Let us assume that you have done the research necessary, and you know exactly what you want and you are ready to do some private party vehicle shopping.
Prepare yourself to spend some time on this process; looking at private party vehicles takes a lot more time than shopping at a car lot. A good way to begin is to identify the sources of information available.
Certainly there is nothing wrong with starting in your own local newspaper classified ads, vehicle booklets that are usually found alongside the real estate flyers in convenience stores can supplement this. These publications allow sellers to put pictures of their vehicles with their ads as well as have them distributed to a predetermined set of areas they select and pay for.
Another great way to look for private party vehicles is the Internet, most newspapers now have a web page that shows their classified ads; so you can look in several of these over a 50 mile radius of your home. Just cut and paste the ads from each paper into a Word document. When you have printed this out, you may have the results from 2 or 3 newspapers on just one or two sheets of paper, and you didn t have to go out and purchase a bunch of newspapers you don t need.
Something else to consider when looking at private party vehicles is the environment you find them in. It has been my experience that if the home connected to the vehicle you re looking at is run down and unkempt, then it is a fair bet the vehicle may be in the same condition. Normally it is a very good yardstick to use on judging a vehicle s possible condition.
Another tip is to ask the owner why they are selling the car. This too can tell you a good deal about the possible condition. If they say they have 5 cars and they just don t use it any more; make sure you check the registration sticker on the back license plate. If it is out of date, ask if they just forgotten to put it on or if it needs to be renewed. This can be very important if you live in a state that requires a mandatory smog check before the transferring of a car between private owners. It could be that the vehicle couldn t pass the smog check, which is another thing to find out up front. In California, for example, registration requires a passing smog check within 90 days. Most states make it the responsibility of the selling party to sec that their vehicle passes the smog check before selling it, but many people are not aware of this factor or just ignore it.
If you find that the vehicle is not currently registered then you need to know how long it has been that way. If it’s been awhile then the owner should have gone to the DMV and gotten what is called a ‘non op registration . Basically a small fee is paid for the vehicle to be designated a non operational status. At such time you choose to use it again, you just go in and pay the fees due and you can put it back on the road.
By the same token, if the owner just stopped using the vehicle and did not go through this process, then the person buying the vehicle will have to pay all fees due to put it back on the road. This can get very expensive depending on how long it has been unregistered.
The good news about this paperwork issue is that you can easily use it as a bargaining tool if you are interested in the vehicle. If the person is asking $5500 for it, you can make an offer using the extra fees as a reason to drop the price.
Author Resource:
Mark Hoffman. If you search for a car, please visit http://www.buysellcar24.com where you will find cars for sale.
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