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How to safely sell a car privately?

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Rodolfo Paiz

Fidelius Family Office
Nov 19, 2012
788
133
Miami, FL
Historically, I've either traded in my cars or sold them to close friends or family. I have no experience selling a car to a random person. Since I would now like to sell my Model X this way, what are the "best practices" y'all would recommend to ensure a safe and win-win transaction for both parties, especially regarding secure/safe payment mechanisms that can't bounce after I've signed over the car?

Thanks in advance!
 
The most important thing (besides getting the money) is to go down with them to the DMV and transfer the title. That way you won't incur any liability if they wreck it on the way home.
 
I sold a car once and the guy had just sold his own vehicle to raise the money to buy mine and so had cash.

So much cash...mostly combination of hundreds and fifties and some rolls of twenties as well,

When confronted with literally a bag full of cash, I drove to Staples and bought a bill detector pen and checked every single bill for validity. They were all good bills - but definitely extra peace of mind being able to check them.

But having received all that cash and having to check all those bills after hours - and holding on to bags of cash and feeling a little like a drug dealer - my tip is to do one of these two things as outlined in this article instead:

Meet as Buyers Bank
  • Meet the buyer at the bank where he or she has an account.
  • Have the check cashed and then turned into a cashier’s check made out to you. This is a 100 percent fail-safe way to be paid for both the buyer and the seller.
  • Offer to pay the buyer’s fees for the check. After all, it is being done for your convenience and safety.
Meet at Your Bank
  • Anybody who can get a personal check or cashier’s check can get cash.
  • Have the buyer meet you at your bank with the cash.
  • Deposit the cash and hand over the paperwork right there. Your bank might even offer you a spot to complete the transaction privately. Explain to the manager what you're doing. They're bound to have an empty desk or conference room where you can sit.
As @jerry33 pointed out, going down to the DMV with them as well is a good idea - in theory. But with having to make appointments potentially weeks in advance and/or spending literally hours at the DMV waiting as a walk-in, it may not be practical. I guess this depends on where you live and how easy that is. Maybe you belong to AAA and they can do the registration transfer for you (have to check - I know they do some of the DMV services but not all of them). If so, AAA is much easier to go in and get out in a reasonable time than the typical actual DMV visit.
 
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Reactions: caltechkid
I have sold a number of cars person to person, ebay, craigslist, etc. After the money and the title, in the US, the most important thing to prove that you have sold the car (besides the title) is the bill of sale. You must have a copy signed by you and the buyer, and they must have a copy, also signed by both parties. It only needs a couple of different things on it. Who you are, who the buyer is, the vehicle VIN, the mileage of the vehicle, vehicle description and the date AND time of the transaction. Some states require this to be notarized, some don't. Every state has different rules on if the license plate stays with the car, or the owner. Emissions may be the responsibility of the owner, or the buyer (I know, emissions, haha, but usually includes a VIN check and some other safety checks.) Out of state buyers will need this bill of sale to register the vehicle, or even to get temporary tags.

And keep the bill of sale forever. I have had a buyer that never registered the car. They started getting parking tickets. 3 years later, California sent me a really nasty letter. I was able to prove who I sold the car to and when, just by faxing the bill of sale to them. They then went after the person who purchased from me. He was a pilot, so apparently knowing how to fly a plane does not make you a responsible citizen.

G.
 
I would get a quote from Carmax, Carvana, Shift to see what they would offer for your vehicle. From there, I would price it about 3k+ that price. $6k and work down. Priced right, it'll sell in less than 45 days

Places to advertise: forum, craigslist

Scams to watch out for: Sight unseen purchase, "escrow companies", asking you to purchase a vehicle report other than carfax or autocheck (don't click any links)

Places to meet and show the vehicle: police station, car dealership like Carmax, busy shopping center etc...

Top 4 banks
Chase
CITI
BOFA
Wells

Have them transfer $$ into your account. If you don't have one, just open one at the top 4 banks and process the transfer immediately in person.
After the transfer, complete the transfer of title paperwork.

Tricky if they get a loan. If they are getting a loan, you can go with them to the bank and the bank would complete the paperwork and give you a cashier's check in person.

For USAA bank (military). They will give you a cashiers check that you cannot physically see them print it. Thats ok. That check is ran through Chase. So you can go to Chase and verify and immediately cash it before proceeding the paperwork. The same may apply to other small banks (look at the bottom of the check and it should say banks it may be cashed at)

No need to go to dmv to release liability. You can compete the release of liability form to keep for records and immediately complete the release of liability online.


Good luck!
 
Title or lien release, bill of sale which releases liability. I would strive to get most of those notarized (most banks will do this). Get your money or certified funds if it’s a check/loan (verify).

Smile, and send them on their way.

Give a little grace for out of state buyers, especially if they’re getting a loan. You won’t be able to go to the DMV to transfer if they’re out of state, but may be able to log on to the DMV site to release liability there as well.

Best of luck!
 
If you pay off your car and have a free and clear title or lien release, that saves 99% of any weird hassles and or follow up required. It also broadens your audience imho if that aspect is clean.

Even waiting for a seller to send you a lien release in the mail can be awful if they don’t care to track it down or timely. Most states require the vehicle to be registered within 30 days, so it’s a tight timeline when dealing with multiple banks, etc.
 
I recently bought a Model S privately. And I sold my Model S privately back in 2017 when I moved out of the country. Be sure to get everything in writing. Try to avoid phone conversations of details, but rather correspond through a written medium. A wire transfer to your account is a pretty safe way to be paid, but feel free to tell the buyer that you will hold on to the title until you're sure that funds have cleared. If you're going to have to clear a lien be sure to disclose that up front so that prospective buyers know that there will be a delay due to the lien. If your state is not a title-holding state be sure to let the buyer know that you will send the title as soon as you receive it and even include language in your sale contract requiring you, the seller, to send the title to the buyer within a specific time frame. Make sure to get full contact info for the buyer, including a photo of their driver's license & proof that they have insurance on the car they're purchasing before they drive away.

And most of all, use common sense. Screen your prospective buyers by having conversations with them. Try to ascertain small details about them in those conversations that you can then use to research them online to determine if they're telling the truth. Check things like their address to make sure it matches with their story. Most places should publish property records online, so you can check things like who owns the property and if that matches with what they're telling you. Considering that Teslas are EVs it would be perfectly natural for you to ask questions about their plan for home charging and through that conversation glean details about their residence to allow you to validate what they're telling you. Honest buyers are going to offer to take steps to gain your trust, but so will scammers, so be careful.
 
What if you don't have the title? In other words, the bank has the title and the payoff is too much for you to front? Would a buyer be willing to pay-off the loan and not have a title in-hand? Is the bill-of-sale enough?
Non-Issue, as the buyer would be taking the car with them. I'd also ensure that the buyer provides proof of insurance coverage the day that they are taking the car.
 
What if you don't have the title? In other words, the bank has the title and the payoff is too much for you to front? Would a buyer be willing to pay-off the loan and not have a title in-hand? Is the bill-of-sale enough?
I brought the from the seller with the same state. My bank paid his bank and on the proces it gets the power of attorney to regsiter the title from me and the seller. Once my bank sent the cashier check to his bank to pay off, he waited for couple of days to make sure his loan amount is null and get got a letter from DMV stating my banks name on as lein. My bank funded money only after I show the evident of insurance so it all went good

Have a safe sell.!!!
 
Did you even try google?

You know what they say: if you have nothing nice to say, perhaps it's better not to say anything at all. Yes, I've read a few dozen pages/articles on how to sell cars privately. But first, I value the advice of many in this community. And second, most of those articles don't deal too well (IMHO) with the biggest concern I have: payment. It's easy to suggest that people bring cash when most of those refer to cars worth $10K or so. When I'm selling a $90K Model X, I would never seriously suggest to anyone that they bring greenbacks.

I'll assume that my original post may need some clarification. I plan to pay off my loan in the next few days to ensure I have a clean title in hand. Although I would ideally meet the buyer at my bank to get bill of sale and other documents notarized, this FLHSMV "Selling a Vehicle" article seems to indicate that buyer and seller may need to visit a DHSMV Motor Vehicle Service Center location to transfer title personally. I'll continue to investigate this further. But my biggest question mark still relates to payment: I'd like to avoid having to reinvent the wheel, and figure out what the usual accepted forms of payment are when $90K or so is on the line.

My thanks to all who've chimed in so far, and grateful for any further advice as well.
 
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Have the check cashed and then turned into a cashier’s check made out to you.
This is a 100 percent fail-safe way to be paid for both the buyer and the seller.
You should check with the bank about the maximum amount for a cashier’s check.
I tried getting one from my bank when getting my car and I think the limit was something like $30k.

So finally I made a wired transfer to Tesla. The interesting thing was that I got the car while the
transfer was not yet completed and the amount was still on my bank account (well for an extra day only...)
 
When I sold my last car, I went to the buyer's bank with him and watched as he went to the teller and got a Cashiers check. Teller asked me for my info so that helped me verify it was valid.

Then I signed the title over, we both signed a bill of sale which I had pre generated, and we filled out the release of liability which I mailed to dmv. Also filled out a transfer of registration form which he later took to dmv.

Not too terrible if you have the title. Biggest issue for you is to make sure the funds are valid.