My Blog: selling your car

I recently sold my car that I've had since 1998. Here is one man's tale.

Images of seedy salesmen and scam-artists awaited me as I ventured into this endeavor. In a nutshell, it was easier than I thought, but I did learn a few interesting things. I decided to test the waters by placing a "For Sale" sign on the car (would I get any calls? ). Most of the time, the car was parked in front of my house, where school and park traffic guaranteed a steady stream of potential buyers. I did receive several calls every week for several weeks. Only a few called back and one or two people came by and saw/drove the car.

Then I decided to get serious: I took out an ad. I had recently purchased a used car, and having gone through the experience as a buyer helped me become a better seller... What does a buyer look for? How does the buyer look-up cars for sale? How does the buyer decide what they want to pay?

I had a choice of venues for ads. In the end, I chose autotrader.com. For $44, I got a 3-week run, with 9 photos (on-line) and one photo in the weekly publication. AND, I had a chance to keep the ad running until I sold. I chose autotrader since they seemed to have the most selection for similar cars.

I also built a free "blog" so I could place more detalied pictures and text. The buyer did go out to the site. In the very least, it helped me think through which pictures I wanted with the ad as well as the text I woud use for the "selling points".

Other things I learned:

I thought "what would my realtor do?". So I kept the car clean, used good gas, and tried to keep the "curb appeal" high. I also took lots of pictures on a nice day. I used different angles and different placement against the sun. For the shoot, I parked at a nearby park... You'd be suprised at how many people try to sell a car with a picture in a sleazy used car lot or against some dumpy fence or pad pavement.
Strange, but after I placed the ad, I received calls from brokers and other non-buyers wanting to help me out. A nuisance, but ignorable.
Do your homework. Every buyer wants to negotiate the price, especially if you are selling as an individual. I had a list of other cars and prices, as well as mileage and features. When someone asked me if the price was negotiable, I told them, "sure, but you have to tell me why... if a similar car is selling for $1000 less, I have to bring my price down".
This leads to how one should price a car. Do the homework... keep a list across a few weeks (if possible), print it out and have it with you when a buyer shows up. Think about what points should increase a car's price (one-owner, no accidents, etc.) and what would bring down the price (crack in windshield, funny smell). Set limits and goals, and decide how fast you need to sell a car. I priced my car below the dealer's prices, emphasized several key items, and got a buyer with a few days.
Finally, I was suprised at how many calls I received from folks from Austin & Louisiana. I guess from a 300 mile radius, Houston will have a larger pool of used cars and people are willing to drive in to buy a car. The buyer was a father-son team from Austin who did some research on the internet.

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Sunday, March 12, 2006

selling your car

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