The Expert Podcast

Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Car Titles YouTube channel. Well, you're probably realizing by now that the party's over on the Vermont loophole. This has been something we've talked about for many years. It's not really a recommended process, but you know some of you have wanted to pursue it, and even now, there are still people who, in spite of the new release of information from the Vermont DMV, still want to go ahead with it. And you can do that. We're hearing that, you know, it's about a 50-50 chance that it'll work. By all means, give it a shot.

But what do you do if you don't want to play those odds? If you don't want to take the chance that it's not going to work, Well, as we've always said, the better options are to do a bonded title or court-order title. Before you say, "I don't want to do those," think of the reasons why you think you don't want to do those. Sometimes, for a bonded title, it's because you think you have to pay one and a half times the price of the vehicle. It's not true. Most states require that you purchase a surety bond in an amount that equals one and a half times the value of the vehicle. But in reality, the bond's only going to cost you a hundred dollars. In fact, the bond for a vehicle in your state is probably going to cost you less than the Vermont registration would have cost, right? Not counting the taxes.

What about a court order title? Well, in most states, to get a court-order title, you don't have to buy a surety bond. You get a clean title, and it actually takes a shorter amount of time than it would have been if you waited for Vermont. Most of the applications that go to Vermont, even if they are approved, take four to five weeks, or 30 to 45 business days in some cases. In most counties in the country, a court-order title is going to take you maybe 30 days. There are 3,611 counties in the country. Everyone is different, but what we're hearing back from clients is that a court order title takes 30 days. And the reason people don't want to do it is because they feel like, "I don't want to go to court, and I don't want to have to go into a courtroom." That's not how it works in most cases. You don't have to go to court. It's not a full-blown court case where you have to have a jury, a judge, and testimony. You file some documents, the judge signs off on them, and then you submit them to the DMV. It's no different than filing documents with Vermont, paying their taxes, and waiting for that to come back. Sometimes the court clerk will make you come down there and sign a form in front of them to get notarized, but it's usually not that big of a deal.

So before you have hesitancy to do a bonded title or a court order title, take notice that it's a lot easier than Vermont. And here's the thing with Vermont: their official document right now says the Department of Motor Vehicles in Vermont will not process transactions unless the owner of the vehicle can establish a legitimate connection to Vermont. I'm guessing you don't have one. Right? In fact, on top of that, you have to get a form signed by the home state Department of Motor Vehicles, meaning your state has to say that by signing this, I certify the state of whatever California, Texas, or Colorado does not require residents to register a vehicle in their state. As far as we know, almost every state requires you to register in your state. Now, some states allow you to have a secondary registration with a different address. That's up to your state. But you're rolling the dice, thinking your state's going to sign this. And even if it doesn't require it, good luck trying to get somebody to sign it. Right? This is a very low probability where a bonded title is almost 100% probability and a court order title is almost 100%, as long as you don't have a sketchy vehicle. If it's not reported stolen and doesn't have liens on it, you know, you're not going to use any process to evade something wrong with the history of the vehicle. If you're just missing paperwork, that's fine. That can be solved. So don't despair about the Vermont process being more difficult or not available to you at this time. If you didn't get in under the wire before it was shut for good or almost all the way shut, not a big deal. The other methods that are available or were better to begin with. Most of the people who lived in Vermont for the last 10 years probably would have been better off doing something else. So don't despair. Look at our website; we have all the instructions, we'll walk you through them, and we have videos. But if you are kind of lamenting the fact that you can't do Vermont, be aware that this is a blessing in disguise because now you're going to end up doing something the way it was supposed to get done. Good luck.