Selling a car basics...

[Mpower]

I'm selling a car and have multiple interested parties from out of state. Their plan would be to fly here and drive it home. (they both seem legit). What are some basic do's and dont's...sorry if these are dumb questions.

When do i turn over the title? Do i need to do any official paperwork with the goverment?
Do i take my plates off?
I dont have current tabs on the plates...is that a problem?
When do i cancel my insurance?

Thanks! Ive never sold a car before.

[Shellback]

With all the scams and forged bank checks, money orders etc, I think I'd want good old cash in hand before releasing the vehicle or title. Of course then you have to worry about counterfeit bills too. I think you should ask your bank as to what would be the safest way to transfer the funds to your account. Once you are satisfied that the funds are yours, then release the vehicle and title to the buyer with a notary public as witness and stamping a signed bill of sale. Turning the vehicle over without a signed and notarized bill of sale, could leave you on the hook as liable if they were in an accident on the way home. Final step would be to cancel your insurance. As far as the tag, i guess that depends on if they stay with the vehicle in your state, and if the vehicle was going to be still registered there. Otherwise, you take the tag. It may need to be returned to motor vehicles.

[thump55]

In Wisconsin, you keep the plates.
As Shellback said, plan on completing the transaction at your bank.
Have a bill of sale. I have always just wrote out one by hand, made a copy and had both parties sign.
I would also try and get a photocopy of the buyer's driver's license.

In WI, both parties sign the title and the buyer takes the signed title to the DMV to register it in his name. Make sure the buyer signs the title right there in front of you. They have 3 days to register the vehicle from that point and are legal to drive without plates for those three days as long as they have the signed title (in WI).

I would advise telling any potential buyers ahead of time that you will require all of the above to prevent any issues from arising.

[gonfishn95]

I have 1 rule on major purchases as this and that is cash, especially when they are out of state...just sold 2 things for cash on the net...one was for $12,000 and the other $9000, they both brought cash...1 was a banker and he fully understood.
Both were off of Craigslist..Cash was not counterfeit, but if need be, you can buy a pen like retailers use @ Staples or Walmart..
Take the plates off of it....Give them a bill of sale so they can drive it, and the title...
If they are legit and really want it CASH will be no problem...
I would rather lose a sale then find out I was screwed....

[REW]

I recently sold a vehicle to a buyer from out of state.
It turned out that we both banked at the same nationally known bank. - just different branches.

So, I arranged to meet the buyer at a location in a parking lot that was not far from a convenient branch of our bank. The fellow and his wife looked over the vehicle, decided they liked it, took it for a test drive and on the way back to the parking lot, stopped at the bank.

Before going into the bank, I had both of us sign a bill of sale that I had made, and we also both signed the title.
In MN, the seller signs the title and puts the name of the buyer on the title and also on the tear off tab of the title. Then, the seller takes the tear off tab of the sold title to the DMV and registers the sale with the state. That way, whether the buyer registers the vehicle in his or this state or not, the seller is off the hook.

We then went into the bank and the buyer wrote me a check. The check was presented to the teller. The teller checked the account and found sufficient funds in the account to cover the transaction. So, the check was taken by the bank and credit was issued to my account without the check even having to go through the check clearing house, since both accounts were in the same bank.

Simple straight forward and without a hitch.

After the sale, I took the title tear off tag and brought it over to a branch of the DMV to clear the title from my name. They took the information, cleared the title and returned the tear off tag to me.

REW

[Mpower]

great info...thanks guys!!!

REW - did you take the plates off your car?

[LOW1]

On your bill of sale you may want to state that "this vehicle is being sold without any warranty or representations by the seller and is accepted by the buyer in "as is" condition."

[tv4fish]

Originally Posted by LOW1

On your bill of sale you may want to state that "this vehicle is being sold without any warranty or representations by the seller and is accepted by the buyer in "as is" condition."

I also add this statement in front of the above - "The buyer has taken this vehicle for a test drive so he/she is aware that ............"

[Jerryv]

Originally Posted by Mpower

great info...thanks guys!!!

REW - did you take the plates off your car?

In Minnesota, I think the plates are supposed to stay with the car. Since they are expired, it probably doesn't matter.

In Wisconsin, they stay with the seller and he can transfer them to another vehicle.

Jerry

[SinOrSwim]

You can have a bank to bank wire transfer done as well. I would NEVER bring 10K in cash anywhere. Not a chance. A bank to bank transfer is easy.

I bought a houseboat from a guy and I had him take the title to his bank. ONce the bank had the title in hand, I had my bank transfer the funds and his bank Fed Ex'd the title to me. This way he and I were both protected since the banks were acting on our behalf. This was a fairly large sum of money so we wanted to be sure we had our bases covered.