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Smart Shopper Questions About Private Sale Transactions
236 messages, Last post on Nov 20, 2009 at 5:18 PM
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I'm in CA. I sell my car, we meet at his bank and he gets us a "cashier's check" infront of us and we do the signing. (title). How do I know that the check is really good? I.e. we do the deal on Friday and on Monday he puts a stop payment on it? My bank may then tell me weeks after that it hasn't cleared? What's the safest way to do it? Cash from the teller would be the safeway way, but then it's dangerous to travel with all of that cash to my bank. (plus the buyer knows I have 15K in cash on me....).
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Replying to: kiawah (Feb 28, 2008 1:04 pm) In the past, when I paid off Honda Finance it took 2+ weeks to get the clean title to me. I heard a dealership will do it for you for a fee? |
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Replying to: aak1 (Apr 17, 2009 1:59 pm) Go to his bank with him and have him write a check to you and then you cash it, or have him write it out to cash, and he gets cash and gives it to you. Then you fork over the title, signed You only need a cashier's check when the two parties are not together at the bank. It's either cash deal or you take HIS cashier's check to his bank or Branch Office and verify that it's good. It's very hard, darn near impossible for a bank to refuse to pay a cashier's check, since it's already been paid for, UNLESS it is a counterfeit check or unless they made an error in issuing it. But if you SEE him buy it, there's no question about cashing it. So once it's verified as real, you're pretty safe. |
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Replying to: aak1 (Apr 17, 2009 1:59 pm) |
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I'm new here and I hope this is the proper place to put this. If not sorry. Would I consider this a private sale or dealer when looking up the values at kbb or edmund? A search of his phone number on google comes up with 2 cars in March and a search of the paper shows 2 cars including one I'm interested in looking at. He doesn't have a lot according to him. So it seems he's just operating out of his house. I think he wants more than a dealer would want now. He also wasn't sure of the model car. He told me it was a LS and when I've looked it up the Pontiac Grand AM the models are GT and SE. He says GT only comes in 2 door. So he isn't too knowledgeable about the car. Here's the ad: 2000 Pontiac Grand Am AT, AC, CD, 4 dr, V-6. Red w/gray int. 34K act. $5500 Also, I asked him about getting it checked out by a mechanic. He said "fine, if you want to waste your money. You won't find anything wrong. It only has 34,000 miles". This raises a red flag with me. I'll get a carfax report if I like it when I see it tomorrow. Any other hints. Sorry so long. |
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Replying to: 2kids3cats (Apr 22, 2009 5:49 pm) Same here. I would look elsewhere.  tidester, host SUVs and Smart Shopper |
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Replying to: 2kids3cats (Apr 22, 2009 5:49 pm) I'd run the other way. He has no license (does he have a dealer plate on the vehicle?)? If he's an individual you have little if any recourse in the event of a problem. The last red flag should be when he uses the threat of your being stupid by wanting a mechanic to look at the vehicle, "Fine, if you want to waste your money." That's like the realtors saying when someone wants to give a low offer to them for the seller, "We don't want to insult them with a low offer." Insult? It's my money so I'll insult whomever I wish with my dollar value of my offer. You might call the state department that handles dealer licensing. You can have them check for the number of private sales per year he's allowed to perform if he's not a dealer. I believe Ohio has a limit of 5. Some dealers give fake locations for their business lot or use the location of an existing lot. |
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Replying to: 2kids3cats (Apr 22, 2009 5:49 pm) Taking the car to a mechanic is NEVER a waste of money. I would take cars to be checked over even if they had only 10,000 miles on them--like rental cars bought at auction, etc. Basically the car either speaks for itself or fails to please--a Pontiac is a Pontiac no matter who is selling it. He can misrepresent it, but he can't hide what it is, in other words. (presuming you do your due diligence). Given that the low miles only adds maybe $500--$800 to the value, for a total of perhaps $4500, and given that this is a fairly common car to find, I see no reason why you have to fuss over this one if something about it doesn't feel right to you.
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Apr 23, 2009 7:11 am) I pointed out that he was asking more than 1,000 over KBB for the car if it had a good title. He said he didn't take much stock in KBB numbers. He then tried to make me feel guilty that he wouldn't be getting any profit if he took less. Tried to tell me I'd pay 15,000 or more for a car with similar miles. Then tried telling me my car would be dying soon. It's a ford taurus SE with 119,400 miles, but I've had it 7 years and changed the oil every 3,000 miles and kept up with other maintenance. We ended up leaving without trying the car. He says he sells one car a week.
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Replying to: 2kids3cats (Apr 23, 2009 10:41 am) The seller might try to explain to you why if you do a search for 2000 Pontiac Grand Ams on Autotrader you get a nationwide average price of $4,300. |
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