Selling Car Out of State

[simmadown]

I have sold my daily driver to a guy out of state. He sent me a deosit tht has cleared & it going to send me a cashiers check from the bank that i will deposit & wait until it clears then the car will be pickedup by a transport company.
The problem is he want me to send him the Title while the check is en route. I told him I will send it out when the check clears. He is worried that he may get the car before the title.
How should I go about handling this? I didn't want to leave it in the car while it's being transported obviously.
Also, what about a bill of sale. He is going to Fedex me the check, but is there something I should send him to acknowledge receipt of money for the car? Or maybe vice versa.

[Frank69]

I recently sold a motorcycle to a guy in Iowa. He wired the money to my bank account. When I confirmed that the money was there, I overnighted him the title (signed-off) and keys. The transport company did not want the keys for a motorcycle. If you don't want to send him the signed-off title until the check clears, you may want to go ahead and send him a receipt for the money, probably notarized.

[vintageracer]

As a buyer I ALWAYS have the seller send me an email or fax in which he states he is is the legal owner of the car AND agrees to sell me the car for X dollars and any other terms upon which we have agreed such as payment, paperwork transfer and shipping. At least at that point I have something stating that I am purchasing a car for X amount of money. Always include the VIN number. As the seller, sign the agreement to sell the car and fax it to the buyer. If that is not good enough, send signed original agreement to sell the car to the buyer via FEDEX. That way he has a legal and binding contract for sale in his/her hands.

I personally use a bank wire transfer instead of cashiers checks for purchasing/selling. Quicker and easy to verify that the bank is real and in this country. ALWAYS include the the VIN number of the car on the wire transfer information and this wire transfer is for paymen in full for the vehicle you are buying. It will probably cost the sender $15-$25 for this service and you, the party receiving the wire transfer will also be charged by your $15-$25 for recieving and process the wire transfer. Just suck it up and pay the fee's. That's the cost of doing business.

The only issue in which the buyer may not feel comfortable is the fact that the seller will then have the car, the title and the money! Somebody has to trust somebody. If not, you can use an escrow company to hold the money. Using an escrow service complicates the sale and about half of the deals I have heard about where one of the parties, seller or buyer, demanded the use of an escrow service everything blew up and the deal was off. Wire transfers of money for the purchase of cars is done every day.

If the buyer is pressuring you to ship the car or the title before the funds have cleared, tell him NO! He has your argreement to sell him the car in his hand and you both agreed to the selling and payment process. Remember, you did agree in your original written agreement didn't you?


As far as your question:

"The problem is he wants me to send him the Title while the check is en route. I told him I will send it out when the check clears. He is worried that he may get the car before the title."


Just FEDEX the title to him when the money clears and bank. Since the car will not ship before the money clears, the buyer will have the title BEFORE he receives the car.

It's really pretty basic and simple.

[69TAPoser]

As stated above...wire transfer, wire transfer, wire transfer.

It is the ONLY sure way to confirm receipt of cash. The check that you received from him may have cleared your bank, but has it cleared his? This could take as many as 10 business days. Just because the money shows in your account, doesn't mean that the check has cleared they bank where the check is from. This is the biggest scam going with fake bank checks. Basically, you deposit the check, it shows in your account, you transfer ownership of the car, and 3-10 days later your deposited money is withdrawn because the check didn't clear the other bank and the owner is long gone.

With a bank wire transfer (not Western Union), there is a full trackable transfer of funds to and from legitimate bank accounts. This protects the buyer and seller.

I don't even do deposits as it is just an extra transaction that isn't needed. Full payment by wire transfer, then I transfer the title and overnight it.

Phil

[simmadown]

I will just wait to send him the Title. I have read about all of the fake bank checks, but we bank at the same bank just different states so I would think I would be able to verify & receive the money quickly. I will call the bank to make sure on this. I'll ask him again about a wire transfer since it would be alot quicker for him to get the car.

[ZuperZport]

Good advice from all that posted.

[1969CamaroRS]

For a bank check, if issued by a major bank, you could always just go to the bank in question and cash the check. If you deposit it in your account you risk having the funds yanked if the check has problems or is cancelled.

If you cash the check they can't yank the money away from you at a later date. I'd agree wire transfer is better for the seller.

[meenaggie]

If he uses the same bank as you it is pretty easy to have him make an electronic transfer from his account to yours at the teller. I did this to pay for the freight of a camaro purchased out of state. I paid the seller via wire transfer and it went very smoothly. He overnighted me the title after the wire transfer was posted. I had the title 10 days before the camaro. I used PolyCon for the vehicle transfer - very smooth transaction.