Sell a Car on Craigslist
10 Tips for Selling a Car on Craigslist
It’s always interesting to hear experiences from others when selling their car on craigslist. So I have gone around the Internet to gather the best info for how to sell a car on craigslist.
1) Have your title and other paperwork on hand
Nearly everyone looking to buy a car on craigslist will ask to see the title and registration before purchasing the car. You will also need to check what else is required by your state when selling a car.
2) What is the value of the car?
Some of the best resources available to find the value of you car are KellyBlueBook.com and Edmunds.com. The nice part about Kelly is that they give you a fair and excellent price for the car. So be mindful that if you car has several dents, the price should fall under the NOT so excellent condition.
3) Remove personal items, clean the car, and take some photos
Take photos of the car on a nice day. Take interior and exterior shots, and take more than 2! Remember, pictures are going to be the first thing potential buyers will look at. Make the car look great! But don’t mislead the buyers either. Take some time to clean the car as well. Take a vacuum and some Windex, and the car will look great.
4) Selling price
Remember that nearly every buyer is going to try and knock you down in price. In that case, make sure you mark up the car from what you plan to sell it at in order to give you some wiggle room. It’s common to mark the car up at least 15%.
5) Post the ad early Saturday, or late Friday night.
Based on market research, most people do their actual shopping Friday night, or early Saturday morning. Realistically, you are meant to post new craigslist ads every three days.
6) Ad Content
In your ad, it’s a good idea to include the Make, Model, Year and a full history of maintenance, accidents, etc. It’s up to you if you would like people to reach you by phone or email. For selling cars on craigslist I recommend adding your phone number since it can help speed up the process, and many people would rather call than send an email.
7) Test Drives
Many potential buyers will want to take the car on a test drive. Make sure they have a valid drivers license and you are comfortable letting them get into the car. And after each test drive be prepared to sell the car and cancel any other appointments.
8 ) Filling out the Paperwork
Once you have received the payment you will need to sign over the title, fill out any necessary state paperwork, and the bill of sale. It’s a good idea to make a copy for yourself before giving the originals to the buyer. Also make sure to fill out the Motor Vehicle Transfer Notification online so that you will not be liable for any future issues with the car.
9) Contact your car insurance agency
You will need to cancel your current policy on the sold car with your insurance agency. Depending on your agency, you should be prorated for the remainder of the month’s fees.
10) Get to the bank!
Put your money in the bank! Or go Vegas! And be happy you were able to sell a car on craigslist!
Craigslist Used Cars
Craigslist is a classified ads website that is sectioned by local regions, and has thousands of used car ads. This is useful in car hunting because you can drill down to the county you want to buy a used car in, and then put in a search term to narrow the local results even further. First, go to craigslist.org and pick the state you want to look in, then the region on the sidebar. There is a “for sale” directory (craigslist doesn’t capitalize), and look for the “cars+trucks” link.
The “cars+trucks” link brings you to a warning screen to read about common scams on craigslist. Take a minute to go over it. You will see a menu on three ways to view car and truck ads. You can view “all”, or you can view by dealer only or by private owner only. Once you click on one of those links, you can narrow the search by a few factors.
The “search for” text box is for any search term you want to put in, to narrow the list of results. For example, here you could put in “Mustang” to see only Mustangs. The “in” pull down menu tells you the type of sellers that will show. Check a radio button that will search the title or the entire post. Check a box to pick only ads with images. Finally, you can enter a minimum and/or a maximum price.
Tabs at the top should be the names of the counties in the region you are searching. Clicking on one of these tabs will narrow the results to that county only, so you do not have to include the county name in the “search for” box.
Once you find ads you want to explore further, you will see two ways of contacting a seller. Typically, phone numbers are included in the ad, but sometimes you will see only an email address. Most ads are straightforward with more than one picture and a phone number to call.
It’s important to prepare when contacting a seller. Look up the blue book value of the car first to ensure the used car is reasonably priced and to gauge any room for price negotiation. Ask the seller if they have maintenance records and how flexible they are on the price. Cars with comprehensive service records are a much safer buy. If you aren’t satisfied with the answers to these questions, move on.
Once you hear the answers you want on price and service records, set up appointments with the owners for visits and test drives. If possible, take someone else knowledgeable about cars if you aren’t. Look the car over thoroughly, in and out. Check that the promised service records exist and confirm the price. Take it for a test drive to make sure everything looks and sounds normal. Get the VIN so you can run a car report like CarFax, if you are interested in taking the deal further. Thank the seller for their time and let them know you have a few other cars to look at before you make a decision. Let them know when you will get back to them.
When you have decided which car you want to purchase, and you contacted the seller and came to a final purchase price, it’s time to close the deal. Make sure you have the forms from your local motor vehicle department, to get tags and transfer title. Call your auto insurance company and arrange for insurance. Meet the seller, pay to close the deal and take possession of the car, being sure to get a receipt for your purchase and the signed title.