I sold my car on Craigslist

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valleyrock
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by valleyrock »

baconavocado wrote: Mon Jan 09, 2023 7:53 pm
valleyrock wrote: Mon Jan 09, 2023 7:05 pm I've bought and sold lots of cars on Craigslist. I always use the NADA price (now at Nadaguides.com but it used to be a monthly on reserve at the public library). That's the price car dealers and bank loan officers use. So, there's no haggle or hassle, no buyer's or seller's remorse. Just look it up and print it out.

(Of course, there are other things. Such as when buying I'll pay for a mechanic's check after being sure I want the car and assuring the owner I plan to buy it at the NADA price if it checks out as OK.)
Those NADA prices look the same as the prices I found on kbb.com. There's always a range of values based on condition. For example, a 4-year old car that's been in an accident and then repaired is not going to have the same value as an identical car that's never been in an accident.
It depends. Most body shops bring a car back to like-new, perfect condition. (One could argue that isn't always necessary, but that's the way it works. There are some shops that will do less than perfect if you want. I do that where appropriate, if I can.) But if there was mechanical damage not correctly repaired, then of course the value drops. I stick to the nada prices and go from there, using a mechanic's check, which I pay for, and a Carfax report The point is to be in a position to sell a car for the same price I paid for it, less taxes, etc. I know I can do that with the nada prices. I don't have that confidence with kbb.
smitcat
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by smitcat »

RobLyons wrote: Thu Jan 12, 2023 7:30 am
Starfish wrote: Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:10 am
RobLyons wrote: Mon Jan 09, 2023 1:09 pm I've bought and sold cars on craigslist going back some 15 years and my experience was similar to yours. Easily sold a $5k car. Couldn't find much attention for a more expensive car. One of my most reliable vehicles I purchased for $9,500 and seller indicated there was only 1 or 2 other responses before I arrived. Anytime I try to sell something on CL (or FB marketplace) I also receive a LOT of scam responses.
In a few years I plan to test the waters with my wife's van but won't hesitate to trade in if it means an easy transaction with many hours saved. Sometimes it's just not worth it to spend a lot of time and the headaches to sell a vehicle for max value.

How many hours makes it worth it?
I count like this (examples):
1. I make X $.
2. I pay 40% taxes.
3. From 60% left I pay half on rent/mortgage/food/other important stuff.
4. I am left with 30% disposable income.


The difference between trade in and private party is, say 2-3k$ of straight disposable income. If all together it takes a full day of work (which I doubt), it's equivalent to making, 6-9k$ a day, I don't know, 2MM$/year income? I don't make two million unfortunately. And I would not count it as work, it's much easier than work worth couple of millions.
The funny thing is that a lot of people going for trade ins are not bogleheads but people who make average income. Probably among the worst financial mistakes for them.

I like this response.

To play devil's advocate, I suppose it depends on the vehicle being sold and the ease of sale. Sometimes it could take months to sell a vehicle. So taking photos, writing a detailed description, responding to dozens of emails, taking additional photos or videos if requested. And you have to stay on top of your email and texts constantly. Stale listings require price drops, revisions, etc.

Than the intangibles of meeting up with strangers. Inherent dangers involved and potential for getting ripped off. Arranging a location if you don't want them coming to your house. Test drive time. They may want to take the vehicle to their mechanic before sale so you may need to arrange that.

So just in my experience, it takes about 2 full days of work if not 3 to sell a vehicle.

In 3 days of overtime I could easily make $3,000+.

So I guess my answer is: It depends.
For another data point - In our experience it has taken about 1 day or less to sell a vehicle. The latest 3 being mostly of higher value.
SR II
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by SR II »

tennisplyr wrote: Thu Jan 12, 2023 7:17 am
RickBoglehead wrote: Tue Jan 10, 2023 11:03 am I've sold multiple vehicles on Craigslist. Since 2018, I found that there were better avenues, because of vehicle values. Sold a 2018 vehicle to Carvana, back in the day when they paid too much for vehicles. Sold a 2021 to a dealer out of state, who beat all car listing services by thousands of dollars. I found him by listing on Autotrader.com.

There are more than 1/2 dozen car buying sites, you should explore them all. What worked in July may not be top of list in January.

Yes, Craigslist allows the anonymous capability until you're ready to transfer title. I've sold hundreds of things on CL and only a handful of people have any idea of more than my first name.

I have sold a handful of items on FB. It lacks the anonymity, and is full of spammers / ripoff artists. I list very little of value there, I did list a car but it got nothing in terms of valid inquiries.

Many people don't have the street smarts to do more than simply trade a vehicle in, and that's fine - for them.
Would you say that Autotrader is one of the better commercial ways to go...I have a 2020 Honda.
I've sold cars about a half dozen cars myself over the past 20 years through autotader.com. It worked really well for me and I always got my price. A couple of them were freshly bought off lease (made a great profit on a three year old Honda Civic, BTW) and a couple were oldies. The last one was about five years ago though. Costs more than craigslist to list them, but also seemed to get more serious buyers and not just resellers. At least that was the case in my area.

I don't know that I would sell a car myself now. There seem to be so darn many scammers out there!
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RickBoglehead
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by RickBoglehead »

tennisplyr wrote: Thu Jan 12, 2023 7:17 am

Would you say that Autotrader is one of the better commercial ways to go...I have a 2020 Honda.
My definition of "Better" is what sells the vehicle. The market changes all the time. What worked last year on the east coast may not work tomorrow on the west coast.

I sold my most recent vehicle, an EV, to a dealer, because no consumer bought it despite listing it in multiple places. I got multiple dealer messages via Autotrader and Cars.com. Cars.com were ridiculously low offers. On Autotrader I got many contacts, and the dealer who bought it beat every online service I could find, by thousands (and he ended up taking a $2,000 or more hit selling it).

That said, on the car before that, Autotrader hadn't setup the trims properly and the car couldn't be put into the right bucket without "our IT department spending weeks on this". I got a refund. Prior to that, I sold 3 vehicles on Craigslist.
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Ricola
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by Ricola »

At what point would you just donate the car to charity rather than go through the sale process?
dekecarver
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by dekecarver »

Ricola wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:58 pm At what point would you just donate the car to charity rather than go through the sale process?
When it's not worth your mental, physical and discretionary time to go through the sales process for not much money; I'm being serious.
Outer Marker
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by Outer Marker »

I've sold several cars on Craigslist - both mine and for relatives. It never took more than a day or two to sell them. Posted adds on Thursday evening, pre-weekend, and had cash in hand by Saturday afternoon in all cases. My cars are maintained in better than average condition, but priced them at slightly below mid range NADA private sale value. A run thought the car wash and quick vacuum are all I did. Not going to spend the time and effort to detail a car I'm not keeping. If it takes weeks to sell a car and multiple price adjustments, you're being too aggressive. Price at what you're really willing to sell for and pad by a few $ hundred wiggle room to make the buyer feel good about the negotiation. For what it's worth, I also placed parallel adds on cars.com and autotrader - but craigslist is what generated the sales. I wouldn't pay extra for the commercial sites.
valleyrock
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by valleyrock »

+1000 Buy and sell using the Nadaguides.com private sale value. No haggling necessary. Subtract for work it needs if you know ilof any or if a responsible buyer gets the car checked by a mechanic and something comes up Print out the page from the website and that's it. Doesn't take much effort, really.
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illumination
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by illumination »

Selling a car privately has definitely become a hassle I'm just not sure I want to do anymore. I used to not even think twice about doing it myself, it used to be fairly painless. But moving forward, I'm not so sure. At least in my area.

Lots of scams and businesses that just descend on private car sellers. I recommend getting a burner or Google number. Don't publish your "real" number. You should probably just ignore the texts/calls/emails the first few hours the ad goes live, it's almost exclusively bots and con artists. Any text message that say something like "is the car still available?" is 99.9% some sort of scam.

People in general have also just become more flakey in my opinion. You'll have a deal struck and then you get ghosted. So don't ever take down that ad or "stop" selling the car until the money is in your hand. And it seems almost no one actually has funds to buy the car, so depending on the price, it can be a big headwind to not be like a dealer with financing options.
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Sandi_k
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by Sandi_k »

I've sold my last two cars (and one watercraft) via CraigsList (CL) in recent years. My method:

1) List it using the CL anonymizer email system.

2) DO NOT include a phone number.

3) Post the listing with at least 10 clear pictures: front of car, driver's side, rear bumper, passenger side, driver interior, back seat interior, trunk interior, engine bay, console, and odometer. (Of course, you've washed and waxed it first, so everything gleams, right?!)

4) Go to Edmunds, and copy their listing details of your car's trim level: include things such as wood shift knob, leather-wrapped dash, JBL speakers, sport suspension, whatever. Note any upgrades.

5) Get the private sale price ranges from Edmunds, Kelley, and NADA: list all three ranges in the ad.

6) Make sure the ad listing SUBJECT includes Year, Make, Model, and says: One Owner, All Records, Clean Title, Non-Smoker (assuming this is true). Also note CASH ONLY, sold to "first cash offer in hand." Post the ad on a Thursday or Friday, with a Saturday or Sunday "sale day."

7) Choose a day to show it, and schedule people in 30 minute increments.

8) For those who email you, desperately asking for a phone number, politely decline. When they lowball, politely decline. I ask if they have any questions specific to the car, and the numbskulls quickly move on to someone else.

9) 24 hours before the scheduled "show appointment", email the people you've scheduled with the address of where you'll meet them for the examination of the car. A local police station is a good choice.

10) Prepare by collecting your owner's manual, the key fobs, the pink slip, any extra items such as floor mats, and the Bill of Sale form from your state's DMV. Remove every personal item from the car.

11) Once you've sold it, take the cash, fill out the Bill of Sale (noting the sale is AS IS), and snap a pic of the buyer's driver's license. If your state has a legal Release of Liability form, fill that out, too.

Both cars sold to the first person who came to test drive it. I spent about 30 minutes answering emails total for each sale, and we weren't pestered by CL buffoons calling at 6 am, or berating me for the sale price (yes, this has happened to us twice before, when we had listed phone numbers). :annoyed

Why would I bother with CL?

To give you an idea of the difference in selling it yourself: the car I sold in October 2019 was a 2010 Lexus RX350. It had been very well-cared for, but had extremely high mileage (250k+ miles). I had all service records, and had maintained it impeccably. The dealer offered me $4500 as a trade in, and I sold it for $8k a week later via CL.
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firebirdparts
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by firebirdparts »

tennisplyr wrote: Thu Jan 12, 2023 7:17 am Would you say that Autotrader is one of the better commercial ways to go...I have a 2020 Honda.
I'm not him, but I would think not. Everybody everywhere wants a 2020 Honda, so you could sell it to somebody 1000 miles away, but it doesn't seem necessary. It seems to me you'd want something more oriented to a local sale.

if cars are really cheap in your local area then maybe.
This time is the same
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tennisplyr
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by tennisplyr »

firebirdparts wrote: Mon Jun 05, 2023 3:36 pm
tennisplyr wrote: Thu Jan 12, 2023 7:17 am Would you say that Autotrader is one of the better commercial ways to go...I have a 2020 Honda.
I'm not him, but I would think not. Everybody everywhere wants a 2020 Honda, so you could sell it to somebody 1000 miles away, but it doesn't seem necessary. It seems to me you'd want something more oriented to a local sale.

if cars are really cheap in your local area then maybe.
My '20 Civic hatchback has 14,000 miles on it, was thinking about best way to not deal with the public on a sale.
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Jack FFR1846
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

A couple things are very state dependent.

In Massachusetts, from a dealer, there is no such thing as "as is". Even from private parties, if the car fails inspection, the buyer may be able to return the car.

Also in Mass, there's no release of liability. As the seller, you take the license plate off the car, go online and unregister the car. Done. Your insurance company will immediately get notice. So you can now call them and cancel your insurance. Plates do not stay with the car here. It does make things more difficult for the buyer as they need to fully insure and register the car before they can get a plate or drive it on the road. We don't do temp plates here either with the exception that you have applied for a vanity plate, while waiting for the plate. And those only come from our registry (what we call our DMV).
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dowse
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by dowse »

I haven't seen Carmax mentioned much in this thread. I have sold to them before, knowing that I could likely have gotten more by selling to a private party. I just didn't want to take the risk or do the work. Not worth it to me. They take all of the risk and hassle out of it. They give you a bank check on the spot. Now, I would also get a quote from Carvana.
WoostaGal
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by WoostaGal »

Sandi_k wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:06 pm I've sold my last two cars (and one watercraft) via CraigsList (CL) in recent years. My method:

1) List it using the CL anonymizer email system.

2) DO NOT include a phone number.

3) Post the listing with at least 10 clear pictures: front of car, driver's side, rear bumper, passenger side, driver interior, back seat interior, trunk interior, engine bay, console, and odometer. (Of course, you've washed and waxed it first, so everything gleams, right?!)

4) Go to Edmunds, and copy their listing details of your car's trim level: include things such as wood shift knob, leather-wrapped dash, JBL speakers, sport suspension, whatever. Note any upgrades.

5) Get the private sale price ranges from Edmunds, Kelley, and NADA: list all three ranges in the ad.

6) Make sure the ad listing SUBJECT includes Year, Make, Model, and says: One Owner, All Records, Clean Title, Non-Smoker (assuming this is true). Also note CASH ONLY, sold to "first cash offer in hand." Post the ad on a Thursday or Friday, with a Saturday or Sunday "sale day."

7) Choose a day to show it, and schedule people in 30 minute increments.

8) For those who email you, desperately asking for a phone number, politely decline. When they lowball, politely decline. I ask if they have any questions specific to the car, and the numbskulls quickly move on to someone else.

9) 24 hours before the scheduled "show appointment", email the people you've scheduled with the address of where you'll meet them for the examination of the car. A local police station is a good choice.

10) Prepare by collecting your owner's manual, the key fobs, the pink slip, any extra items such as floor mats, and the Bill of Sale form from your state's DMV. Remove every personal item from the car.

11) Once you've sold it, take the cash, fill out the Bill of Sale (noting the sale is AS IS), and snap a pic of the buyer's driver's license. If your state has a legal Release of Liability form, fill that out, too.
...
Thanks for the great step-by-step summary, Sandi_k. :D Great suggestion on using the local police station to meet.
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Tubes
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Re: I sold my car on Craigslist

Post by Tubes »

SR II wrote: Wed Jan 18, 2023 3:14 am
tennisplyr wrote: Thu Jan 12, 2023 7:17 am
RickBoglehead wrote: Tue Jan 10, 2023 11:03 am I've sold multiple vehicles on Craigslist. Since 2018, I found that there were better avenues, because of vehicle values. Sold a 2018 vehicle to Carvana, back in the day when they paid too much for vehicles. Sold a 2021 to a dealer out of state, who beat all car listing services by thousands of dollars. I found him by listing on Autotrader.com.

There are more than 1/2 dozen car buying sites, you should explore them all. What worked in July may not be top of list in January.

Yes, Craigslist allows the anonymous capability until you're ready to transfer title. I've sold hundreds of things on CL and only a handful of people have any idea of more than my first name.

I have sold a handful of items on FB. It lacks the anonymity, and is full of spammers / ripoff artists. I list very little of value there, I did list a car but it got nothing in terms of valid inquiries.

Many people don't have the street smarts to do more than simply trade a vehicle in, and that's fine - for them.
Would you say that Autotrader is one of the better commercial ways to go...I have a 2020 Honda.
I've sold cars about a half dozen cars myself over the past 20 years through autotader.com. It worked really well for me and I always got my price. A couple of them were freshly bought off lease (made a great profit on a three year old Honda Civic, BTW) and a couple were oldies. The last one was about five years ago though. Costs more than craigslist to list them, but also seemed to get more serious buyers and not just resellers. At least that was the case in my area.

I don't know that I would sell a car myself now. There seem to be so darn many scammers out there!
Earlier this year I bought a private sale car from Autotrader. We used their "Private Seller Exchange" (PSX) process. PSX is a company they bought, formerly named "TRED."

What I liked is that there was a vetting process to both the buyer and seller. PSX takes on the liability of a fake title, etc. They can also act as an escrow agent (at a charge to the buyer) so all the money can be exchanged online. PSX will even finance and provide warranties to the buyer, if they want.

As a buyer, I got a temporary plate from an out of state agency. That at least made me legal while waiting for the title to exchange.

I would try this as a seller. I asked my seller about scam buyers, he said there were none, but it also didn't stop dealers from bugging him.
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