Sell My Car: How To Sell My Car For Top Dollar Fast!

Advertise your car for free

OK, now you want to sell your car. What options do you have? The fastest route is to sell it to the dealer. Some local dealers give you 7 day guaranteed appraisal quote. You take your car to the dealership, and they test drive it, and give you a quote afterward. The whole process takes about 30 minutes. You can not sell your car faster than that! You can get a fair sale price if the dealership uses the "buying car" as a marketing tool to create buzz in local community and to get you in their stores. So they usually ask what car you are going to buy to replace it at the end even though the car appraisal process is independent of whether you buy cars from them or not. Another option is to call local dealers, and take it to them afterwards.

Another option of selling cars to dealer is by consignment. You park your car at their car lot, and they deal with potential car buyers, and market the car for you and charge you for a flat service fee like $300, or they take a percentage of the sale. Because the risk involved, and the cost of keeping the vehicle at the lot, and the insurance, and all that, the fees are not cheap. But you get a lot of exposure from buyers who walk into that lot. That's an attractive way of selling your car too.

Dealers have to make a healthy profit to stay in business. But if you think the car dealer is low balling you, and you can do better by selling it yourself, then read on.

You can use Digi-Go Publishing free car ad submission service to send your car ad to many websites. Digi-Go submits those ads daily. You do not have to pay anything to use the ad submitter. You get absolutely free advertising.

If your car is located in Dallas/Ft Worth area, we can help you sell car like a dealer in 6 local wholesale car dealer only auctions, like Manheim, ADESA, and DFW Auto Auctions. So why sell it to one dealer when you can sell to many dealers competing for your vehicle at once? Call us at 214-457-6586 and become a car dealer for a day! We will bring you to local car auctions as a guest and you can see all the bidding actions!

Selling car is a complicated and risky business. And if you demand selling car to local dealers at "book value", they may not take you seriously. They may intend to trick you into selling your car dirt cheap, but more often than not, they are right. Because car market fluctuates a lot, and car buyers sentiment changes very quickly. They need to make enough money to cover daily lot operation cost. Most of the "blue book" pricing information are not very accurate by the time they are published. Have a realistic expectation when you decide to sell car yourself. The process may take longer than you have expected.

If the sale price is not enough to make it worth your while, you may want to donate it to local charity, help a good cause and take a nice tax deduction. This option is especially attractive if the car is a non-runner or needs a major work, like engine or transmission work. Some dealers also buy non-runner if they are of late model and its body is in excellent condition. Most of them provide free towing too. Non-runner cars with major mechanical problems reduce your potential buyer pool dramatically and it is much harder to sell for a decent price. It takes expertise to fix it up to a marketable condition.

As for pricing your vehicle, search live local newspaper classifieds, auto trader ads, or online marketplaces, like craigslist.org or eBay.com to find out what comparable cars are sold for in your area. For instance, you can search completed auctions on eBay to get an idea of how much you can sell it for. Also check out what local dealers are asking for the comparable, and reduce that price by 10%, that should be your asking price.

Advertise the car online to get more exposure. A lot of online marketplace websites offer free car advertising, especially for individual car sellers. You can find many online used car classifieds or auction site free of charge. Some of them charge commissions when the car sells. The basic car ad is free, and if you spend a little, you can have attention grabber goodies, like front page placing, large headline, blinking icons, etc. Other venues for selling your car can be like your MySpace personal webpage, Yahoo Groups, or email list you belong to, For Sale newsgroup or school BBS bulletin boards. Print out flyers and post them on apartment mail room, local community center bulletin board, or the church you go to. Spread the words. Word of mouth can be excellent marketing method. People only buy things from someone they can trust. Tell your friends, co-workers, acquaintance you are trying to sell a car.

A lot of nice photos are a must when selling your car online. Detail the vehicle completely. Shampoo it nicely. If you do not know how, have the professional detail it. I personally know someone trying to detail the engine compartment and he messed up the wiring and electronic components under the hood. Detailing and cleaning supply can be easily found at local AutoZone, O'Reilly's Auto Parts, or other automotive part and supply supper store. Personal experience with the car helps sell the car fast too. Instead of generic description, write something unique about it. Make full and honest disclosure. Being upfront and honest inspires confidence and it will help you sell car fast.

Have the vehicle inspected if the inspection expires. Expired inspection may reduce the price significantly because the buyer would not know if the vehicle can pass the inspection or if major work like emission needs to be done before it can be registered and driven legally. Some states, like California, requires all vehicle passes "smog test" and the Smog Certificate is provided by the seller. Some older cars are exempted from inspection or smog test.

When taking the pictures, be sure to have the cars lighted up evenly. That means you have to move the car in certain ways to get the best shot. Cloudy weather is the best time to have those shots. Counter-intuitively, cloudless and sunny day is not very good. Use ample flash when taking interior and under the hood shots. Do not forget to take shots of defects or blemishes so the buyers can evaluate the car accurately.

Have a "For Sale" signs taped to the car windows. The phone number should be prominent and in large red font. You can download a free copy of FOR SALE SIGN here. It requires Adobe Acrobat to view and print the PDF file. Park the car at local intersection gas station, local mall parking lot, or high traffic area. You need the permission from the property owner to do that or your vehicle may get towed. Give them some money to rent the space for a week and it may be well worth the investment if it is in a high traffic area. You will soon realize marketing and selling cars is a lot of work and costs cold hard cash too.

Have car selling resources and documents ready like vehicle history report, maintenance record book, resell data, and car shipping guide, mobile inspection agent contacts, auto loan guide etc. Show to the buyers that any work done on the car is done by reputable professionals. Make it easier for the buyers in the process and you will be rewarded with faster sale and higher sale price. More potential buyers simply means more negotiation power to you, the seller. You will be surprised how many buyers agree to the sale price but can not secure financing and have to pass. So do some research, have a list of auto loan sources, and help your buyer get financed.

When meeting stranger for a test drive, make sure you meet at public place during day time. Ask to see driver license and insurance before handing over your key. Keep in mind since the buyer has your permission to drive your car, if accident happens, you maybe partially liable too even if you are not the driver. So only agree to the test route that you feel comfortable and do not allow the buyer to go over the speed limit even if it is a deal breaker.

Payment and delivery. It is common to sell cars to someone outside of your state. You have to decide what forms of payment you will accept. Normally you ask for a small amount of deposit through PayPal, MoneyOrder, or Western Union and then collect the balance after the buyer comes and picks up the vehicle. Airport pickup is usually offered by seller, but you do not have to. If the buyer will travel long distance after the purchase, advise the buyer to check out the vehicle before leave town. As the vehicle is sold "As Is" you are not responsible if anything happens after the purchase. But be sure to give buyer all the bill of sale, signed title, and other documents just in case the buyer is stopped and questioned by the police.

A common Internet car buying fraud is the fraudulent buyer sends you a cashier's check, and asks you to wire the balance to said person oversea. What happened is the check will not get bounced until a few weeks later, but the crook has already has your wired money. Keep in mind, wire transfer is instant, but check is not. The banking law is that you have to pay back the bank if you have withdrawn any money from that "cleared" check deposit.

Car shipping. Cars are shipped across the state routinely. The costs normally runs from $500 to $1000 within the continental US. Normally buyer pays for shipping cost. Take close-up pictures of the vehicle, and describe in precise term the condition of the vehicle just in case something happens during the transit. Normally the shipper will not be responsible for scratches unless it is explicitly stated in the term of shipping. But shipper usually has insurance to cover total loss, especially for oversea ocean liner shipping. Only when the whole car is lost, stolen, or damaged, the shipper will pay for the whole car. That means you can not file claim on small scratches on the bumper. Check your specific shipper for the terms of the service.

Exporting vehicle. If you sell vehicle to oversea buyer, normally you ask for full payment before you ship the vehicle. If you do not live near a port city, you can simply deliver the vehicle to a shipping agent, and they will take care of that from there. You may have to fill out some vehicle export paperworks with the shipping agent.

Local car selling laws compliance. As an individual car seller, you do not have to make sure inspection and registration tags are up to date, transfer the vehicle title, or help collect the sales tax from the buyer, which is required for car dealers. But you should print out a "bill of sale" during the closing. Disclaim warranty and liability in the vehicle sale contract to protect yourself down the road. Make sure the buyer understands it is an "as is, where is" cash sale. No recourse, buyer remorse or anything. Here is a generic automobile bill of sale sample in pdf format. Copy it to Word format if it is preferred. You can use it as a reference. Send ownership change notice to your local DMV. Check your local automotive government authority on the legal requirement of individual selling cars. In the state of Texas, you can only sell cars four times before you have to get a license to do so.

Here is a list of state DOT or DMV links where you can find various car selling tools, like bill-of-sale form, vehicle registration, ownership and title transfer notice, and sale notice, which notifies the state authority that the vehicle has been sold to another party and you are no longer responsible for the liability afterward.