Just trying to get an idea of what it takes to get > or = KBB for your car?


I'm interested in flipping a car every once in a while (4-8k range)


Are there certain cars that always get full value offers and others that don't?

Or is it just a matter of being able to hold out until the right person comes along?

Thanks.

6/8/2012 12:09:58 PM

Maintain your vehicle to the highest level you can. That means keeping it quite clean, inside and out. No eating or smoking in your car, waxing the car (including the headlights) at least twice a year, no curb rash on the wheels and no door dings or windshield cracks. Keeping mileage to 10,000/year or less helps as well. So does owning a car that is a rare model, has a rare paint color or a rare options package.

And naturally keep up with the factory service intervals.

6/8/2012 1:16:22 PM

find cars that sell above kbb and try to buy them below it.

Certain enthusiast cars draw more money then kbb says they do but every now and then you find a moron selling them for book.

6/8/2012 1:35:51 PM

I always thought KBB was inflated while NADA was more realistic. Is that accurate?

6/8/2012 2:16:07 PM

KBB is all over the place. It was $10,000 below market on a vehicle of mine. But then I've looked up some older vehicles and KBB was stupidly high.

6/8/2012 2:19:26 PM

^ exactly

NADA makes options nearly worthless.

Like when they totaled my wrangler out they gave me 6 grand for it... when i could have sold it for 13 grand easy pre-wreck but it was a loaded sahara that had been well taken care of.

NADA is what dealers use too i think.

6/8/2012 2:57:06 PM

^ i think thats a common insurance tactic.

telling you your cars worth X when they know the real value.

Ive had to prove my value and gotten nearly 2x as much once I did. That and waiting them out.

6/8/2012 4:17:56 PM

buy a toyota/honda

[Edited on June 8, 2012 at 5:57 PM. Reason : ]

6/8/2012 5:57:05 PM

Anyone who flips cars will tell you that book value doesn't mean anything.

6/8/2012 9:24:18 PM

^ Yep

I make money on pretty much everything I drive, and book value means almost nothing to me (and absolutely nothing on a specialty car). When someone cites KBB, trying to negotiate price on a sports car with me, I just tell them I'll buy every single ___ they can find for KBB.

6/8/2012 9:50:23 PM

KBB won't actually buy your car, so the number is worthless. Your car is worth exactly what someone will pay for it.

[Edited on June 9, 2012 at 1:18 PM. Reason : .]

6/9/2012 1:16:52 PM

I understand these concepts of not relying on kbb, but as far as establishing some sort of value, and trying to gauge what the average consumer will pay for X-normal car, it's worked for me as a beginner.

Is there a good book or website that anyone would recommend on the subject of car flipping?

6/11/2012 4:06:46 PM

It's a decent starting point for a Camry or an Explorer.

It is worthless on a lot of lowish-volume specialty cars (not even exotic stuff...just cars that aren't dime-a-dozen and have a small market. My Z06, for example, has totally out-to-lunch KBB values. I've noticed the same in the past with the M3, or a 3rd-gen RX-7, or a Supra TT, etc.)

6/11/2012 6:49:10 PM

no

Sell your car based on its condition and what others are paying for similar. If that means you pretend to be a buyer of those similar vehicles, then so be it. The amount you can get for X can fluctuate greatly, from week to week and even from day to day within a week. Best days of the week to sell high are Sunday afternoons or rainy Saturdays. If you know what you are doing you can weed through all the emails/calls you get and pick your best potential buyers before ever even giving them your address. Meet them at your house or at a friends house, people who are asked to meet in public are predisposed to suspicion and more likely to not believe your car is worth asking price.

that's all I'm telling, get out there and sell a car

[Edited on June 11, 2012 at 9:37 PM. Reason : ignore the kbb nada, edmunds, NONE of it applies]

6/11/2012 9:37:22 PM

Quote :

"Meet them at your house"

Worst advice ever.

6/12/2012 12:56:44 PM

Depends on what kind of house you have I guess? Not a problem for me.

Quote :

"or at a friends house"

Or in front of a random house. Meeting in a public place puts people off, and when you want to get top dollar you need to close the deal once you have one hooked. I could write a book on this, but don't crave the attention. Plus I want to keep doing it and not have it ruined by clueless newcomers.

6/12/2012 9:08:41 PM

Don't rely on blue book values. They really are crap.

Dealers don't use blue books. They use auction trackers, which aren't commonly available to the public. In any case, dont expect to make any kind of profit selling to dealers.

6/13/2012 7:11:05 PM

I look at Craigslist using SearchTempest.com and a wide search patter to see what the similar car is selling for.

That being said, having the car cleaned by an auto detailer like myself or someone else will make the difference. When you have the car clean and in optimum cosmetic and mechanical shape you remove any negotiating power the potential buyer may have. My VW and my Jeep I got the owners to come down quite a bit on the asking price by simply pointing out the flaws in the cosmetics and mechanics of the car.

I do allot of cars for people ready to sell them or trade them in. Even if you have not taken good care of it (not waxed, interior dirty etc) a good detailer can erase most if not all of the evidence of neglect.

6/13/2012 7:23:16 PM

So true. And when you take the photos to use in your for sale ad, don't break out the 14MP DSLR camera, use your phone or a regular old digital camera set to 5MP at the most. The more plain the car looks in the photo the better. You want it to look average in the ad, not too nice and not neglected. Then once they show up, if you can absolutely BLIND them with how fuckin awesome it looks, smells, etc then you can go ahead and prepare to count the money.

Quote :

"In any case, dont expect to make any kind of profit selling to dealers."

Anyone who does this will tell you that your money is made or lost when you bought the thing, not when you sell, but that is another lesson altogether. You CAN make a profit selling to dealers if you can offer them a clean vehicle with low miles that they can put on their lot and sell to a buyer who finances it. We will use a $7,500 car as an example. If you have ever financed a car from a lot and financed it, then you know all too well just how much that $7,500 car actually cost you by the time you finished making all those payments. Now realize that if the dealer does their own financing, they may have even paid as much as $7k for the car, only to make a quick $500 profit on the markup, and the real money is made in the financing. And if the buyer stops making payments, and it gets repossessed? The process starts all over again. The way to get in on this is to buy the repo, but not just anyone can do it.

6/13/2012 11:51:07 PM

Quote :

"Anyone who does this will tell you that your money is made or lost when you bought the thing, not when you sell"

Yep, absolutely.

6/14/2012 12:12:22 AM

i have found the act that kbb undervalues certain vehicles helps when buying cars.

6/14/2012 4:01:45 AM