The Expert Podcast

so what should you do before you purchase a car on Craig's list or really any classified platform for that matter offer up Facebook market place what have you. look when you buy a car from a dealer the dealers gonna be responsible for getting your title transfered to your name. when you buy a car from a private seller some of that responsibility falls to you. don't forget to leave comments below questions about the subject or experience you've had so we can respond to those comment on them. so you buy car Craigslist somebody's got you know a classic car maybe a family car second car that you want to buy from a private party. well the first thing I do is make sure they have a title. you know it's an urban legend that you can just buy a car with a bill of sale and get away with it. yeah there are some loopholes you can use to get a title with only a bill of sale but they don't always work and they're way more expensive than actually a title. put you at risk until you get that legal title printed from the government with your name on it you're at risk of losing all your money. no matter how cheap it is I meant to do the deal it is unless that person hands you a valid legal title document when you give the money you're a hundred percent vulnerable to losing your money. so first of all make sure they have the title look at it touch it with your own two hands before you give money. second thing is you wanna make sure the title is in the name of the person you're buying it from. you don't wanna buy car from somebody in the titles in somebody else's name because you don't know if it's a legitimate transfer you don't know if that other person actually wants to sell that car. technically the person whose name is printed on the front of the title is supposed to sign that back of the title and write your name as the buyer at the same time. sometimes people do what's called curb stoning or jump or skip titles where they buy cars some people leave the title blank on the back put it back on Craig's list and then resell it for a higher price and then just write your name in that's the buyer. technically that's illegal almost every state has a law that says you can't do that. so make sure the title is in the name of the person you're buying from making show them your ID their ID and show the title with the same name on it. that's number two. now course all this presumes that you check out the car and the car is any good. we're not talking about if the transmissions dead or a bad breaks we're talking about title. next thing you wanna do is make sure that there's no defects on the title by defects I mean physical defects on the actual certificate but also historical defects. so if the title has any defects on it like white out a ripped a tear a stain missing pieces somebody spilled coffee on it that title is now void even though you might say well here's the title it's pretty good you can't bring that title to the DMV and have accepted they will only accept the title if it's in pristine condition. if it's ripped the tape together sorry. if somebody wrote something on and whited it out void. if somebody spilled coffee on it and even if it's readable but just stained the DMV will not accept it. so make sure the titles good physically now what about historical defects what that means is are there any liens on the vehicle. most liens will show up on the title but some of them you have to check directly with lien sources. another defect is what we've all heard of salvage title. salvage can mean a lot of different things it means that an insurance company in the past paid a claim on the vehicle it does not I repeat does not mean that the car is trashed it means it doesn't mean is damage. many cars that are salvage look perfectly good on the outside and run and drive it may be that they're already fixed it may also be they never really damaged. one of the most common reasons for an insurance claim is a recovered theft. somebody steals a car they joy ride it gets found discovered later and now the insurance Company owns it nothing happened to the car no damage but it's an insurance claim. any type of insurance claims like a flood hail damage is going to put a record on that car for the rest of its life that record does not go away it's permanent. even if you fix it even if it's a minor. so what that's gonna do too bad things for you one is if you ever want to sell that car buyers come look at and say I don't want to sell insurance car poison. they don't know what's wrong with it number two you probably have to get inspected. when you go to title in your state they're gonna to punch the vin number and it's gonna be a red flag start blinking on the screen nope salvage. before they issue a title or registration or tags are whatever you call in your state they're gonna have to inspect the vehicle because if it was an insurance claim they want to make sure that it's safe for the road that was repaired properly or there was no damage. you might think well looks fine everything's great however most of what they inspect aren't things that are obvious. they're gonna inspect for the source of the parts that fixed it if you don't have receipts you're out of luck. we have many clients that bought a perfectly good car was fixed properly with all new parts but they don't have the receipts for the parts so won't pass inspection. out of luck. another thing it could be that there's hidden defects like it runs and drives good but the frame is maybe an inch out of square or maybe the standards on the suspension are exactly what they're the factory specs are. and they're gonna check that out when they inspect it and if things aren't in factory specs rejected and you might not be able to see that with the naked eye. another problem a salvage title is sometimes repairs are done in a way that won't show up or start creating a problem for years down the road. if you have body filler on a vehicle or paint on the vehicle that's not the same quality two three years later starts to fade ships crack and the cars no good at that point. or even worse structural damage that starts to shake loose or suspension parts to start to rattle loose. another type of historical defect is back taxes. back taxes if somebody doesn't pay their tax registration many states will put a hold on that vin number until that's cleared up even if it's a different owner after the fact. they'll put a hold on that title on that vin number. last one we talked about it briefly is liens. there's a lien on the vehicle the bank you know is owed money might be on the title might not be on the title that's gonna a hold up you getting a new title with your name on it. the last piece of advice make sure the vin number matches. I can't tell you how many times clients call us up and their title problem is that the title they receive from the seller has a different vin number than what's on the car. and the reason people do that is because if the vin number that's on the car the real vin has some kind of defect back taxes salvage lean stolen god forbid. if you give somebody another title sometimes you won't even notice that it's for the wrong car until after they get the money and then they're gone long gone they block you on text they change number end of story. so verify all this before you give up your hard earned cash. doesn't matter how good of a deal it is unless you can get a title all that money is thrown down the drain because you the car is nothing more than a lawn ornament until you get a title registration and you can drive it. and there's many things that can prevent that from happening and you don't wanna be any part of it. leave your comments below let us know what you think