Michael Boland Register Guard Business section featured article.

Michael Boland, a recreational vehicle broker, prepares a Web advertisement for Allen Colburn in Bethel.

Chris Pietsch

The Register-Guard

He's worked on them as a mechanic, he's worked in an RV factory doing maintenance, and he's sold and appraised them for a dealer.

Now he's his own boss, brokering motor home sales through his own Web sites and on eBay, offering his services as an RV appraiser and as an expert witness.

He estimates he's sold $5 million worth of RVs since setting up his virtual shop as a self-styled RV broker in 2000.

Boland moved to Eugene in 1998 from California, where he worked as an RV mechanic, tile contractor, and ran a pool business, among other enterprises. He was tired of the California traffic, he said, but he also wanted to be closer to a hub of the RV industry, in Lane County.

He did some work as an RV mechanic, worked at the Monaco plant in Coburg, and he sold motor homes for a dealer. He wasn't happy.

"I was disappointed in the way customers were treated at the dealership," he said. "I decided if I went online, I thought it would be a much better deal for them."

In 2000, he launched RVshoppinguide.com, setting it up as an online classified service. He thought he could charge $30 or $40 per ad, and wait for the money to roll in. But it didn't work out that way.

"What we thought the public would buy wasn't even a close bet," Boland said. "We thought the big sellers would be classifieds. That was a disappointment."

But he kept plugging. He started getting calls from potential customers, asking if he could do RV appraisals. So he launched Aspenappraisals .com.

In 2003, he started looking at eBay, and figured out that it held great potential not only as a way to sell RVs, but also to market them. Today, he does 60 percent to 70 percent of his business on eBay. "After our first eBay sale, we knew things would start launching," he said.

In a typical transaction, a seller will see one of Boland's ads on eBay and call to find out how to get an RV listed. Once Boland explains how he works, if the seller is interested, Boland flies or drives to where the RV is, and inspects, appraises and photographs it. Then he comes home and puts it up on eBay and his own Web sites.

He charges $250 to $549 up front. After the RV sells, he collects a commission of $2,500 for RVs under $100,000, $3,500 for RVs that go for between $100,000 and $200,000, and $5,000 or more for higher-end coaches.

"Most of our clients are executives," he said. "They're glad to pay us to sell these things."

While he sells some RVs on eBay auctions, he uses the site mostly as an advertising venue, he said. Buyers and sellers see his ads and contact him about doing a deal.

One recent chilly morning, Boland went out to Bethel to meet a new customer, Allen Colburn, a 70-year-old retired contractor who wanted Boland to sell his 1997 Fleetwood American Eagle.

Wearing a black Roush Racing team jacket, black slacks, and black driving loafers, Boland got busy taking pictures of the coach from all angles, inspecting the storage bays, checking out the engine. He explained to Colburn how the transaction will work.

Jody Maddox, a Paterson, Wash., farmer, said he was very satisfied after buying a high-end Prevost Country Coach RV through Boland two years ago. Boland, he said, was "very knowledgeable and very honest about what he does."

"He knows his motor homes and he's pretty good to deal with," he said. "I couldn't be happier with the way the whole deal turned out."

Boland, too, said he couldn't be happier with the way his business has turned out.

"I get up in the morning and I can't wait to see what orders have come in," he said. "It's just a ball."