Here are some tips and things to remember when buyers come to look at your vehicle.

Welcome Them and Be Hospitable

You may choose to meet at a mall, park or maybe at your home. Either way, greet people with a smile and a handshake. Tell them your name and ask them their names. Look them in the eye and be happy to see them… after all, they’re giving up part of their day to come look at your vehicle.

Give Them a Summary of the Vehicle

If you have a sheet printed out, that’s good. Give that to them. Also talk about the car and give them a nice summary of the history. The more you have on this sheet, the better it will look. You’ll look prepared and it will look like you have a good amount of knowledge about the vehicle you’re selling.

Selling Points

Have a number of selling points ready. These are highlights of the vehicle that they should know about. Here are some examples that someone might give:

• The car has only had one owner.
• We had the oil changed every 5,000 miles.
• We just had these things done to the car…
• Most of the miles are highway miles.
• We had the car detailed and waxed twice a year.
• The car gets great gas mileage.

Only say things that are true, of course, but those are some ideas. Be sure to explain what you like best about the car and why.

Be a Used Car Salesman

Ok, don’t be obnoxious, but be nice and courteous. Point out the features of “their new car” – that’s right tell them it’s theirs from the start. State that it’s new because it’ll be new to them. Buying a car is very emotional, so do your best to work that angle. It’s just being nice and courteous and making the experience the best it can be for the buyer since they’re making a big purchase. Treat them how you would like to be treated.

Watch and Listen

Pay attention to what they like most about the car and then emphasize those details. Don’t move on. Feed their interest by talking more about what they like. If something you pointed out seemed important, then talk more about that. Give more details. Remember these things at the end, too, when you’re negotiating.

For example, if you mentioned highway miles and that seemed important, then mention more and explain that route you take. Ask them if they’re familiar with that route.

Be Funny

It doesn’t help to throw in a little humor. Make sure it’s clean, not offensive. Buying a car is a bit emotional, so if you can make them chuckle a little, that only works in your favor. You’re making them feel more comfortable with you and the car.

Recognize the Trust Factor / Honesty

Part of what a buyer is thinking is if they can trust you. They don’t know you. If you’re honest, you’ll give quick answers that make sense. If you’re lying, your answers won’t come as quickly and you may end up contradicting yourself – so be honest… for sure!

If people sense something you’re saying isn’t right, they’ll probably leave right then and not waste any more of their time. Things will go smoother if you be honest.

Ask for the Purchase

Don’t forget your “call to action” and make sure you ask them if they want to buy it. Don’t wait for them to finally bring it up. Don’t ask too soon but a good way to ask is, “Is there anything else I can answer for you or are you ready to take the car home?” or something like that. This gives them two options… either ask more questions or buy it.

When it Comes Time to Haggling

Of course, it’s always better to wait for the other person to list a price but you already have a price for the car listed in your ad, so this is already done. You should always assume that the price listed there is the current price. Don’t come down in price right away until they say something first.

One show on TV I like is “Pawn Stars.” I really like the haggling they do when they buy something from someone. If you get a chance, watch that show and pay attention to how they haggle. They have a bottom line price in mind and usually won’t go beyond that price. That’s a good strategy. Don’t be afraid to let a buyer go – another one will be by soon. Have patience and you’ll make more money.

Have some vehicle estimate sheets printed out from KBB.com, Edmunds and NADAGuides.com. It’s good to have the one with the highest price listed (usually NADA) because if the buyer happened to do their homework and shows you the lowest one, you can whip out the highest one, which can help you negotiate in your favor.

Conclusion

When you go to a store or buy something from someone, you like to be treated well, right? That’s why you should treat people well when they come to see your vehicle. It’s not hard to do. Smile and be friendly to them. Answer their questions. If you don’t know something, maybe offer to find out and get back to them. Be honest with them. Don’t dodge questions but answer the question they’re asking without changing the subject. Make a joke or two. Tell a good, short story about a good time you had with the car. You have an advantage over a salesperson at a local car lot – unlike them, you’ve had firsthand experience with the car you’re selling. Use that to your advantage!

I’ve tried to pack a lot of good information and advice into this article. If I missed something, please leave a comment below. Don’t forget to share this post with people you know.

It’s all about advertising sometimes, isn’t it? You’re going to need some great photos of your car in order to sell it online or offline. Don’t worry, it’s not too difficult to do.

Here are some great tips to help you take good photos of your car that you’re going to sell in order to help you get more interest in your vehicle and hopefully to help it sell faster. I will go over where to take photos, how to take care of lighting, what equipment you need and what angles to use so that the photos of your car do all the selling for you!

Prep the Car

This goes without saying but what the heck… if you haven’t done it yet, clean and wash your car. Get it detailed or detail it yourself. You need your car looking its best for when people see it anyway, so you should get it ready now so that you have excellent photos.

What Kind of Camera to Use

With cameras, the better lenses they have, the better they will be. Camera today are digital, so the components inside have to be good, too. The cool thing is that a lot of basic cameras today take some really great photos. Most have automatic settings and do a lot of the work for you. I have an iPhone 4s and it takes some amazing pictures sometimes. Just find the best camera you can and use it. Use one you have or maybe borrow one from a friend. Try to do better than a cell phone camera if at all possible.

I have 3 cameras: an iPhone 4s, a Canon Powershot A530 and a Canon EOS Rebel XS (digital SLR). My best camera is obviously the Canon digital SLR but for pictures of a car, any one of these cameras would do. In fact, I shot the video for one car I sold just using the iPhone. It did a nice job.

It’s All About Location, Location, Location!

You want to find a place that makes your car look good. It has to be somewhere without a lot of people (you don’t really want people in the shot) and it has to be a place you have access to. Some good locations I’ve found are:

• Local county parks
• Buildings downtown
• Business parks
• Next to a river, lake or ocean

The ideal place to shoot pictures of a car would inside, in a studio where you have perfect lighting and a variety of backgrounds to choose from. Most people don’t have access to that, however. You’ll have to do the best you can with what you have access to but just take a drive around and you’ll find some nice places.

Here are three that I took. Notice the background and areas that I chose:

The Acura RSX at a County Park

This was taken in October, so the trees were losing leaves but I did the best I could. The car still ended up looking nice because it was sitting on the grass, which you don’t see too often.

The MR2 at a Business Park

In this shot, the car is on a nice looking road, which is still pretty new. It’s kind of a nice business park, so the trees and grass in the background were kept up well.

The MR2 at the Capitol

I took this one at the State Capitol Building in Madison, WI. The shots here were good because it kind of looks like the car is in a VIP area or something. It was actually easy to get to and I just drove it up, kept it running and took some pictures. It took less than 5 minutes.

Background

Be mindful of what is in the background of your photos. You can be concentrating on the foreground area so much that you might miss something distracting sitting there in the background.

Make sure there’s also no clutter in the background or foreground – or even inside the car. Remove all your personal stuff from it… you’re not selling that stuff, right? It’ll just look junky with those things in it.

Good Lighting – Where is the Sun?

You definitely want good lighting. The best results you’ll get will be when the sun is behind you. Cloudy days are nice because you get some good, nice, even lighting but the sun adds brightness to everything, which looks good, too. Ideally, you’d want a partly cloudy day and you’d take pictures when there’s a cloud over the car, blocking the sun but still some blue sky in the background.

I hardly ever use a flash. It makes everything look flat unless you have a 3-point lighting system (or better) set up. With just one light source (the flash on your camera), you lose depth. I would suggest going without the flash. You eliminate some glare this way, too.

Look at the settings on your camera and make sure they’re set to outdoor photos. Get to know your camera for sure.

Take lots of pictures if you’re shooting digitally (I don’t know of anyone who isn’t now) because you can always delete the ones you don’t like. Remember to view the photos you’ve taken so that you can right away retake photos that did not turn out right.

Remember to hold the camera still, too. This way, your photos won’t be blurry. Using a tripod is a great idea. They’re actually relatively cheap – you can get a decent one for $20 and then you’ll have one to always use in the future.

Framing

Framing is super important. You really don’t want to put the car right, smack in the middle of the photo. You want it taking up 2/3rds of the photo… imagine splitting the area you’re shooting into three sections. You want the car taking up two of them almost completely and then have it less in the last third section. Doing this will draw people into the photo!

One more thing… and I can almost say this is obvious but I’ve done it a number of times, so I know it’s an easy thing to mess up – make sure the entire car is in the photo when you’re taking photos of the entire car. You don’t want the rear bumper cut off or the front cut off. Take steps back and forward to try different things.

Angles, Angles, Angles!

Try all kinds of angles. My favorite angle is from down low. This is where children are and how they view the world and it’s actually amazing to look at things from that angle sometimes. Things look so big and grandiose.

With each shot you take, shoot it from up high, medium and from down low. This way, you’ll have plenty of pictures to choose from.

I prefer taking a picture from down low. It makes the subject of the photo (your car) look bigger. I think this is why children seem so amazed sometimes – everything from a low angle looks really grand. It’s a neat, little photography trick that you should definitely consider as you take photos.

To prove my point, here are two photos – one from normal (standing) height and then one from a low angle:

The second one is from a lower angle and the car just looks bigger and better, right?

Another Tip – Turning the Wheels

Here’s a tip that you might not think about when you’re shooting but might realize later once you get home and look at your photos – which way the wheels are facing. You want them pointed so that you can see the wheel as you take the photo… or aiming toward you, not away. The photo above has the wheels facing the wrong way. Here’s one where you can see them better:

What to Take Pictures of – Your Shot List

You basically want to cover the entire car with the photos that you take. Here’s a shot list that I use when I go out to take pictures:

• Front – all angles
• Read – all angles
• Tires – one good picture of each tire. Show the tread on the tires and condition of the wheels.
• Interior
  • Driver’s door open, getting into the car.
  • Dashboard – farther back.
  • Dashboard – closer up.
  • Dashboard – odometer.
  • Center console and shifter.
  • Stereo
  • Dashboard – from front passenger side.
  • Back seats – from front passenger side.
  • Sunroof
• Trunk area.
• Under the hood.
• Front grille area.
• Front with the lights on – all lights.
• Front with the lights on – just parking lights.
• Rear with the lights on.

Did I miss anything? That should be the whole car. If your car has any upgrades or anything special, show it. Do another scan around the car, looking through the lens and see if you can take any extra pictures.

Proof Your Photos as You Shoot

As you’re taking photos of your car, it’s important to remember to look at them and make sure they’re good before you end your photo session. Look over the photos in the camera and make sure they don’t look blurry or that there’s something on the lens or that you have the settings wrong on the camera – stuff like that. If possible, bring a laptop computer with you or a tablet which lets you view the photos on a bigger screen. This way, you can proof them good and know if you need to retake any photos.

Once you get home and look at them, it’s too late – you might have to go out and shoot again. Try to avoid that.

Preparing Your Photos

You’re home now and you’re looking at the photos you took on your computer. Next, you’ll want to choose the best ones and then maybe do a little formatting of them. To format photos, you’ll need some image editing software. Something like Photoshop is what the professionals use. There’s a free one called Gimp that’s comparable to Photoshop. Your computer might have Microsoft Photo Editor (Windows) or Preview (Mac) installed on it, which should work fine.

With the ones I want to use, I usually size them down to be 800 pixels wide. This way, they’re easy enough to upload onto used car listing websites. An image that’s 800 pixels wide is going to be plenty big on a computer monitor and show enough detail about the car.

As you’re resizing them, check the sharpness and adjust that. Don’t use it too much but just a little so that the photos look nice and clear. Don’t play with the colors or other settings too much unless you really need to correct something. Too many filters or changes to the image won’t make the car look like how it really is. This is one place you definitely do not want to use Instagram.

Conclusion

You should now have a nice set of photos to use to advertise your vehicle. It wasn’t too difficult, really. You just needed to know which pictures you needed to take, where to take them, how to take them (lighting, angles) and then you re-sized them and got them ready to use. Pretty simple, right?

If you think I missed any important tips for taking good photos of a car, please leave them below. If you could also share this article with your friends, that would be great, too.

Selling a vehicle privately instead of at a used car lot has its benefits. You are likely to get more money by selling your vehicle privately rather than trading it to a car dealer. However, there are several important factors to be considered before putting your car up for sale. With the right set of knowledge, you will be able to easily set a fair price for the car and avoid scammers who tend to prey on used-car sellers.

In order to avoid any hassles, you should know these 12 things about selling your car yourself.

1. Value

Before you put the vehicle up for sale, you have to establish its true value. This is the only way you are going to set the fairest asking price. There are online sources that can assist you to quickly find out the car’s value based on its model, make, and condition. Here are some good online sources:

• Kelly Blue Book
• Edmunds
• NADA Guides

It is also important to note that vehicle prices can vary by city and state. You can also look at websites of used-car dealers in your area to see how much your vehicle would go for. If you overprice the vehicle, you will be greatly disadvantaged because you won’t attract any buyers.

2. Fix and Clean the Car

When it comes to sales, the first impression can either make or break you. The car has to be in good physical condition to attract more buyers. Even if the vehicle is in good mechanical shape, prospective buyers can be turned off if it has a dirty interior or muddy body. Detail the car and make sure any mechanical issues have been repaired.

3. Paperwork

Make sure you have gathered all the necessary paperwork you will need before you begin the sale. These usually include warranty information (if there is still any coverage) and the title (if your car loan is completely paid off). Having this paperwork beforehand will make finalizing the sales much quicker and efficient.

Make sure your car’s title is clear – which means it’s not showing a lien holder. Sometimes what happens is, your bank will give you something stating that the car is paid for but you still have to pass that on to your state’s Motor Vehicle Department so that it can show it as paid off on the car’s title.

4. Collect Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Records

Collect all the maintenance records – this is everything from oil changes to tires, to brakes to whatever. These records will help potential buyers feel at ease because they know the vehicle was well cared for. You can also buy a vehicle history report then print out recent price estimations. Maintenance records can also be used to answer a potential buyer’s questions and concerns about the car’s condition.

5. Look out for Scammers

There are several private car sale related scams. One solid way of avoiding scams is to request picture identification from any potential buyers. If a buyer refuses to provide ID, then there is a high chance you are dealing with a scammer it someone will ill intent.

If you advertise your car on Craig’s List, then be especially careful of who contacts you. You might get people saying they need the car and will buy it without seeing it. If it sounds too good to be true, then it usually is. Be smart.

6. Advertising is Important

Slapping a “for sale” sticker at the rear window simply does not cut it. You have to increase your chances of selling your vehicle by making sure you have fully utilized car-buying websites and free online classifieds.

Look for free advertising options and exhaust them before you start paying for any ads. Also use social media to spread the word about your vehicle. When creating an online ad, make sure you include a lot photos of the vehicle’s exterior and interior.

7. Be Willing to Compromise

More often than not, buyers tend to offer a few hundred dollars less than the initial asking price. You can pad the asking price a bit, while remaining fair and competitive. You have to be willing to knock off a couple hundred dollars.

8. Deal with the DMV

Every state DMV has their own set of requirements; however, a general requirement is that you have to provide a clear title and that the car must be loan free. You have to document the sale to the DMV. There are some states that require a smog test for vehicles past a certain year. The odometer reading has to be verified before a sale.

Check to make sure everything is in order with the laws in your area if you want a successful car sale without problems.

9. Time Frame

Believe it or not, some times of the year are much better for selling vehicles than others. For example, most people are not interested in purchasing a car around or during the holidays because their focus is on other expenses such as holiday parties and gifts. A good time to put your car up for sale would be tax refund season. This is a time when people have extra cash to spend on huge purchases like vehicles.

10. Avoid Sharing Personal Information

There are some people who target private car sellers in order to attain their personal info and use it to commit identity theft or property damage or theft. Avoid this risk by clearing all personal info from the car such as registration and insurance information that can be linked back to you. Also meet potential buyers away from your residence.

11. Limit Test Drives

Never allow more than one test driver in the car at any given time. Every potential buyer must provide a valid driver’s license and ID before going for a test drive. Lastly, never allow a potential buyer to drive the vehicle alone.

12. Verify the Payment in Full

Don’t surrender possession of the car till the car payment has fully been made and verified. If possible, do not accept any personal checks. Let every potential buyer know that the preferred mode of payment is cash, cashier’s check or money order.

Conclusion

If you’ve never sold a used car by yourself, then do good research or maybe you have a friend that has done it and would be willing to help you. If something doesn’t feel right in your gut, then trust your gut and say no. You don’t want to learn something the hard way.

If you have any comments on the tips we have here, please leave them below. Don’t forget to share this article with your friends!

Prepare the Car for Sale

Wash the Car

You obviously want to get it washed and cleaned. Take it to a car wash where they have people wiping it off and cleaning the inside. This will cost you $20 for their top of the line wash. Consider getting some extra detailing done, too. They can usually do it quickly or else you can leave the car there and go do some shopping near by.

I even found a guy that detailed my car for $100 and he power washed the engine compartment, too. Wow, did that make the car look new! To do that, they disconnected the battery and then ran a power washer over everything. They let it completely dry and then reconnected the battery. Finish it off with some Armour All on the main parts and hoses and wow does that make a difference. Anyone looking over a car is going to pop the hood. If they do that and see things looking really good, that will make them feel better about buying the car. They’ll know the car was well taken care of. Car dealers do it – so should you.

Make sure the wheels look amazing. Get some wheel cleaner and apply tire wax. This is a must!

The interior should also have some Armour All applied to it so that it looks sharp. Clean all the windows, both sides, with window cleaner. Do it twice if you have to so that there are no streaks.

Clean the Carpets

If you have light colored carpets, get all the stains out. There’s some really good foaming carpet cleaning spray that I use (and love – it works great) and it’s called Tuff Stuff (about $5 a bottle at Amazon). You spray it on, then wait a minute and then I use a scrub brush on the area and carpet stains come right out. I use it on my home carpets and it works great in the car. Stains you think would never come out just come right out.

Also consider getting the carpets and upholstery steam cleaned. This will deep clean everything which will also help with our next point…

Is There a Smell?

Sometimes, if you’re used to your own car, you might not notice a smell. Ask someone else to smell your car. If there is an odor, then you can do a few things. First, think about getting it steam cleaned, like we mentioned. Second, try carpet cleaner that you vacuum up (baking soda based). Third, use some air freshener like Febreeze in the car. Don’t use too much or it’ll be too obvious that you’re trying to cover something up.

Worst case, you have some mold or mildew. If your car is a convertible and if the top leaks or if it has been wet, then you might need to pull up the carpet and have it totally cleaned out.

Remember, all the little tricks and tips that we mention here are small investments that will help you get more for your used car. Sometimes taking a hour to do something will net your a few hundred dollars, which is like getting paid a few hundred bucks an hour!

Body Work

How does the car’s exterior look? Are there any rust spots? I had one on a car that I was trying to sell and I found a guy with a body shop near by that fixed it really cheap. It was like $300 and now I can post that the car has no rust showing. That’s just one less thing someone can use to bring down the price when they’re looking at the car. You can also keep emphasizing that there is no rust on the painted part of the car and that it’s clean – doing this will prevent people from going too far down in price when it does come time to talk money.

Get an Oil Change / Do Fixes

The picky buyer is going to poke around under the hood or even ask if they can take the car to a local shop and have it checked out (at their expense). You don’t want old, dirty oil in it. All fluids should be topped off and looking good. Take care of any leaks.

Maybe there’s something that needs to be fixed – like the brakes for example. Spending $75 or $100 might net you much more than that plus it’s something you can say just got done, which the buyer will like.

Get New Tires Put On

Speaking of fixes, one popular thing to do is get new tires. Putting on a set of budget tires can really add value to the car. If someone is buying the car for their teenage driver, then new tires on the car will be a huge selling point. Again, it’s just one more thing that the buyer can’t use against you.

Price Your Used Car

Now that your automobile is clean and looking its best, it’s time to figure out what price to sell it for.

Free and Clear Title

What works best is if the car is clear – which means you don’t owe anything on it. You want a title that’s free and clear so that you don’t have to first take the buyer’s money to the bank and pay it off. That’s too much of a hassle for people and you’ll get very few people interested in the car and, because of that, you’ll get less for the car.

Search Online

Go to places like Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com) and see what the car is worth. Also, check out used car websites and try to find cars like yours (in the same condition, etc.) and see what they are selling for.

You should know all the features of your car. It doesn’t hurt to take a pen and pad of paper and go out to your car and write them all down.

Add Some Wiggle Room

When it comes time to haggle, you’ll lose a little right away. Add a few hundred in so that you are able to slide down on the price a little and let the buyer feel like they’re winning a little.

Also, here’s a good tip… take whatever price you want to sell your car for and subtract $5 from it. For example, if you are selling it for $5800, then set the price at $5795. It looks more attractive that way.

Take Pictures of Your Car

You’re going to want to sell your car online and maybe in a newspaper or print ads, so you will need some good pictures of it.

Find a Good Location

What’s around your car in the picture will help make the car look better, too. Find either a park where you can park your car on the grass for a brief period of time or else what I like to do is head over to a nice business park and find a nice building and parking lot there – like on a Sunday when nobody is around.

Weather and Lighting

A sunny day is good. Your pictures will look nice. With a somewhat cloudy day, you’ll get even lighting, which can also be a good thing. Do not take pictures going into the sun. Have the sun behind you always. You shouldn’t need a flash on your camera if you’re outside and there’s good lighting. The flash can reflect off of windows and ruin your shot sometimes – which is why you have to be careful about taking pictures inside the car. When doing that (and if you need a flash), do not aim the camera at windows but aim it downward or away from windows.

What to Take Pictures of

Here are some important things to make sure you take pictures of:

• The front, back and sides of the car.
• The interior – including the seats, dashboard, instrument console and radio.
• All four wheels. Try to show how much tread is left on each tire, too.
• The trunk.
• Under the hood.

I usually try to include a shot of the car from the front but from a low angle. You might have to be on the ground for it (which is why a park with a grassy area works well). Doing this makes the car look more “grand” and more special. Don’t just stand there and take a picture, move your body.

To get a good shot, move the car. Get in, move a little, take more pictures. When you get back home, you’ll pick out the best ones, so take a lot of pictures.

I also like to take one kind of funny picture and then decide later if I want to use it. For example, one with everything open – all the doors, the sunroof, the hood, trunk… everything.

Write Up The Specifications and a Good Description

Get out your list of features and write them down. Open a Word document and list them with bullet points. Don’t forget these items:

• Mileage
• VIN Number (it’s ok to post this online)
• State if the title is clear.
• Kind of transmission (automatic or manual)
• Any recent work you’ve had done – this will tell the new buyer that they won’t have to take care of these things for a while.

Then, what I like to do is be creative and write a good description. Include why you are getting rid of it. Maybe you just got another car or want to get a new car. Maybe you just need the money. Maybe you can’t store the car anywhere. List a good reason so that this doubt is removed from people’s minds.

Tell people what they will enjoy the most about the car. Maybe it’s the sunroof or the all wheel drive in the winter. Come up with at least 3 things and list the benefits of each one. Be emotional about it – meaning, say that the sunroof is great on sunny afternoons when you’re leaving work for the weekend and you feel nice and free with it open. Attach an emotion to each feature. This helps to create desire for the vehicle, which will help you get more for it because emotion very often over powers reason and logic.

Go Sell It!

Now that you have the car clean, the description and everything together, go sell the car. There are a number of places where you can get free car ads online. Here is that list:

• Craig’s List
• AOL Autos
• Cars for Sale.com

Craig’s List Scam

Craig’s List is great but watch out for scammers. I’ve seen these emails come in. Someone claims that they will pay your price plus $100 but they can’t see the car because they’re on a ship or something. Don’t fall for that. They won’t ever come see the car or send someone to pick it up. They want you to pay via PayPal and they’ll generate a fake email to send you and maybe pay you too much and have you refund them – something like that. Again, be smart and be careful!

Sell the Car Locally!

Put an ad in your local paper. Go to the supermarket and see what free car magazines are near the door. See about putting ads in those publications (I find some of those to be too expensive).

Put up Flyers!

You already have information about the car in a Word document. Add one of your pictures and print up flyers. Do them in color because they’re only about $0.50 a copy. Check it over for grammar and spelling errors (have someone else do it if you can’t). Put them up at grocery stores if they have a place for ads.

Also, some auto parts stores will have a place in their store for cars ads. I think this is so smart of them. They know that people selling their cars are going to need car parts and car cleaning items, which brings people into the store. Also, people will return there to buy parts and things once they have a car. Auto parts stores aren’t selling cars either, so you’re not competing with them. I don’t know why every one of these stores doesn’t have a board like this. If they don’t, then suggest it to the manager.

Park it Somewhere There’s a Lot of Traffic

No, don’t park it on the side of the highway. Find a busy street and park it on a corner (street parking) with a for sale sign on it. Don’t leave it there overnight or else you’ll invite thieves to break into it. Also, if you do want to park it at a store or business, get the permission of the store first. They probably don’t want their lot turned into a used car lot… or maybe they do!

You should have a for sale sign on the car at all times, too. If you’re driving it around, people will see it. Have the amount you’re selling it for along with your phone number in large letters so that it can easily be read.

Include Your Contact Info

Make sure you’ve included a way for people to contact you. List your email or phone number. I don’t like my cell number being out there, so what I did was get a free phone number at Google Voice that forwards any calls to my cell. That way, when the car is sold, you can shut down that number or not have it forward to you any more.

Build a Small Website for Your Car

This works well if you have a car that’s a little different like a sports car, an exotic, a classic or just something different. You might actually have a national audience for your car if it’s rare enough.

When I was selling my Toyota MR2, I realized it fell into this category and I bought a domain name and set up a simple website called MR2ForSale.com. It was a name that people could easily remember and it’s something that could get searched on if someone out of my area was looking for that kind of car.

You might also consider selling your car on eBay if you want to get rid of it quickly.

When Buyers Call or Arrive

When you start getting calls, here are a few tips.

First, it’s good to keep a list of people. When someone calls, make sure to get their name at least. Write down when they called, too. Just keep a small log for your reference. If you can get their phone number, then write that down, too.

Second, make sure they’re serious and just don’t want to waste your time looking or test driving a car – especially if it’s a nice or rare car. Be polite about it.

Third, pick a time and place that’s convenient. Maybe you don’t want people coming to your house – or maybe you do. I don’t really mind but I can understand how, in today’s world, someone might not want that.

As they’re looking over the car, make sure you’re pointing things out and telling them the benefits. Answer all their questions. If you have a folder full of receipts of things you’ve had fixed, then have that in the car. Buyer will like to see that it was taken care of.

Haggling Over the Price

Your ad already stated the price, so there’s no need for you to start lower than that. Stick to your price. They will most likely start lower. If it’s too low, then don’t even counter it. I like watching the shows like “Pawn Stars” or “American Pickers” and you can watch how they (the pros) do it. You can learn quite a bit. You should already have some wiggle room in your price, so you can come down a little.

The Final Sale

Before you have people come to see it, you should have everything ready. Here’s what you should have:

• The title along with any lien releases. Put this in an envelope (not sealed, of course) with the VIN number of the car printed on the outside of it. Make it look like you know what you’re doing.
• A “Bill of Sale” document. Have two of these printed out. These state that you have sold the car to the buyer without any warranty, etc. These are the terms of the sale. One is for your records and one is for them. Both of your should sign each one.
• Only accept cash or a bank check. Do not take personal checks. If you do take personal checks, then do not release the car to them until it has cleared. If they don’t like that, then they can go to their bank, get cash and come back.
• Give them all the keys, the manual and anything else that goes with the car.
• Shake their hand, look them in the eyes and smile.

Used Car Bill of Sale

Sample Used Car Bill of Sale Document / Form

If you’re looking for a “Bill of Sale” document / template, then we have a whole article here about a used car Bill of Sale document that you should read. Make sure you do. There, I have one you can download. You are welcome to it but know that I’m not an attorney and make no guarantee that this document is legally sound.

There are websites that can help you create and print a bill of sale document. I’d suggest using one of those.

Conclusion

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Got More Tips?

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Good luck selling your car!