"Best Practices" For selling my car?

[NaregT]

Hi,
I'm looking for help regarding selling my car, to someone from a different state who cannot meet in person, and would want to have a car delivery company ship it to him.

My car currently has half of the loan still to be paid off.

What are the "best practices" I should make sure to do?

 

[bkp_duke]

Escrow, escrow, escrow

 

[ckoval7]

I hope you've been able to verify that isn't a scam. It's pretty common for a scammer to claim they're in another state and unable to meet in person.

 

[jacqueusi]

OOOOH, HECK NO!

 

[hmgolds]

First, don't ask here. Go to a couple of classic car forums and ask there. That's where people commonly buy cars "remotely". And ask the bank/CU or whatever that holds your loan for advice.

But you're located in the most Tesla friendly spot in the country. If you can't find a buyer there, I'd be surprised. And if this out-of-state buyer is willing to pay that much more, it might be suspicious.

 

[lithium1330]

I replied to someone else asking similar.
Local buyer or not, the biggest hurdle you have selling is the lien on the car. Best case is to find a cash buyer who can pay off your loan balance and take the car right there. Use an escrow service as suggested/needed.

If buyer needs a loan to purchase, it gets much more difficult. My credit union, for example, will not fund the loan until they have the title with their name as lien holder. And good chance your bank won’t release the lien until they’re paid in full. On top of that, DMV needs time to process the lien (I think it’s 2 wks in CA). It might be easier if buyer take the loan from the same bank where your loan is... so, ask your bank.

I wouldn’t worry about transport & shipping for now. There will be 100’s of shipping brokers falling over themselves to help arrange shipment. That’s the easy part.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Man, y'all got some crappy banks.

Buying cars with a lean is more popular than ever since everyone finances these days. The buyer's bank/CU will request info from the seller & both parties sign contracts promising the title will be released to new bank/CU. They then send a cashier's check for payoff and the 2nd one that represents the balance goes to the seller. It's as simple as that really.

Not sure where some of the people of this thread bank but I'd find a place that values you more as a client.

 

[Gu$ G]

Not sure where some of the people of this thread bank but I'd find a place that values you more as a client.

I am buying a vehicle that currently has a lien, my bank does not offer any escrow service or help. Do you have suggestions of banks that offer this service?

 

[Ostrichsak]

I am buying a vehicle that currently has a lien, my bank does not offer any escrow service or help. Do you have suggestions of banks that offer this service?

Find out which local credit union offers the best interest rate for auto loans in your area. Call and ask what the "closing" process is like if you buy a car from a private party. Continue down the list until you get the answer you're looking for.

 

[Rmf1981]

Man, y'all got some crappy banks.

Buying cars with a lean is more popular than ever since everyone finances these days. The buyer's bank/CU will request info from the seller & both parties sign contracts promising the title will be released to new bank/CU. They then send a cashier's check for payoff and the 2nd one that represents the balance goes to the seller. It's as simple as that really.

Not sure where some of the people of this thread bank but I'd find a place that values you more as a client.

Can't believe I'm gonna say this ... "I agree w Ostrichsak." A good bank should be able to handle this for you.

Option B is escrow. There are multiple options, one I can actually vouch for is escrow.com. They actually have a lien service where they will get the payoff information from the bank holding the lien. You send escrow the money, they tell the seller the money is there. Once you have the car escrow releases the money to the seller - but only after they pay off the lien. So you can protect yourself against giving the seller a huge amount of money and him/her not paying off the lien.

Personally, I'm suprised about everyone above expressing concern about selling to an out-of-area buyer. I'm currently looking, and if the person is more than a few hours away from me I'm gonna be that out-of-area buyer. In this day-and-age, I don't see this as a huge issue, honestly.

Agree with the poster above who said ask the same question on some classic car or exotic car forums as well - I'm sure those guys have a TON of experience in doing this.