The Expert Podcast

Here's another reason why not to buy a vehicle without a title. A perfect example happened in Texas, where a woman was trying to sell a vehicle without a title at a discounted price. However, it was a rented car; she rented it from an auto rental place and was trying to sell it. Now, you might think, well, if I buy a car with a bill of sale, aren't I in good shape? I checked to see if it's stolen or has liens, and it had a clean title. Well, here’s the catch: if you were trying to buy the car from this woman and you did a title check on it, it wouldn’t show any liens because it’s a rental car. It wouldn’t show as stolen because she rented it. You might think that maybe everything's okay, but unless you're physically handed a title at the time of purchase, and that title is valid—meaning the name of the person on the title is the same as who you're buying it from, it's properly signed over, and it's a legitimate title—you still could have problems.

If you're not getting a title, you're at risk of losing all your money unless everything goes right with your title recovery. Title recovery is different from just a title transfer. When you buy a car and you get a title handed to you, you just sign the back, and it gets transferred to your name. If you don’t get a title when you buy it, you have to go through a lot of hassle to get that title. A bill of sale by itself is not enough to get you a title. For example, if this person gave you a bill of sale, it's not going to help you get a title; that's just a receipt of somebody taking your money. It doesn’t prove that you're the owner of the car or that they were the owner of the car.

So, a title check might be something that you think is going to put you in the clear, but if you did a title check on this person's car, it's not going to be reported stolen. It's not going to have any liens, and it’s not going to say salvage or back taxes. It'll all look legit like a clean title, but you're going to be out your money. She tried to sell it for ten thousand dollars. If somebody paid her the ten thousand and took the car, once it got found out, the car would be revoked from you, and you would be out your money because the rental car company is not going to give you their car for free. You're not going to be able to get that money back from the scammer because they probably spent it, so you're out your money.

The moral of the story is do not buy a car without a title because you're at risk of doing so. Look, if you buy an old barn find cheap car without a title, the risk is a lot lower, but still, until you have that magic certificate issued by the government—a title with your name on it—your money is completely at risk. There are a lot of things that could come up that keep you from getting a title. We have all the tools and resources to try to get a title on our website, but remember, until you have that title in your hand, your ownership is at risk because you're not considered a legal owner until that title is issued by the government with your name on it.