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Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Monday, June 16, 2008

On the job: RV service and sales manager

By Amber Dulek | Winona Daily News

Doug Breza sells homes on wheels.

The 59-year-old RV service and sales manager does everything from changing tires to emptying the septic system to showcasing new and used RVs to prospective buyers.

Doug Breza, RV sales and service manager, works at Breezee's RV Center in Homer, Minn., which sells all makes and models. Breza, who got his start selling RV's in Alaska, said to sell them you need to be friendly, mechanically minded and build relationships. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News)

This job requires mechanical expertise, smooth talking and a love for roaming.

You got to be kind of a jack of all trades. I’ll wash RVs, I’ll dump them, I’ll be in the shop rotating tires or changing batteries and I’ll sell them new, on consignment or for rent … We’ll go on-site and check an RV out if the awning or something isn’t working out. There isn’t two days the same.

It’s seasonal. With the winter, it slows. We’ve got to make haste in the sunshine.

To be able to sell an RV, you’ve got to be Polish. Oh, don’t put that. In the relationship of selling cars, it’s the same but you also need to know the mechanics of how everything works and operates.

You need to know refrigeration and heating systems, be mechanical wise and know engines and be able to change wheel bearings. If it’s on an RV, more than likely we can take care of it.

You’re selling a house on wheels, so you’ve got to be up on everything and all the appliances. You have to be by the phone to answer their questions once they buy it and are using it. You got to know what switch or lever to look for if it’s the water pump and know how it works because some are LP and electric.

You always tell the buyer to check it out before they buy an RV. You get so many people that don’t and pay for it later. If you treat them right, they return.

It depends if you’re looking for new or used, but I’ve seen used pop-ups go for $100 and Class A motor home I’ve seen sell for over a million dollars.

Pop-ups, they’re the least expensive. You hitch it on the back of the truck, the roof comes up and the sides come out. Travel trailers — they’re called hard-side travel trailers — you just open the door and you don’t have to set them up or anything. There’s a class B, which is a glorified van with small sleeping quarters, and the class C, which has a bed over the cab so it has more accommodations for sleeping. Then you go into the big ones, class A. Anything you can think of can go on one of those, like solar polar, slide-outs and hydraulic stabilizers.

Naturally, we get to try them new and get the bugs out.

You get your first-timers and you get the people who have been in the RV forever.

There are instances where you have to have skin as tough as a snake or you got to have it like a duck where you can take it. Water runs off a duck’s back. You’re never going to please 100 percent of the customers with the work or the product or the amount that it costs them.

You got to be friendlier than heck, have a smile and tell a few jokes.

Even before gas prices went up, people were always concerned about the mileage. You just go around once and you want to be comfortable.

It’s quality time you have with family and friends over the monetary expenses. … You should experience it at least once in life.

You can’t leave an RV sit like a collector car. … It’s a high maintenance item because we don’t use them enough. You need to check the generator a minimum of two hours a month. The roof should be checked once a year. You check the LP and the battery may be low. The water has to be filled and it’s easy to forget how to dump the septic system.

At least 80 percent of my work is paperwork. There’s always paperwork no matter what goes on, work orders, sales contracts, parts ordering.

There’s no 8 to 5. We put in the hours as long as we need to. We generally do 40 hours a week.

I got into the business by accident. We lived in Alaska for a number of years and I got into being a RV technician up there. I’ve always had one through life and every time we went to Alaska it was with a motor home.

(The job’s) getting so complicated there are schools out there. It’s an eight-week course and you get an (Recreational Vehicle Inspector) certificate and there are refresher courses every year.

Here, you’re going to be starting out, with certification, $12 to $13 bucks and hour. Out west, they’ll pay about $25 to $30 an hour for a good tech out there.

I might have two sales today or none tomorrow or the next day. It depends on how many people need service … We go with the economy, when it’s down we’re down.

This story is part of a weekly series called “On the Job,” where area residents talk about their careers. Contact reporter Amber Dulek at (507) 453-3513 or amber.dulek@lee.net.