Anyone else here buy and resell cars to make money on the side?

Interested but I'm tired and at work so can't think of anything, bumping tho

How much did you know about cars when you first started?
What was the first car you sold?
Do you trade?
What was the hardest car to sell?
What is the hardest brand to sell?
I ask these questions because I too would like to flip cars for profit and trade up to my dream car of about 10k but i'm nervous about hiccups.

>>16196300
>waiting for the day they say I need a dealers license


there's a cap of how many cars you can sell per year w/o a license and the dmv keeps track. In my state 7 is the max amount of vehicles you can sell without a license.

>>16196300
What do you do about registering the title?

Leave it in the previous owner's name and convince the buyer it is easy to transfer with a forged note and clean title in hand?

Or do you just eat the 100 dollars or so?

Yeah, I work summers in construction so I do a muscle car every winter. I've done 8 so far.

1. Depends. Usually late 60s, early 70s GM cars and trucks. Nothing under 5k as the buyers for those vehicles are usually a big hassle. I mostly do vehicles that need paint and body as I was an autobody worker for 3 years before I quit.

2. Usually on the classifieds.

3. $12,000 profit but I put in roughly 200 hours into the project. It was a 1972 cheyenne super that had the box crushed in an accident with rear frame damage for 7k. It had a brand new 396 and 4 speed overdrive. Ended up doing a shortbox conversion, disc brakes, new paint/body, frame straightening, etc and sold it for 25k.

4. No.

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>>16196500
>How much did you know about cars when you first started?
A little but not a lot. I've learned mostly by experience and reading up online. Which is the best way imo.

>What was the first car you sold?
1987 Toyota pickup, $1600 8-900ish invested.

>Do you trade?
All the time. I buy something cheap, fix it up a little, and work my way up. Sometimes by straight trades, but I really like to wait until about this time of year when people are out of tax money and need to get rid of stuff cheap for holiday cash. A lot of people don't want to sell their only means of transportation so if you can say "hey I'll trade you this and cash" it works out better I think. They still have something to drive and you hopefully luck out and walk away with something nice.

>What was the hardest car to sell?
This all depends on your initial investment. This is important. The less you have in something, the easier it is to sell. Check Craigslist for average prices of what you have or can get so you know what you can sell it for. I bought a klx250s street and trail bike for $1000, invested $300 in a slip on, undertail kit, new chain and other misc. Stuff. Traded it to a lifted 97 grand cherokee with 5 new 33's and a nice short arm lift. Traded that to a 2008 altima that sold for $3000 in less than a week.

What is the hardest brand to sell?
This just goes back with the above. But I've had trouble out of mid-late 90s BMW and any LT1 f body. Anything with a bad reputation for random mechanical failure.

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>>16196558
I always register them because here it's a felony to sell in someone else's name if you are caught. Always make sure your paperwork is good before you buy a car, and make sure it's Vin number matches. If you're really just not sure, call the dmv and ask. They get paid to answer your questions.

To me it's easier to just eat the $100 because it's something you need like insurance, gas, snickers, underwear. Etc.

>>16196612
That's rad. I'm no good at body work or paint but I'm fortunate to have a friend that is. Shiny stuff sells itself. I can do detailing and paint correction but no good at body work or paint.

Bought a 2008 Kia Rio with 50k miles for $1k. "Blown motor" Broken timing belt, $25 for a belt, no valve damage. Sold it for $2500

2006 Saturn Ion. Paid $500. "Bad transmission". $1 roll pin that attaches shift linkage to shift rod. Sold for $2000

2002 trailblazer. Paid $1500. "Bad fuel pump/computer/nobody can figure it out". Chassis lost it's ground, fixed for free. Kept that one for myself for over a year now, but about to sell...should sell for around $3k.

2006 Ford Taurus. Paid $750. "Bad transmission, won't move". $5 plastic clip that attaches shift linkage to tranny. Sold for $2500

2002 taurus. "Bad transmission". Paid 400. Replaced torque converter $100. Currently for sale, should bring about $2k

2000 explorer. "Bad trans". Paid $300. $300 for trans, $100 for tires, sold for $1800

2006 fusion. Kid hit a deer. Paid $1000, $500 in used door, used fender and paint. Sold for $3000

2001 explorer. Paid $100. Gotta replace ball joints, tie rods, tires, and trans line. Should sell for around $1500-$1700 after its fixed

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>>16198016
Nice. I need to start buying more normal commuter/family cars, they seem to sell quick.

Right now I have a C5 vette, a suzuki savage bobber, and a 92 civic. Hoping to sell the c5 and bike and pick up a few cheap deals before Christmas to sell at tax time.

I do it as a hobby now. But I first started when I was 15 and I made decent money.

Mostly trucks because they are always in demand, but sometimes I flip smaller shitbox type cars too, usually to first time buyers or students

I've flipped trucks I bought for $400 to over $1700 because of a little bit of detailing, and from $2500 to $4500.

Enthusiat cars like the Civic or Golf and family cars or station wagons are terrible to make money off of.

I buy worn out AE86s, polish up the exterior to turn them into white Truenos and sell them to weebs for twice the price

>>16198067

Seems to me anything more than $2500-$3000 is harder to sell. Most ppl don't have that kind of cash at hand, and need financing of some kind, and can't go that route with an open title(still in previous owner's name). For me, the $2000-$3000 sells have been doing good....BUT, you have to know what to look for when buying a car, know about what the problem should be and how much it'll cost to fix it...and there is always the chance of other u known problems after that. I buy low, figure my repairs a little high, and plan my bottom dollar to sell...if there's not atleast $1k profit in that, I walk away. Most cheaply bought cars need medium/major repairs, and a lot of them it's just not possible to turn a decent profit in the end.

Actually leaning towards getting my dealers license in 2017 sometime before I get fined. Been doing one car, and after it sells buy another one, fix sell, then buy another one so I don't have 5 cars in the yard for sale at once and have DMV come knocking

>>16198109
The biggest thing I've found that you can do to add value is a good, thorough cleaning.

Every car I buy gets cleaned like this:

Pressure wash exterior.
Pressure wash engine bay
Heatgun on all faded plastics, to restore color.
A good steam cleaning of the interior and headliner.
Sanding and clearcoating any faded light covers
New rubber floor mats.
Spray the interior with fabric softner so it smells nice.
Polishing the paint a buffer
Painting steel wheels or bumpers

For trucks, I usually also sometimes line the bed with plywood, and get new mudflaps.
Makes them look much nicer.

I've repainted fenders, and whole cars too. Nothing drops the value of a car like a big scrape on the side or peeling clearcoat.

When a first time buyer comes to view a car with and they see the plastics are a deep black and shiny, and the interior clean and smelling like coconut, they will think the car has been well maintained and taken care of - and therefore reliable.
Because no doubt any others they have seen were not as clean and smelled like residual farts and cigarettes.

I rarely buy cars that need mechanical repairs.

>>16198309
I agree with all of this. I looked into getting my dealers license, just the licenses here were only $3-400 but then you need a 200sqft paved or gravel lot, 10x10 office, name, sign, etc. All that wasn't so bad but the insurance was like $4000 a year and that killed it for me, this is just for my state I assume it's different elsewhere.

I've sold more than 7-8 in a year and haven't had any bad news come back yet. I'm kinda trying to push my luck right now just to see at what point they do something.

>>16198122
U dog

>>16198386
Same, had a detailing job for the summer one year and I learned a lot. The best thing you can do to a car usually is clean it up. Almost free to do, just takes a few hours, usually always brings good results (I also save any change I find and turn it in later lol)


I don't buy stuff with mechanical problems anymore either really. Unless I know it's an easy fix. I'm fat and lazy and only like working on stuff I'm interested in anymore.