how to deal with potential buyers/timewasters

Jim79

I am planning on selling my car privately and have never done so before. What is the best way to deal with potential buyers and weed out the time wasters?

also

where are the best places to advertise a vehicle?

also

If we get to a sale what is the safest way to handle a purchase, cash cheques etc?

Miamiheat

I haven't been in Ireland long, but Carzone.ie and Donedeal.ie seem to be popular. One advice based on years of living in different countries is to deal in cash, and by preference to literally do it at your bank so that you may lodge the money and not walk out of the transaction with cash on you. Dont meet in a secluded parking lot. Good luck.

PS: what car is it out of curiosity?

Plug

Carzone is probably better, donedeal is full of little boyracers who haven't a clue and WILL waste your time. Can you put it on a local paper as well. What kind of car is it?

Jim79

Its a 08 vectra 1.9 CDTi 120BHP.

User Friendly

Jim79 wrote: »

I am planning on selling my car privately and have never done so before. What is the best way to deal with potential buyers and weed out the time wasters?

also

where are the best places to advertise a vehicle?

also

If we get to a sale what is the safest way to handle a purchase, cash cheques etc?

I wouldnt accept a cheque from anyone,or a bankers draft for that matter,thats just for me.

Donedeal gets a lot of hits,there are plenty free ad papers on the market so check them out,for around 10euro you can place an ad in your local paper.

give a popular number to ring,like an 087, lots of people will phone this as its free for a lot of vodaphone users.

You must have patience and treat every single caller with respect and as a potential buyer,remember they have 1000's of cars they can buy,you on the otherhand have only 1 car to sell!

Tell the truth about your car when asked a question,have any service records remembered,know how much the yearly road tax is when asked,and how long it is valid for,same with NCT.
Have your reason for selling it,Offer a testdrive
(rem they must have a licence with them if they do drive it,be clear on whos insurance they are driving under)

Finally,be realistic in your pricing of the car,if your asked on the phone are you negotiable,say you are but not by much, if you want as close to the asking,then say this.


By the way,there are plenty sellers out there who waste Buyers time by describing their car as the best thing since sliced bread when they are balls of scrap,again,just find the balance and be realistic. best of luck

Tomebagel

Plug wrote: »

Carzone is probably better, donedeal is full of little boyracers who haven't a clue and WILL waste your time. Can you put it on a local paper as well. What kind of car is it?

Donedeal is 10x times cheaper and has a waaaaaay larger audience then that other over priced waste of money.

Tefral

Having sold a few cars heres my 2c

- Clean the car top to bottom, take it to a nice location and take plenty of clear pictures. Take pictures of the car from every angle, the boot, the engine bay, the interior. Take pictures of any extras etc and take a shot of the car that gets as much in as possible to have this as your starting picture.

- Go to sites like Donedeal.ie and Adverts and pop up an advertisement with the best of the pictures you have taken. Thats why its important to take loads because when you get back some may actually look crap.

- Put up the ad with as much detail as possible. I mean everything. Some people buying cars dont know the basics of them before they start looking at the ads. List any extras and list recent service items, like new tyres if applicable.

- Look at other ads on donedeal.ie and get a feel for the going rate of the car. Dont go too cheap but if all the others are hovering around say €7000, maybe list yours as €6900. If you feel its worth more than the others because of extras or what not then dont be afraid to allow for this.

- Lots of people have "no textmessages" etc in their ads, I once was like this, but I sold 2 cars through text messages, one for me and the other the girlfriends car. I also bought my last car by instigating by text message. I will however ring the person, you learn alot about the seller by talking to them on the phone and I will say it seems only the most genuine ring up about a car.

- Its a buyers market, but there is a chronic shortage or proper well minded second hand cars, dont forget this.

- Leave yourself open to be contacted by as many means possible, via email and Phone.

- When it comes to selling the car, always arrange to meet the potential buyer in a mutual independent location never at your own home.

- If the owner buys it, get them to sign the log book and send it off yourself, i dont know how many times ive heard of people not actually sending off the log book for weeks and fines etc landing in the door.

- If your dealing with money always deal in cash only. Go back to your car and count it with the person one on one. Theres no friends with money

cronin_j

cronin_j wrote: »

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- When it comes to selling the car, always arrange to meet the potential buyer in a mutual independent location never at your own home.

- If the owner buys it, get them to sign the log book and send it off yourself, i dont know how many times ive heard of people not actually sending off the log book for weeks and fines etc landing in the door.

lots of folk will want to meet the seller at the address the car is registered to

Tefral

RoverJames wrote: »

lots of folk will want to meet the seller at the address the car is registered to

Id never sell a car outside my own front door so in my advice id never recommend doing something i wouldnt do personally. If something ever went wrong they could be back bitching etc.

fonecrusher1

Never talk about reducing the price on the phone. Ive sold a good few cars over the years & every time you'll get someone phoning up & asking how much would i take off the asking price. I say the same thing every time; come take a look at the car & then we'll talk money.

Max Power1

RoverJames wrote: »

lots of folk will want to meet the seller at the address the car is registered to

+1

If a seller doesnt/cant/wont meet at his house I would assume fraud and walk.

dnme

cronin_j wrote: »

Id never sell a car outside my own front door so in my advice id never recommend doing something i wouldnt do personally. If something ever went wrong they could be back bitching etc.

I wouldn't buy a car unless it was at the sellers home. It's a basic precaution recommended by everyone.

Atlantic Dawn

cronin_j wrote: »

Id never sell a car outside my own front door so in my advice id never recommend doing something i wouldnt do personally. If something ever went wrong they could be back bitching etc.

Well they wouldn't exactly need to engage the services of Magnum P.I. to find out your address seeing as it's on the logbook that they will see prior to purchase

Max Power1

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Well they wouldn't exactly need to engage the services of Magnum P.I. to find out your address seeing as it should be on the logbook that they will see prior to purchase

FYP

The only times that it wouldnt be (well, not the real address anyway) is if the seller was trying to scam you. These are normally the cases where sellers wont meet at their house!

Doom

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Well they wouldn't exactly need to engage the services of Magnum P.I. to find out your address seeing as it's on the logbook that they will see prior to purchase

Its on a detachable part....so you maybe not see address

JerCotter7

cronin_j wrote: »

- If the owner buys it, get them to sign the log book and send it off yourself, i dont know how many times ive heard of people not actually sending off the log book for weeks and fines etc landing in the door.

Last car I bought the PO had the log book signed from the guy who owned it before him with no date or anything filled in. Then I took about 5 months to sign it and send it off. So I would definitely send it off myself if I was selling a car.

Owen

I'd always try to build up a bit of rapport, but the most important thing I would advise is if you have a lowest price which you're willing to give away over the phone, be firm with it. If 11 is the lowest you'd take for example, say to the guy "Look, I'd love to do a deal with you, you've asked me my lowest price and it's 11, so there's no point in coming near the car unless you've got 11 in your pocket". It's a line in the sand statement, it's not rude, it's not off putting (As long as you've said it nicely and built a bit of rapport first), but what it will do is weed out the wheat from the chaff, and anyone arriving to your door will probably want to buy that day provided the car is what you say it is.

cronin_j

cronin_j wrote: »

Id never sell a car outside my own front door so in my advice id never recommend doing something i wouldnt do personally. If something ever went wrong they could be back bitching etc.

JUst out of interest have you sold many cars ?

Tefral

RoverJames wrote: »

JUst out of interest have you sold many cars ?

5

FAir play, i have only ever shifted 2 not from my home, one of them was really strange, the chap didn't even test drive it and we met in a shopping centre car park for the viewing and a few days later to do the deal.

Tefral

RoverJames wrote: »

FAir play, i have only ever shifted 2 not from my home, one of them was really strange, the chap didn't even test drive it and we met in a shopping centre car park for the viewing and a few days later to do the deal.

Something i found strange was 2 of them i managed to sell at night time. I dont know how anyone can buy a car at nighttime.

The home thing is just a personal choice, i just dont like someone knowing my exact home location. There have been threads on here where people asked "ive just bought a car and i didnt spot this can i get my money back". I just dont want someone banging down my door if they are not happy about something.

Anytime I have sold a car i told all the details good and bad in the ad or on the phone. I emplored the 2 people looking at the cars at night to look again the next day or something. The last car is sold was a Ford Focus which had a fibreglass kit, when I found out the buyer was only learning to drive i told her that this wasnt a car someone shoulg have as a first car as there is minding in kits. I hate people saying "Its Mint" peoples definition of "Mint" and mine are obviously different. I viewed 7 or 8 Integra Type R's before I settled on the only real good one out of the bunch.

dnme

What about the insurance issue for test drives. I reckon in reality, more or less no one is covered when they test drive a car during a private sale.

If you were a seller, Would this be a deal breaker? I just know from experience that if I raise the issue and insist on insurance for test drives, I might tend to loose the buyer. Just wondering what your thoughts are folks?

Hotwheels

dnme wrote: »

What about the insurance issue for test drives. I reckon in reality, more or less no one is covered when they test drive a car during a private sale.

If you were a seller, Would this be a deal breaker? I just know from experience that if I raise the issue and insist on insurance for test drives, I might tend to loose the buyer. Just wondering what your thoughts are folks?

Doing a temp sub for Insurance is no bother, and imo, will only put off the time waster.

If your car is worth a good few €€€'s and the buyer is genuinely interested, they won't have a problem transferring their insurance. Subject to cc that is...

You have to protect your investment after all...ohh ya don't take their word for it, ring their insurance company yerself, they might just be ringing a mate..:)

dnme

Hotwheels wrote: »

Doing a temp sub for Insurance is no bother, and imo, will only put off the time waster.

If your car is worth a good few €€€'s and the buyer is genuinely interested, they won't have a problem transferring their insurance. Subject to cc that is...

You have to protect your investment after all...

You're right and that is the ideal but . .
This is Ireland. I just don't think it's done as the norm. I know people would look at me as if I had two heads if I asked them to transfer / insure themselves on my car before a test drive.

Hotwheels

dnme wrote: »

You're right and that is the ideal but . .
This is Ireland. I just don't think it's done as the norm. I know people would look at me as if I had two heads if I asked them to transfer / insure themselves on my car before a test drive.

The way I look at is, its my car, my money, and if it ends up being damaged. It'll be my insurance/ pocket that gets to repair it..along with a shed load of aggro...

Making sure a person is fully insured to drive on the road is the norm, even if it is a test drive...

pete4130

If it isn't at the cars registered address I walk.

First car I bought I met the seller at "his" house. He drives up and says its his "brothers" house. Took car for a spin, not comfortable with this guy, no tax on the car, its his "wifes" car for the past 6 months but she didn't drive it because she didn't like it, he bought it off his "neighbour" and was still registered in his "neighbours" name even though he had the vehicle reg docs but he could get his "neighbour to sign it all over...

No chance I told him. Got home, googled his number and plenty of cars for sale with his number. Turns out he was a shoisty illegal car trader. Thats my experience.

When I finally did buy my first car spent an hour in the guys house drinking tea with him and his wife. No problems.

Del2005

cronin_j wrote: »

Id never sell a car outside my own front door so in my advice id never recommend doing something i wouldnt do personally. If something ever went wrong they could be back bitching etc.

If someone really wanted to it's easy to find you're address.

If viewing a car I wouldn't mind meeting in a neutral place, but handing over cash will be done at the registered address(then to bank if requested).

.17hmr

User Friendly wrote: »

I wouldnt accept a cheque from anyone,or a bankers draft for that matter,thats just for me.

so just lets say you had a car for sale and i rang you up and said i have a cheque from the credit union with your name on it for the amount that you were asking would you accept it?

Padraig Mor

No way would I meet a buyer straight off at my house - put simply, you don't know who they are. However, if they are interested in proceeding further after test drive, then move things to the house.

User Friendly

.17hmr wrote: »

User Friendly wrote: »

I wouldnt accept a cheque from anyone,or a bankers draft for that matter,thats just for me.

so just lets say you had a car for sale and i rang you up and said i have a cheque from the credit union with your name on it for the amount that you were asking would you accept it?

Exactly as i said,there is no way i would accept a cheque either personal or from the credit union or a bank draft as they could be forged so easily.

No cash,no sale.

BnB

cronin_j wrote: »

Having sold a few cars heres my 2c
....

Don't want to quote all of it, but I'd pretty much agree with all Cronin's advice.

Particularly, RE the text messages. I am always browsing Donedeal just looking at cars. I can't get over the ammount of gombeens who have "No text messages" etc on their ads. Do they want to sell the freggin car or not....? If I was selling a car, I wouldn't care how anyone contacted me first. Like Cronin, I sold a car before Christmas by Text Message. Yer man texted me for a few days with a few questions. We arranged to meet up by text and the first time I actually talked to him was when I met him and he bought it.

The only thing would add is about pricing. Be realistic with your pricing. What a lot of people do, is they add a few quid to the amount they want for the car to leave room for bargaining. i.e. They want to sell a car for €7k so they advertise it for €8k.

I would disagree with this. If you want to get €7k for it, then advertise it for €7k and be prepared to stick to your guns. You will get more interest than the ad for €8k and although people may come to look at it expecting to get a few quid off, if the car is in good nick and you are prepared to stick to your guns you will reel them in.

.17hmr

User Friendly wrote: »

.17hmr wrote: »

Exactly as i said,there is no way i would accept a cheque either personal or from the credit union or a bank draft as they could be forged so easily.

No cash,no sale.

i just thought that a a credit union cheque would be a lot better than any bank draft or personal cheque,ah well thanks for you answer

bazz26

BnB wrote: »

Don't want to quote all of it, but I'd pretty much agree with all Cronin's advice.

Particularly, RE the text messages. I am always browsing Donedeal just looking at cars. I can't get over the ammount of gombeens who have "No text messages" etc on their ads. Do they want to sell the freggin car or not....? If I was selling a car, I wouldn't care how anyone contacted me first. Like Cronin, I sold a car before Christmas by Text Message. Yer man texted me for a few days with a few questions. We arranged to meet up by text and the first time I actually talked to him was when I met him and he bought it.

Maybe it worked for you but I don't share the same sentiments. I sold my car privately before Christmas and got a few gombeens with plenty of time and mobile phone credit, texting me who I knew had no interest in my car. One person even had to ask me in mid text conversation what make it was again. :rolleyes: Also talking to the seller, if even for 5 mins over phone, can tell you alot more about the car than any text message imo. That and I totally hate having to try and decode text speak.

BTW I sold my car my car to the first person who called me 2 days after putting the advert up, he asked a few informative questions, met up to test drive it and bought it.

BnB wrote: »

The only thing would add is about pricing. Be realistic with your pricing. What a lot of people do, is they add a few quid to the amount they want for the car to leave room for bargaining. i.e. They want to sell a car for €7k so they advertise it for €8k.

I would disagree with this. If you want to get €7k for it, then advertise it for €7k and be prepared to stick to your guns. You will get more interest than the ad for €8k and although people may come to look at it expecting to get a few quid off, if the car is in good nick and you are prepared to stick to your guns you will reel them in.

Again I wouldn't necessarily agree about pricing it at exactly the price you want for it. Joe Public expects the seller to price it above what they actually want for the car so they will expect some movement on the price. Of course pricing a car a grand or more above what you want is daft as very few expect to bargin you down by that amount.

dr.fuzzenstein

Well, if they pay by cheque, no problem, take the cheque and after it clears (not after the money has gone in, cause it goes in immediately now) they can have the car.
Check with the bank that the money has deffo gone through.
I wouldn't bother with phrases like "No time wasters/test pilots/no cash no drive", that's just as much nonsense like "drives like a dream/genuine reason for selling".
Only put in info about the car, tax/NCT, mileage, extras, price and contact.
Only put in facts, only put in good pictures.
When people call, try to close them down fast (but not hasty), give them the details and ask them when they want a test drive, not if, when.
That's a fairly definite question and forces them to commit.
When they arrive have the car ready and clean, point out all the good bits, show them everything they want to see, go for test drive and then close down the sale.
That's always the (perceived) hardest bit, but it's not so bad, you only need to get over the first hurdle.
Always ask open ended questions, anything that requires more than a "yes" or "no", cause it forces them to give up information.
Stick to your guns with the price, don't get bullied, remember, they want that car and (of course) you have just what they're looking for.
But don't blow the sale for the sake of a fiver either.;)
As for time wasters, you will always get them in every situation in life, so just don't worry about it.

Peadar_85

dnme wrote: »

What about the insurance issue for test drives. I reckon in reality, more or less no one is covered when they test drive a car during a private sale.

Would open insurance not cover this? I know not everybody would have this but think once you're over 25 & got a full licence then you can legally drive a car with open insurance

bazz26

Regarding payment. I agreed to meet the buyer at the bank and transfered the money from his account to mine. Once the deposit was confirmed by the bank I then handed him the keys and we both went to the nearest post box and dropped the signed log book in it. No messying about with drafts or large amounts of notes.

Tefral

Peadar_85 wrote: »

Would open insurance not cover this? I know not everybody would have this but think once you're over 25 & got a full licence then you can legally drive a car with open insurance

Open drive means anyone can drive your car. 3rd party extension allows you to drive others with their permission.

Del2005

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Well, if they pay by cheque, no problem, take the cheque and after it clears (not after the money has gone in, cause it goes in immediately now) they can have the car.
Check with the bank that the money has deffo gone through.

Even when the money is in your account it can still come out. Your bank will lodge the money after a few days when the cheque has cleared, but it can take a few weeks for the cheque to get back to the issuing bank and if they don't honour the cheque then the money will come out of your account.

The only 3 ways of excepting payment are cash, bank transfer or bank draft. Some people don't want to carry several thousand Euro in cash. The last 2 should only be done during banking hours, so you can call the issuing bank to verify the draft or do the transfer, and for cash buy a counterfeit pen.

Peadar_85 wrote: »

Would open insurance not cover this? I know not everybody would have this but think once you're over 25 & got a full licence then you can legally drive a car with open insurance

Not that many companies offer open drive and when ever I'm looking for insurance letting other people drive my car is way down the list of things I want.

Then there is the issue that if they do crash the car the claim will be against you not them.

Jarren

So..I agreed the price with potencial buyer over the phone last night,took time off from work to accomodate him.He came over this morning to have a look at my car,checked the car inside/out, we went for a test drive...So far so good but when it came to paying for the car he was short a half of money that was agreed the night before:eek: basically told him to p... off

what a timewaster!!!:mad:

dr.fuzzenstein

jarecki1976 wrote: »

So..I agreed the price with potencial buyer over the phone last night,took time off from work to accomodate him.He came over this morning to have a look at my car,checked the car inside/out, we went for a test drive...So far so good but when it came to paying for the car he was short a half of money that was agreed the night before:eek: basically told him to p... off

what a timewaster!!!:mad:

Wow, that sucks!
Why did he bother?
You should have charged him an hourly rate.:eek:

poker--addict

I guys i am looking for a car at the moment, I have mainly been looking privately.

We are in 2011 guys. Plenty of stories in newspapers of adds for private seller and when you go to see car you get a knife pulled on you and your cash taken.

Quite surprised with some attitudes about this. I would be surprised if many people now days would carry cash, unless 6 foot 2 and 17 stone, and that wont protect you if weapon is pulled.

I think 2000 euro is most I would carry to a sale. Even then I would feel very uncomfortable.:(

Raskolnikov

cronin_j wrote: »

- When it comes to selling the car, always arrange to meet the potential buyer in a mutual independent location never at your own home.

If I was buying a second hand car and the owner didn't want to meet me at their home then I would walk away. The implication is immediately apparent; you have a crap motor that you're looking shot of and you don't want the buyer to have any comeback.

poker--addict

Previous post is a valid point, but my personal feeling is you could be a "not so nice character/crinimal/scum..." and i do not want you on my property having a sniff around and sussing place out!!!!

Goes in hand with my opinion of not carry large sum of cash when going to buy a car..many sellers on here would refuse any other payment. Guess some people are more trusting. Check/bank draft leaves a paper trail with details of 2 people and a specific amount of money. Cash doesnt.
If you have a paper trail then so what if i meet you 10 miles from my house?? We can both track each other as a result