Steps to take before privately selling your car
So you’ve decided to sell your car. You made the decision to get rid of Old Faithful and everyone has told you that selling it privately will get you more bang for your buck than if you traded it in.
However, actually getting that right means you need to prepare yourself. You have to be aware of what goes into successfully selling your vehicle.
There’s a lot of money involved in the sale and this means you need to double check your facts and check out your buyers. What’s more, actually determining your car’s value can be difficult. Plus there are different ways of ascertaining the value of the vehicle. However, most importantly, you need to make use of a car book value calculator to establish what the car’s book value is. This will be your basis for finding a fair price for your car.
Of course, there are other factors to take into account. The calculator will look at the make and model of your vehicle, the car’s year and mileage as well as relevant features to mention. However, modifications to the vehicle won’t generally be accounted for. For instance, if you’ve invested in low profile tyres or some custom made mag wheels and you’ll be selling these with the car you’re going to have to do some research about what you can ask for this type of modification. A car book value calculator won’t account for this or any entertainment systems or engine boosts you’ve added to the car.
You must also consider making use of a car book value calculator that is specific to your country. There’s no point in filling in a calculator that’ll spit out the car book value of your vehicle in the UK. So car book value calculators for vehicles in Ireland will give you an incorrect result. In fact, many local financial institutions have calculators or they have consultants that can assist you in finding an accurate value for your car.
There are some other things to consider when you’re preparing your vehicle to advertise and sell.
Fix it
If you know about problems the car has then fix them. Spend the money to make sure that your car’s defects are all sorted out. It’s only right to do this. You must allow your good conscience to take over here. If there are defects that you are unable to resolve before receiving a fair offer on the car then be upfront about it and explain what the problems are. At this point you might need to lower the price. However, after the amount of research you would have just conducted in preparing your price you will know how to fairly bring it down because of issues.
Have your papers in order
There are a lot of documents involved in the car selling process. Don’t wait until the end of the sale to get this sorted out. Your purchaser won’t be impressed and you’ll be in an absolute spin trying to sort through what’s needed urgently. The general rule of thumb is that you will need to have the original (and make copies for yourself if you like) of the maintenance records, the original sale documents showing you are in fact the owner of the vehicle. Possibly one of the most important documents you should sort out urgently is the release of liability which will prevent you, the current owner of the vehicle, from being liable for any damages after the sale of the vehicle. Have the warranty or extended warranty on hand too.
Clean your car
Make your car attractive by ensuring that it’s been cleaned. You need to have it regularly valeted so that both the inside and outside are looking good and smelling fresh. This will make the car more attractive to potential buyers and they won’t feel like they’re buying your old junk but rather purchasing a well looked-after second-hand vehicle. Have the seats upholstered and even make sure they give your engine a spit and polish so that, upon inspection, the inner workings of the car look clean too. When you car is looking its absolute best, take the pictures you want to post with your advert and then make sure the car is always in this great condition whenever someone comes to take a look or test drive it.
On that note, when you create your advert make sure you include your asking price, your current mileage, and the real condition of the vehicle. If there are any accidents the car may have been involved in then declare it (offer the VIN number so that prospective buyers can check the accident history) and list the recent repairs that you’ve had done.