Pros & Cons of Selling your Car Privately

There are options you have at your disposal when selling a car. You can choose to trade it in, or you can choose to sell via auction. This post will focus on the private sale option. It is one of the most popular options.

Most people who sell their vehicle, choose to do so this way. Just have a look at the sheer amount of vehicles that are being sold on your average car selling website. You will see what is meant then.

Here are the Pros and Cons that you need to be aware of before you embark upon the journey of selling your car privately.

Pros

1. The Sale Price Will Be Better

If you sell your car privately, you will get more money than if you sold it to a dealership, or via auction. This is due to the fact that the dealership and auction houses need to make money from the deal. So they tend to pay less.

2. You Don’t Have to Pay Much

Advertising online is incredibly popular due to how easy it is. You don’t have to pay much to place an ad, and some sites will even give you ad-space for free. Of course, if your car needs some work done on it in order to have it presentable for sale, this will cost you money as well. But it will also raise the value of your vehicle.

3. You Can Negotiate

When selling to an auction house, you aren’t afforded the ability to negotiate. You can negotiate with dealerships, but the upper hand is given to the dealer, who has a huge wealth of experience and knowledge to draw from due to it being their job.

When negotiating privately, you are on an even playing field. Or, at least, a relatively even playing field. Even if the other person is better than you, they won’t be as good as a car dealer.

Cons

1. It Can Take a Long Time

With the car dealership option, the vehicle is sold on the same day that it is offered up. It is a very cut and dry process. Even selling via auction takes a wee while.

However, the private route takes a little bit longer. First there is the car preparation that you need to complete. You also need to wait for people to respond to the ad you place. If the first person buys it at the best price, well done, you got lucky. The likelihood is that you will have a few of them look at it and not want it.

2. The Test Driving Process is Risky

Don’t feel guilty over the fact that you feel weird letting people you don’t know go for a drive in your car. But it has to be done. One way to get around this is to go along with them. If you don’t want to do this, perhaps you can take a photo of their drivers licence after verifying it.

3. You Risk Getting Scammed

There are the odd people out there who are completely unscrupulous and want to rip you off. Fortunately they are in the minority. But it is still good to be aware of them. Practice caution by:

• Never handing out personal info before speaking with them on the phone.
• Wait until being paid completely before handing the keys over.
• Look out for any interested parties who are trying to avoid talking over the phone and only want to converse using email.
• Anyone who pays much more than the asking price and wants you to reimburse them the difference is to be treated with extreme suspicion.

4. Paperwork All Needs to Be Done Yourself

All the paperwork needs to be completed by you, which is a far cry from other car selling methods where it is done for you. This includes the transfer of registration and the road worthy certificate.

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How to Sell Your Car in Australia

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WRITTEN BY Shaun Hussaini | September 27, 2018 | CATEGORY(S): General