If you're looking for how do you sell a car, you need to understand your options, evaluate your vehicle, prepare all paperwork, give the vehicle ready, ask for a reasonable price, create an advertisement, show your car, negotiate the price, and get paid.
⚠️ If It's Broken, Don't Fix It - Get Paid Cash for Your Vehicle ⚠️
Whether you are looking for some extra cash to pay off your loan or to purchase a brand new vehicle, selling your old car is a great decision; However, if you are a beginner, you need to spend a good amount of time understanding “how do you sell a car.”
There are plenty of online tips and tricks for selling cars privately or online.
Determining the best way to sell a car yourself depends heavily on your goals and needs. It also depends on your vehicle's type and condition.
Whether you are looking for the most money out of your car or the safest method to sell your vehicle, you will always need to follow certain steps that we will highlight in this article.
This article does not only help new inexperienced car sellers; It also puts together a clean list of step by step things to take care of to sell your car successfully, smoothly, without dealing with any hassle while getting the most money.
How do you sell a car?
Although it might sound a little complicated to sell a car, the process can be as simple as selling any other useful item only if you follow certain steps.
The great news is that there are plenty of available online and offline ways to sell your car. However, with this massive number of interested buyers, you can easily get involved in many car selling scams that could put you in a lot of complications.
So, “What should I do when selling a car?”
Here is the secret recipe for selling your car according to automotive experts:
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Step#1: Determine your options
If you are no in the world of the used car markets, you first need to know the best places to sell cars:
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Friends or family members
An easy option for you to get rid of your vehicle is through a family member or a friend. You can search for detailed tips about how to sell a car to a friend online.
The one drawback about selling your car to the front is that you might not get the best offer, especially if you feel shy asking for a higher price.
It might also be all on you to deal with necessary paperwork because your friend might not have that experience.
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Online retailers
One of the fastest and easiest ways is to look for the best ways to sell a car online. There are plenty of online retailers who are interested in buying your vehicle like:
- Craigslist sell my car
- CarMax sold my car
- CarGurus
- Cars.com
- Autotrader
- Carvana
- Vroom
- Kelley Blue Book instant cash offer
While online retailers can connect you to millions of interested buyers, not all of them provide you with free online options. Plus, it might take a decent amount of time before finding the right buyer that could go up to a couple of months.
There are other tips for selling a car privately that you could also check out to provide you with a detailed answer for “How do I sell my car privately?”
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Dealerships
Dealerships are considered one of the safest ways of selling your car because they usually are experienced and can take care of old people's work without any hassle.
However, if you're looking for the most money for your car, dealerships might not be your best option because they usually underestimate your vehicle and provide you with a lower offer.
Dealerships can be handy, especially if you're looking to buy a new vehicle to trade in your old car and put its value towards your new vehicle. This way, you have fewer monthly payments to deal with.
If you decided to go with dealerships, there is plenty of discussion about it by several automotive experts that we discussed in our article “how to sell a car at a dealership.”
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Cash for cars
If you're looking for “selling old cars,” your options can be slightly different. One of the best ways of getting some money out of this old car is through cash for cars programs.
Although we've talked in detail about how does cash for cars work, it involves a private junk car buyer provide you with an offer that is usually generated instantly to get your vehicle removed fast.
The great thing about junk car buyers is that the grantee took out by your car no matter what. However, some people might hesitate to contact junk car buyers because they think that they only buy old cars. This is not the case.
For example, Cash Cars Buyer is willing to buy your car and beat you up to $15,000 if you have the right vehicle.
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Step#2: Do your pre-selling homework
Once you decided on where to sell your car, it's time now to check “what paperwork do I need to sell my car?”
In general, you will need your vehicle's title, where the potential buyer will sign and transfer ownership. Some states require a certain form of a bill of sale that you can download from your local DMV website.
We advise that you visit your local DMV website and check for additional requirements to get the exact list of paperwork needed.
If you decided to go the online routes, you need to understand “what paperwork is required when selling a car privately” because you might be dealing with many potential buyers who don't have any clue about what is “a bill of sale for selling a car,” for example.
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Step#3: Prepare your car
While you are trying to sell a used vehicle, the car does not necessarily have to look used.
If you spend some time and effort taking care of small issues in your car, can you significantly boost your offer?
The first impression in the car selling process is crucial to getting the price you're asking for.
Wind, for example, you give your vehicle wax before selling it, you are indicating that you're taking good care of what's under the hood, and this way, the potential buyer can get encouraged to buy your car.
Also, you need to keep a balance between what is considered OK to deal before selling versus what's too much.
For instance, if you're trying to sell an old car with more than 100,000 miles on it, it might not be worth spending a lot of time repairing minor stuff because, anyways, your offer will not be huge.
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Step#4: Ask for a reasonable price
Once your vehicle is ready, it's time to determine how much we can get out of it.
Your first step here is to evaluate your car through online tools like Kelley Blue Book instant cash offer or Cash Cars Buyer free instant online offer.
Once you estimate how much your vehicle is worth, you can set a reasonable price between the minimum and maximum recommended numbers.
Keep in mind that some online tools might overestimate your vehicle, and it's your job to subtract any major problems that you know for sure in your car.
Another way to get an accurate estimate of your vehicle is to take it to a professional mechanic who can tell you exactly how much you can get out of this car.
Be honest with yourself, don't overestimate the vehicle, and ask for a very high offer because it can make it very challenging to find the right buyer.
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Step#5: Create your advertisement
Everything is ready, and it's now the time to spread the word and create your advertisement.
If you are brand new in-car selling, you might need to start with selling car ad examples. There are plenty on the Internet that you can use and start with.
In general, you want to make your ad as simple and as brief as possible while covering all the major information.
Since people tend to look at pictures more than reading text, you also recommend that you provide high-quality pictures covering all the details about your car. You want to highlight the good and bad about your car because if you're not honest about your vehicle, you waste your time and the buyer's time. After all, he will come and see all problems at the end of the day.
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Step#6: Show your car safely
Once you land on a potential buyer, it's time now to show your vehicle safely while taking all selling car precautions.
You want to select a place that is in a public area with plenty of people. A good place would be a mall parking lot or a bank parking lot where there might be some videotaping if something goes wrong.
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Step#7: Allow the buyer to test drive your car
Another important car selling precaution that you have to be prepared for is related to the test drive.
Old buyers will be interested in testing driving your vehicle, and to be cautious, you can bring one of your friends and never allow the buyer to test drive your vehicle alone.
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Step#8: Let the buyer inspect your car (optional)
Don't be surprised if the buyer requested a prepurchase inspection. If you hesitated to allow the buyer to inspect your vehicle, it could indicate major problems in your vehicle.
It's very common for the buyer to bring his professional mechanic to look at your vehicle.
Thus, it's very important to be upfront with the buyer and let him know about any major problem in your car in the beginning.
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Step#9: Negotiate the price and sign all necessary paperwork
Once the buyer is happy with the vehicle, he will not immediately accept your offer, and there will be some time for negotiation.
A good suggestion for you is to understand your vehicle's real value and have specific reasons in the back of your head about why the buyer would pay the number you're asking for.
Allow the buyer to feel that you're choosing a fair price for both of you, and don't be stubborn about getting the same number you're asking for.
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Step#10: receive your payment
Now it's the time to determine “What is the safest way to receive payment when selling a car?“
When it comes to the payment method, it's always recommended that you ask for cash payments.
Cash payments are the safest and easiest way of getting paid when selling a used car online or offline.
The best scenario is always when “selling a car privately for cash.” Otherwise, you might deal with cheques bouncing back from your bank account or long waiting time phone calls.
How to sell a car: the bottom line
This article provides you with a detailed answer for how to sell a car. You need to understand your vehicle's value, know your options, prepare your vehicle, get all paperwork ready, find the buyer, advertise, allow for a test drive and prepurchase inspection, finalizing the deal, and getting paid.
If you don't like to deal with the hassle in the car selling process, your best option would be to reach out to Cash Cars Buyer.
We provide “instant cash offers for cars” online and for free! We guarantee to buy your vehicle and pay you the top dollars while removing your car free of charge and safely.
Our process is very straightforward. All it takes is just a quick phone call with our team describing your car, receiving our instant offer, reviewing the offer and accepting it, scheduling a pickup time and location, getting your vehicle removed, and receive your cash payment!
To get more details about our process, give our team a call at 866-924-4608 or visit our home page and click on the free instant online offer. Our process is explained in detail in this link.