm gonna drive up tomorrow. I have a cashier's check for $3,500 plus tax and Hopefully it runs and sounds great if it doesn't We're gonna be back to the drawing board, but the good news is These buses there's a dime a dozen. The only problem is you have to factor into your Purchase price Where the bus is in proximity to you? This one is a couple hours out of the way Another bus I found which had a mechanical engine, which is better for the oil apparently Well, that was a couple flights away and would probably cost me a thousand dollars just in diesel to get it back Also, there's a considerable amount of rust. These are all things to take in consideration I since I am now for more familiar with engines. I asked a ton of questions about this We'll call it the two-flight bus with a Cummins 5 9 12 valve in it and It was just When you're doing a conversion you don't want rust Michael navigation nowhere was like dude, don't get the rust bus. I Called badge and I said badge. Hey that preferred engine. It's a little bit on the rusty side He said oh no, no, no, we don't want rust. So that's why I am choosing to Go against my initial thought my initial feeling My mental reaction I guess was to stay away from someplace that wants to charge me more But all things considered You know if it's just a couple batteries, which they say I Mean at some point you'd have to change the batteries anyway, so that could be like 300 bucks And thankfully that's you know, I know a mechanic if there's anything wrong with it we can fix it, right? So So number one important thing when you're by a bus give yourself time and don't jump to conclusions remember this is a depreciating asset from a business and It's a numbers game. That's it. It's not Some emotional thing like oh, I got this really cherry, you know, 1956, you know Chevy whatever, you know people don't care about these things. They just want to get rid of them. It's a balance sheet thing It's not a we got to make sure it runs for the next owner thing if there is some kind of problem with the bus And the problem costs more than the bus They're just gonna auction it off perhaps or scrap it. It's just not worth it And then they take a loss on that with their business. So Give yourself plenty plenty of time research the buses Try to find one with the least amount of rust and also factor in the cost of Transporting that bus to you Also, you should need to get familiar with the size of the buses And you need to call your local licensing place insurance place If there's any sort of modifications that you need to do if it's rusty and you need to replace the metal That's gonna be really expensive. Also, you should probably know how to weld So there's a lot of factors that are gonna go into this. So I'm trying to Get the best bus that's available in a reasonable proximity Which has the best longevity and also the best bones the frame the least amount of rust Because the other bus if I flew to Indiana to get that Cummins 5 9 12 valve to drive it over here. It cost me about a thousand dollars in diesel So that one also was listed at 3,500 bucks So then it bumps up to 45 then you have a rusty bus at 4,500 bucks. See what I'm saying Yeah And also a lot of people who are reselling these things online if you're looking for one You're gonna see some f'd up prices. I saw several dozens of buses People trying to sell these things for $12,000 15 $20,000 even higher Do not pay for a bus which has 100,000 miles plus You do not want to spend anything more in the like $6,000 plus right if it's in fantastic condition if it has low rust sure spend five Maybe six on it right has AC everything works cruise control. There's no problems Yeah, that's okay because it's gonna cost you to repair it if you get something. That's really f'd up, right? These buses can go as low as 1500 bucks 2000 bucks in the auction. There's several auctions. There's gov planet Gov deals So just look up government auctions if you want to find a steal of a deal But give yourself ample time. I mean months three to six months and search that thing every single day For buses So what some people do is they buy them off the auctions for a couple thousand bucks Then they try and flip them. They put some outrageous price on there like eight to ten or twelve thousand dollars I saw one one price. It was always a thousand dollars less for cash price Like like you already know it's overpriced if they're knocking down every single bus by a thousand bucks for cash Right. It just doesn't like they don't take credit cards. Anyways, it's not like they're missing out on some 3% credit card fee so give yourself plenty of time and and don't overpay Do not overpay. There's no reason to buy a bus in the 10,000 up or 6,000 and up price range. The shorter buses bizarrely I've noticed they're more expensive than the big buses because there's a bit more demand. You can also find shuttle buses And things like that. They have tons of vans on the government auction Any government vehicle is there So if you're looking for a school bus or your shuttle bus, that's those are good options Yeah, I just just yeah and what just watch out just be careful if you don't know vehicles Take somebody with you pay a mechanic, you know to check it out I mean really inspect it ask him why it was taken out of service ask him What is wrong with it and demand to see the records? if if it comes from a dealership or or a District or something like that because they have to take meticulous meticulous detailed Records by law They have to they have to inspect it. They have to get it checked and all this stuff. It's transporting children Do you know the liability that that that would happen if they they didn't do the servicing? So ask for the records if you don't get one from a dealership or a service place or something like that if you get an auction bus Fat chance. You're probably not gonna get it if you get it from a reseller Not gonna happen. So keep all these things in mind and And just be smart do not be in a rush. Do not jump to conclusions Try not to get frustrated with people because it is very easy to do and if I let my mind jump to conclusions with this or with other things I could probably take out my Frustration with a person who wants to help me and that person is really the messenger, you know what I mean When in fact the higher-ups have more say than the person that you deal with sometimes, right? It's like Getting mad at the cashier for something at Walmart or something, you know, it's not it's not their fault That the prices of apples are 50 cents more than were yesterday or something But those are my those are my suggestions take what's helpful leave what's not and They're you know, I mean there is a bigger life lesson here Stay calm, you know, if you think you're Something's not right. Just wait till the next day sleep on it calm down And just you know and just like when when they said oh we had servicing done great ask them what was done to it You know if there's a problem, there's always a solution It's you know instead of getting upset and assuming that they're trying to screw me over I said, okay price went up by three grand. Please tell me why What are the upgrades that you did to it? And she read me the whole list of upgrades and it was laughable and that's why I'm not gonna buy that bus now if they put in things like a brand new fuel pump and Parts I would happily have paid for new parts because at some point I would have to replace those anyways, right? but not the labor because I can do it myself But more but most importantly like I mentioned is that I think there was some internal Sabotage going on by a former employee who's trying to screw over the company or get back to them retribution or something because I Don't that's my guess. I've kind of heard some things, but I specifically said it's not My burden to pay for a mistake that was made intentionally by an employee Because of ill will or something So yeah, just be careful take your time and Eventually something will come together and in about a week or so. I should have Michael flying out here I've kind of taken a little break with some of the videos because honestly It's more drama than I like to deal with and to talk about I'm trying to give it to you real, but also I am not trying to Get you guys emotionally invested in my problems. I'm just trying to alert you guys in advance of Potential problems if you're trying to purchase this or something else this could apply to something else as well so anyways, it's finally a nice sunny day here in a Portland area across the river on the Washington side for those who have asked and Yeah Cross your fingers tomorrow tomorrow. We're driving two and a half hours up there and I'm bringing my jumper cables so We'll see you shortly and the videos will be More coming more frequently very very soon, and I can't wait to show you What? Happens with this mystery bus The saga continues