Selling private instead of trading

[Henke]

My dealer gave me an ok trade price for my Tesla. I got better offers with a private sale obviously. I have a buyer who seems legit but have never sold a car privately for this much to someone I didn’t know. All his details, phone number, addresses etc check out and it looks like he has a bespoke used car business. He is driving 400 miles from SoCal to NorCal to buy my car which seems weird but in talking to other car people, several seem to have done this or sold to someone who has done similar.

Any advice on the safest way to do the transaction? Currently this is my plan, would love for people to pick holes in it:

1. Meet at his bank to draw a cashier’s check or wire transfer to my account. Witness this process in person.
2. Go to my bank which is about 5 mins from his branch and deposit the check. He will also transfer some of the money as he has an account with my bank but doesn’t have the full amount, maybe just under half.
3. Once 1&2 are complete, fill out liability waiver online and handover keys/title.

Thoughts? Thank you.

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[TaycanCook]

If there is a wire into your account, that's as good as cash. If you are at the bank while the cashier check is being drawn up and verify with the teller that it's valid, it's as good as cash, so you don't need to deposit it to be comfortable w/ the legitimacy of the transaction.

At which point, you are good to do the bill of sale, title transfer, etc. Hand over the keys and uber yourself somewhere you want to be.

As to wanting to go to your bank, if that's what makes you comfortable, and the buyer is cool with that, do it. It'll give you the peace of mind. Just saying that it probably is not necessary.

 

[armanslr]

Maybe you should look into Tred? They will handle the transaction and be the "escrow" for you to make it easy.

But selling a Tesla private party in California is easy. List it on TMC for sale forum, wire or cashiers check and you are good.

 

[fgwinn]

My dealer gave me an ok trade price for my Tesla. I got better offers with a private sale obviously....

Here in Pennsylvania my trade-in offer was within $100 of the appraisal value calculated on Edmunds for a 3-year old Model 3 with 29K miles. I got 84% of my original purchase price (after $7500 tax credit) and that does not include the additional Sales Tax credit on the trade-in value. I was thinking I should send Elon a thank you note for raising the price of the Model 3 by $8K this year. BTW, Tesla offered $7000 less for the Model 3 against a Model S purchase. Selling the Model 3 privately was never a consideration given the excellent trade-in offer.

 

[Prit]

I literally just sold my Model Y Performance today. I analyzed trade-in and tax offset versus sell abs take cash. Here is an overview of my considerations.

Trade-in:
1. Trade-in provides a sales tax savings of (trade allowance * tax rate)
2. My car doesn’t arrive until late January (per TYD) and I don’t know what the trade-in offer will be then.
3. If the new EV incentive passes (Build Back Better) and Tesla regains a $7,500 tax credit, my Tesla will fall by some or all of the amount of the credit.
4. The offer I got for a trade was somewhat low relative with the price I could sell for now. I multiplied the trade-in offer by 1+tax rate to include the potential tax benefit. Again, this offer was today and may have changed in January, but was still lower or about the same as selling today.

Selling today:
1. I get cash in today’s dollars with no guess work.
2. I save two months of payments and insurance while I wait.
3. I remove the risk of accelerated depreciation if Tesla regains the tax credit, which looks very likely. Remember, buyers will prioritize untitled cars to get the credit themselves and used Tesla prices will likely need to fall to remain competitive.

In addition to your other considerations, I think you should weigh those pros and cons as you consider sell now versus trade later. Good luck!

 

[285kph]

If there is a wire into your account, that's as good as cash. If you are at the bank while the cashier check is being drawn up and verify with the teller that it's valid, it's as good as cash, so you don't need to deposit it to be comfortable w/ the legitimacy of the transaction.

? not much to add. Last time I sold a car privately we went to my bank and I handed over title/key once the bank wire hit my account.

With the tax offset in MA, I'd want to get ~ 10% more in a private sale vs trade-in to go through the potential hassle. For the Taycan I dropped off my 2014 C4s (and a few $k) and drove off with the new car.

 

[kort]

My dealer gave me an ok trade price for my Tesla. I got better offers with a private sale obviously. I have a buyer who seems legit but have never sold a car privately for this much to someone I didn’t know. All his details, phone number, addresses etc check out and it looks like he has a bespoke used car business. He is driving 400 miles from SoCal to NorCal to buy my car which seems weird but in talking to other car people, several seem to have done this or sold to someone who has done similar.

Any advice on the safest way to do the transaction? Currently this is my plan, would love for people to pick holes in it:

1. Meet at his bank to draw a cashier’s check or wire transfer to my account. Witness this process in person.
2. Go to my bank which is about 5 mins from his branch and deposit the check. He will also transfer some of the money as he has an account with my bank but doesn’t have the full amount, maybe just under half.
3. Once 1&2 are complete, fill out liability waiver online and handover keys/title.

Thoughts? Thank you.

check out this site, they will facilitate the transaction
I used them when selling my model 3
www.tred.com

 

[Henke]

check out this site, they will facilitate the transaction
I used them when selling my model 3
www.tred.com

Thanks. I was wondering if there was an escrow service for private car sales.

 

[schad]

It's common for used motorhomes to trade hands in the private market for six figures, sometimes seven. Both parties at the seller's bank/CU, buyer calls his bank to initiate the wire transfer, seller gets written confirmation from seller's bank that the wire has been received and deposited into his account, seller signs over the title (notarized/witnessed by bank), buyer drives home with title.

There are some (RV) dealers who will offer this service for a flat fee. Basically just streamlines the above process, and if the wire takes a couple days to clear into your account -- the bank gets the money instantly, but that doesn't mean they put it in your account right away! -- the dealer will hold the title and mail it out when they release the money. Sort of escrow lite. Maybe some Porsche dealers will do this too. I think some CUs will do it.

Some sellers are a little more paranoid and set up a temporary account purely to receive the funds from the transaction. Once the money's in the temp account, they transfer it out to wherever they want it and close the temp account. Once the money's transferred out and the temp account is closed, they'll ship out the title.

 

[Henke]

As a follow up, the guy had an account on Chase so I had him wire the amount to his account. We then went to the branch and transferred the cash to my Chase account in branch.

Completed online liability release, bill of sale and handed over title. Factory reset car and switched Tesla ownership to his account which happened immediately.

All in all, having accounts at the same bank made the process a piece of cake.

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