Selling my van -- Private sale vs. Dealership -- Thoughts?
jep
I have a 96 dodge van that I am going to sell. I do not want to trade
it in.
I haven't sold a car before, but the work that goes into selling to a
private party, plus dealing with payment and all that, is somewhat
daunting.
I wonder -- do dealerships often buy vehicles without a trade-in?
Obviously I would make less money than a private party sale -- the
advantage would be that I would walk away with a check.
Any thoughts?
Mike Behnke
your price on the info contained on those sites.
- Clean the van thoroughly inside and out.
- Gather as many maint receipts as possible.
- List it in your local paper.
- Don't let others drive the vehicle without you being a passenger and
potential buyer as the only occupants.
- Have a uninterested third party witness the signing of all
documentation like BOS and title.
- Accept ONLY a Cashiers Check as payment. Cash can't be traced.
- Make sure that bill of sale clearly states the date, your name and
address, buyers name, address and drivers license #, witnesses name and
address, make, model, year, VIN, mileage, sale price and that vehicle is
being sold AS IS WITH NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. Also include
the check number and bank the check was drawn on. For best protection,
get photocopy of check. If you have an ink pad, ask buyer to provide
thump print on BOS. You, buyer and witness sign the BOS. You keep the
original BOS, buyer and witness each get a copy.
- Cash the check ASAP.
It's up to the buyer to get the title transferred and re-registered in
their name.
Art
2 weeks to stop payment even on an official bank check. You need to ask the
bank what form of check is foolproof and still verify that it is not a
forgery.
Last time I sold a car I met him at the bank (we had the same bank) and
transfered the funds into my account.
Also some states have a form required that states you haven't had a bad
accident with the car and odometer is accurate. Make sure you get the form.
For a sale to a dealer consider Carmax. Or since it is a Chyrsler, consider
a Chrysler dealer.
"Mike Behnke" <beh...@fnal.gov> wrote in message
news:c37gq6$ilg$1...@info1.fnal.gov...
Paul
the East Coast -- consider CarMax as someone earlier posted if you are near
one of them. I've sold 4 cars to them over the years, including one last
weekend. You'll only get wholesale value most of the time, unless the
vehicle is in very good condition with less than 100,000 miles. I just
don't have the time or patience anymore to deal w/ people coming to the
house and moaning over the price, condition, etc. But if you enjoy that,
I'm sure you'd make more money selling it yourself. Plus at CarMax at least
everyone is polite and downright nice -- nobody will try to talk you into
something.
hth
Paul
"jep" <jason...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:792a2f36.04031...@posting.google.com...
patrick
world would you accept a check????
Get the cash, write a simple bill of sale, and wish them luck.
"Paul" <p...@p.com> wrote in message news:i9qdnfYaMZL...@comcast.com...
Joe
They'll make you a pitiful offer, but you can use those guys to practice on.
Most new car dealerships keep very late model vehicles on their lots with 30
or 50k miles, so they might like your van or not depending on what it is.
There may also be certain dealers in your town that prefer to keep a big
selection of used trucks or vans. So keep that in mind as you drive around
town. Some dealers won't take it at all, but some might like it and make a
decent offer on it.
"jep" <jason...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:792a2f36.04031...@posting.google.com...
Geoff
I went through this agony when I sold my '93 Duster. I had bought its
replacement, and didn't trade it in because it had over 140K miles and I
didn't think I'd get much for it in trade.
I detailed it as best I could (it actually looked pretty good afterward),
touched up the nicks in the paint, replaced the hubcaps with a complete set
of four new take-offs, then took it around the used car lots in town, both
dealerships as well as independents.
Out of approximately 12 dealers, two or three weren't interested. All of
them were within $150 of each other in their offer for the car, which was
significantly below wholesale, due to mileage and local market conditions.
I finally just gave in and accepted the best of these offers. I don't think
I came out much ahead. On the other hand, I wasn't about to deal with
selling to the public.
In today's market, with a flood of good used vehicles out there, unless your
van is what they call "front row ready" -- clean inside and out, glossy
paint, no major dings, everything works, starts easily, runs and drives
well -- you might find that some dealers aren't interested.
Consider that if you paid a fair price for the van in the first place, if it
gave you good service and didn't cost a fortune in repairs, and if it's in
fair-to-middling condition now, you got your money's worth out of it. Dump
it, and move on with life.
--Geoff
Ted Mittelstaedt
Some of these are good suggestions, others not so good.
> - Do research on vehicle value at edmunds.com or carpoint.com. Base
> your price on the info contained on those sites.
> - Clean the van thoroughly inside and out.
Yes, this is very important, also wax it. Spending a few hours cleaning it
up is worth hundreds of dollars and it will sell a lot faster.
> - Gather as many maint receipts as possible.
> - List it in your local paper.
Sunday is the most important day for listing it. And make sure that you
are at home Saturday night and are taking calls. Don't list the car and
expect an answering machine to field calls from buyers.
A couple tips on answering the phone:
1) tell the buyer exactly what they want to know in terms of the model
year, vin, etc. But, do not answer calls about condition, just tell them
they
have to come see it.
2) Don't leave the car parked outside overnight at the address you give out
to
come see the car.
3) know directions to get to your house, or make up a sheet for family
members
that don't know them.
4) Never agree to "hold" the car for a buyer. If a buyer calls and is
interested
tell them that the first person to show up with cash in hand walks away with
the title. If someone shows up and tells you that they want to buy it but
does not have the cash right then, say thanks but too bad, your not holding
the car. If they go get the cash and come back and the car isn't sold,
great.
Otherwise if they go get the cash and the car is sold, why then they have
the
cash for the next car they are going to go look at buying.
5) If you get a buyer that has the money and wants to buy the car but
wants to have it checked out by a mechanic first, then you can take a
deposit to hold the car. But keep this in mind, if your vehicle is priced
under $10K,
is priced fairly, and your willing to negotiate a bit, then there will
almost
certainly be a buyer that will show up later, with cash in hand, ready to
drive off with the car.
There are shops around that will do car inspections on a walk in basis.
If the buyer is ready to drive the car down to one of these places right
then, then if it were me selling it, I'd have no trouble riding along.
> - Don't let others drive the vehicle without you being a passenger and
> potential buyer as the only occupants.
And make sure to carefully look at the drivers license of the driver.
And I also would never allow anyone OTHER then the buyer to
take a test drive with me. If the buyer's car guy friend wants to
test drive it, then fine, do a test drive with the buyer and a separate
test drive with the buyer's friend. There's been cases where a
buyer gets in the car for a test drive and his friend gets in, and
they drive off and stop the car around the corner and toss the
owner out of the car then drive off with it.
> - Have a uninterested third party witness the signing of all
> documentation like BOS and title.
This is really more for the protection of the buyer, not the seller.
As the seller once you get the cash, the deal's over. If the buyer
complains that he paid you and you never gave him the car, then
if he doesen't have a payment receipt from you, (bill of sale or
a receipt) legally he's SOL. So the simple answer here is you
just don't write a receipt until you get the payment.
> - Accept ONLY a Cashiers Check as payment. Cash can't be traced.
Cashier's checks can be stop-payed quick as snot. All the buyer has
to do is walk into the bank he got the cashiers check from and say that
you the seller defrauded him and the cashiers check will be stop
payed.
The really only safe payment is cash. Of course, people can counterfeit
cash so you need to know how a real bill looks.
And as for traceability of cash, so what. If the cash the buyer pays you
with it stolen, how are the police going to find you unless they have caught
the buyer? And legally if you wern't party to the theft, the money is
yours, it's the buyer's problem if he stole it.
The last vehicle I bought I paid $5800 for. In cash. I would never sell
a used vehicle to a private party with a cashiers check. All the used cars
I've sold have been cash sales. If the dollar amount was extremely high,
such as $20K or so and I was selling to a private person, I would go
with him to his bank and have his bank hand me the cash. Then I would
go to my bank and deposit it. If you do it any other way it's just too
easy for the buyers bank to get the money back in the event the buyer
gets cold feet.
> - Make sure that bill of sale clearly states the date, your name and
> address, buyers name, address and drivers license #, witnesses name and
> address, make, model, year, VIN, mileage, sale price and that vehicle is
> being sold AS IS WITH NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.
Uh, check the uniform commercial code again. As-is is a legally meaningless
term. And I think that in most states, private vehicle sales are considered
without warranty unless a warranty is explicitly stated by the seller.
Check your
state laws.
> Also include
> the check number and bank the check was drawn on. For best protection,
> get photocopy of check. If you have an ink pad, ask buyer to provide
> thump print on BOS. You, buyer and witness sign the BOS. You keep the
> original BOS, buyer and witness each get a copy.
As a buyer I would never give my thumb print to a seller. That is a bit too
invasive. It may also be illegal to require this, you should check your
state
laws. And if you can require this and choose to do so, unless you disclose
this immediately up front, your going to get into trouble.
It is not your responsibility as a seller to track down the buyer. Vehicle
titles
contain releases that you get the buyer to sign and put his info down on,
then you mail this into the DMV to let them know that you no longer own the
vehicle. If the buyer chooses to put down bogus data on that, it's not your
problem, it's between the state and the buyer.
> - Cash the check ASAP.
>
>
> It's up to the buyer to get the title transferred and re-registered in
> their name.
>
Yes. But it is your responsibility to inform the state that you no longer
own
the vehicle once you sell it.
Ted