Possibly buying car site unseen..how does money exchange?
 

I may be buying a vette across the country and have it shipped back. i know most would advise against it so those people dont have to chime in. For those of you who have done this before can you tell me the procedure you used to make payment and have it shipped to your house without worrying about sending money and getting nothing? Also if someone can recommend and transport company to ship the car that would be fantastic. Any advice for a smooth transaction would be greatly appreciated.

Get a cashiers check or certified check. Have your bank check to make sure that the check is legit. There have been fakes floating around.

Depends on whether its a car lot or person. Have your bank send a money transfer to the other parties bank. Don't have a clue about a transport company.

I would have someone check and make sure the car is legit before I would transfer any funds. Just my .02

:iagree:at the least. No comment on the site unseen.:leaving:

The Mercedes dealership that my son is with uses these 3 haulers all the time to ship high end expensive vehicles all over the country. The 2nd one was used by the guy from St Louis, Mo. that bought one of my Vette converts last May to ship the car he bought from me and he was very pleased with the costs and the delivery went smooth with no problems and car arrived in perfect condition at his end. They ship very expensive cars and always use open trailers and they do not see any need to go enclosed.

1. Fred 401-391-9834

2. Krissy 214-780-8413

3. Karen at Champion 720-320-4632

Huh guys, he is buying not selling. So why would he want the bank to make sure his check is legit?:D
OP where is the car you are thinking about? Maybe a forum member could check it out for you? We do have members all over the country that will look at a car for members. :thumbs:

Before you do anything, I would go to the CF regional section for that part of the country and ask com forum members to go check out the car and to make sure all seems legit.

We have members from the NorthEast section stop in here all of the time to look over and test drive a car for a forum member from another part of the country. :thumbs:

I live in Southern California and sold my C3 to a buyer in Maryland. He sent me a cashers check for $25,000 and I deposited it in my bank. When they told me it was good I notified the buyer and he arranged for an enclosed transport truck to pick it up. He was a happy camper when it arrived.

I would have never done it that way if I was the buyer. I think you can have the money put in an escrow account until everyone is happy.:thumbs:

Being from Canada, I have bought 10 vehicles sight unseen from the US. Having said that, I had access to probably around 25-75 pics of each vehicle. I have bought from known forum members, well established car dealers and from parties with perfect feedback on Ebay. I have been lucky as I never had a problem. I wired the money to the dealerships directly, I wired the money to the private sellers bank in exchange for the title signed over to me and a copy faxed to me.
As I said in your other thread, DAS transporters suck, Reliable transporters I have heard good things about. :cheers:

If you can have someone look it over, talk to the seller, and test drive it that would be a big plus. I bought a car out-of-state but it was through a dealer so there were relatively less worries on getting screwed.

Sold a car to a private party out-of-state and they wire trasferred the funds before I released the car to the transporter. His transporter was not a large company and the transporting carrier had some mechanical problems and delayed the shipment which caused him a lot of concern.

Reliable or Intercity Lines for the transportation are solid choices, imho.

check out Escrow.com

I just recently did a sight unseen purchase from a forum member and everything was great. Find out if the seller has title in hand, or is a note held by the bank. My seller had a note and it caused a 10 day delay getting the note paid and a copy of the title. It went like this: We wrote up and signed an agreement that the money I was sending him was for the purchase of the car. I wired the money to his bank account, and ordered a truck to get the car. He paid the note and the bank notified DMV to release the title to him. He allowed me to get the car as soon as my wire transfer cleared. He got the title, signed it, and mailed it down to me. The car got here a week or so before the title. You can and should do some background work on who the guy is. Google him. Find where he lives, find his house and locate public tax records to establish the guy lives there. Ask for a photocopy of drivers license etc, place of employment, etc. It was a leap of faith that he would release the car to the truck, and that he would send the title. I did have the signed sales agreement in the event that I had to go up and take him to court. Of course, nobody wants that. If you PM me, I can email you a copy of the sales for that we used. It is quite complete, and lists all the terms nd conditions, and disclosures on the condition of the car. If you are lucky, you may get a forum member to handle the exchange of money for title, plus double check the car. Good luck.

Reasonable advice from everyone. My experience:

1. if seller is a legit dealer, you have minimum worries and can have your bank wire transfer the funds or send payment by check.
2. is seller is an individual with whom you have no relationship, you can:
- have a CF member or friend who lives close by check out both the car and owner before any funds are sent: then transact funds and have car shipped
- buy a cheap round trip plane picket and fly out to check out both the car and owner and take funds with you and bring properly transferred title home; then have car shipped
- take a flying leap of faith and just send funds and hope, based on your gut

Do not use a 'seller recommended' escrow holding company. Many are frauds and your money is gone with no recourse. Happens on eBay every day

Always insist on a legit Bill of Sale and a properly endorsed Title or you have no proof of the sale and your ownership.

It a business transaction so don't let your guard down by becoming emotionally involved with the purchase. Think of it as buying a very expensive washing machine long distance and safeguard your interest just the same.

Once the seller has your funds, you're on your own. In most cases that's just fine and everything works out for the best. Remember you are buying 'AS IS - WHERE IS'

Most sellers will wait for your check/transfer to clear before they release anything. If there is a lien on the vehicle then their bank must be happy before the seller should do anything.

When I bought my Aston Martin, I did a wire transfer to the dealership in Houston. Then I arranged for enclosed shipping to Boston which cost about a dollar a mile. Then I got bit by the corvette bug again and sold the Aston after 9 months. So it's either a new Grand Sport or psychiatric counseling. Not sure which one just yet. Maybe I could drive my new GS to the therapist. :rofl:

I have a coworker that bought a used Kobota tractor sight unseen from California. Here is how he did it.

He contacted the seller through EBay, then agreed on a price, then he wired the entire amount to the seller (about $12K) so they didn't have to pay the EBay fees. Then he waited for the tractor to arrive. And waited, and waited, and waited. And when it didn't show up he tried to contact the seller to find out what the problem was. Guess what? He couldn't contact the seller through any of the phone numbers or email addresses that he had been given and his Ebay account had been closed. And EBay refused to do anything because they had done the transaction outside of EBay. He contacted the police and they told him there was nothing they could do for him. The party on the other end got the funds and simply vanished into thin air, never to be heard from again.

Typically the way these guys entice buyers, is they offer a price on a vehicle that seems "too good to be true", and they play on the buyers greed, thinking they are getting a "really great deal". If a price on a vehicle seems "too good to be true", it probably is, and this is your first red flag. Run the other way.

Anyone who buys vehicles will tell you that the transaction needs to be done IN PERSON, and there is a good reason for this. If you want to risk that kind of money going to a Nigerian scammer, go for it, but don't say you weren't warned.

I bought from a lot out of state. Had someone that I knew in that area go look at it. When we agreed on a price, I wired half the money to them. When they put it on the truck and I had a copy of the manifest with all my information and the final bill of sale, I wired the other half. At that point the shipping company was on the hook and not the dealer. Of course all of this was done mostly by email so there was a paper trail. And it is, according to my sources, binding in court should anything go wrong on either side.

Smart thieves will simply disappear into thin air once they have your money. You'll be left holding a pile of emails, and they'll be off spending your money on wine women and song.

The only way I would conduct a transaction like this is if was through a DEALERSHIP that had a longstanding business. There is no way I'd wire an INDIVIDUAL money for a car I have never seen, and if you're smart, you won't either.

No intelligent seller will accept a cashier's or "certified" check as a payment and immediately release a car. Any paper check will (and should) be treated like a worthless piece of paper until it has been deposited AND cleared...a process which could take several business days. You need to verify with the seller what form of payment he will find acceptable. Like most have mentioned here, a wire transfer is probably going to be your payment of choice.

I will make a suggestion that might put you and the seller at ease. Go get a loan for the vehicle you're buying...even if you don't need one. Why? Because it puts an interested party (a lender) between you and the seller. A bank will not rip off the seller, and the bank won't pay the seller until the title is in their hands. If the seller has a loan on the vehicle, this won't be a problem as the lenders involved will deal directly with eachother. You don't have to worry about how you're going to pay the seller, because your lender is going to dictate the terms of the deal. Basically you just kick back and let your lender handle it.

:iagree: Good Advice.:thumbs: