1.Firstly, is your car going to be easy to sell? Or will you have to drop out your price that you would like and look at other alternatives for selling your vehicle? Family sedans for example, while seemingly unappealing to many are always in hot demand with people needing basic transportation of families.
Whereas the sale of convertibles will be almost always seasonal. The sunny climate brings out the buyers searching for the sunroofs and convertibles, whilst in the cooler months, most people are not as interested. Trucks and Vans are mostly all year round, with buyers always looking to snivel a bargain over these.
But don’t underestimate their value- they just command competitive prices. Your best venture from here is to check the local papers to see what price you can expect to get from your sale. And go from there.
2.Once you have compared the newspapers for their prices, it’s a good idea to get on the Internet and check out the price listing you have now. Compare the prices. Online you can give a more detailed account of your vehicle- which will personalize it more and you may be surprised to find that your vehicle could be worth a few dollars more than you thought by searching the papers.
And remember- once this price is worked out- it is always a good idea to set the price margin a little higher than you want. For example- if your car is going to be worth $12,000 to sell, advertise it for $12,500. That way if you get the top price- great! But if you don’t, and have to bargain with the buyer, you will still sell in the price bracket you were wishing for in the first place.
3.CURB APPEAL! Making your car look as good as it possibly can for sale is the next biggest thing you can do before buyers come to your home to check out what you have for sale. Most buyers will be making their decision in the first few minutes of seeing the vehicle! This is based solely on appeal.
Is is the right shape they want? Was the color exactly as they had in mind when they read your ad in the local paper? Is the car all clean and polished looking? Those first few minutes impact a lot on what happens next in the selling of your vehicle. And to make sure your mechanic checks the car over before the buyers come, as to ensure that everything is running smoothly and you don’t have any embarrassing delays on the day.
4.Advertising- the big one! We have already covered the places you cannot sell your vehicle. So what about the where you can sell parts? Online, Newspapers and sticking stickers in your car are all great idea’s to advertise you car for sale. Also remembering that bulletin boards at local shopping centers are also great places to put up notices and many people read them daily out of interest.
5.Abbreviations and Phrases are also commonly popular for selling your car and most buyers know what they mean off the back of their hand! MUST SELL lets the buyer know that this is urgent. OBO means ‘or best offer’- which allows buyers to give you a price offering below your stated price. FIRM indicates to buyers that the price is what it is and their would be no use negotiating on this one as you are not eager to make the sale straight away and are quite happy to wait and get your asking price.
6.Make the buyer who comes to you home to view your unwanted vehicle feel comfortable. Be prepared for any questions they might ask, and if you think you need to, think of some that you might ask if the shoe was on the other foot!
Stand in their shoes and think about what you would like out of a car and what questions you might come up with to ask the potential seller. With the right person- selling a car should be easy. If you find people who are interested in your car are too pushy when contacting you to set up a time and day to view your vehicle, you are quite within your rights to explain otherwise and not meet with them.
7.When negotiating most people are uncomfortable. The seller is, because they are hoping for their price they wish for, and the buyer is also as they are hoping to get a good bargain out of you! You will need to think ahead of time on this one. If you have set you price above the expected margin- then all good.
You can simply come down in price and still walk away happy with your sale. But be prepared for a few open liners that you may not think the buyer would say. “I like the car, but….” – then with paused silence, no one is talking. To keep this conversation and sale rolling, you might come back with, “How much are you prepared to pay?’.
“What’s your best price?…”, is another famous line buyers say. To combat this, you can simply tell them that the price you have is fixed as you think the car is worth that value, or you can bring it down slowly if you have priced above what you are wishing for. “Would you accept..”, is also another line buyers tell sellers. This is getting down to the nitty gritty of the sale where the buyer is very interested in the car and is looking to make a hand shake.
At this point you should be thinking like minded about the sale of your vehicle. Asking yourself, “Is this price the price I would like to sell it for?”….. “Am I ready to shake on the deal?”. If you are simply unsure at the time or are not happy, nor willing to budge on the price, you can simply leave the deal as it stands and if the buyers are really keen, they may very well come back tomorrow with the money you were looking for.
Keeping in mind, that in most sales, the difference between what the buyer wishes to pay, and what you are looking to receive from the sale, can be as simple as $200!