When you sell your car, you must make it look clean and well-maintained. Any other selling your car made easy article will tell you that. Nobody will look twice at a car that doesn’t look decent, because the thing that will cross the potential buyer’s mind is, if this guy can’t sell used car be bothered to make his car presentable when he’s actually selling it, I wonder how well he used/took care of it? If at all? The sight of a car that is a level below the way others are being sold in the market will automatically demote it to a last-resort buy.
What selling your car made easy really means is that you have to expend effort and/or money to get your car looking, and running, as best as it can considering its present condition. But before you decide to have your car fully detailed or go buy a detailing kit to do it yourself, do a little research and consider how much your car will realistically sell for. It will be a hit on your profits if you spend 250 dollars on detailing if you can sell your car for only $5,000. But if you have a car with a current value of, say, $10,000 or more, then spending 250 on a professional detailing job could conceivably add a thousand dollars more to your car’s perceived value.
One of the top tips to selling your car made easy is to advertise it on the Internet. There are plenty of options to choose from, such as simply posting your car on a social network, which limits the exposure to a few hundred or a couple of thousand people. The advantage here though is that your circle of friends would not likely contain scammers, who have made it their livelihood to trick people into giving up some money, or even the cars they are selling while looking convincingly like a valid buyer. But there are also online sites where you can advertise your car for free or for a fee. Pay sites are not guaranteed to work 100% better than free sites but at least the paid ads are given more priority in the listings. When you put an ad out, keep your privacy in mind and give only as much contact info as you feel comfortable with, knowing that once it’s on the Internet, it cannot be easily erased, if at all.
When you finally land a prospect who wants to see the car, arrive prepared with as much documentation as you can gather on the service and maintenance work done on the car. It also helps to look presentable yourself. Be prepared to give a little on your asking price to seal the deal and don’t accept convoluted transactions. If the buyer likes the car and wants to pay by check, don’t give up the car until the check is cleared. This is a reasonable condition and if the buyer threatens to walk away, be prepared to give up the sale rather than lose the car.
If and when the ownership papers are signed over, have some documentary proof that your car was sold on that date and time. There are different procedures for different countries, but the underlying principle is that you need to be able to show proof that you had sold your vehicle in case it was involved in an accident, a traffic violation, or something worse.
