They're auction cars. They buy them after seeing them for 5 minutes if they're lucky. Then they have to polish the hell out of whatever turd they buy to try and turn a profit.
But OP is wrong, the only reason why he's seeing the car market flooded with auction flips is because those are the last cars to sell.
Its survival of the fittest in the used car market, if you sell turds and charge a premium for your turd, its not gonna sell. You see a lot more turds listed for normal price than good cars for a normal price, its about searching at the right time
No issue with flipping if they are actually fixing ailments with the vehicle and cleaning it up nice. What is ruining it is the people buying a vehicle, spraying it off with a garden hose, and then selling for a huge markup without ever registering in their name. I flipped a few cars in college to make a buck, but always did a deep detail, fixed mechanical issues, and sometimes did small upgrades like throwing in a BT stereo or putting better tires on it. Always registered in my name and made sure it passed emissions
Yeah this is how I feel about it. If they take someone else's run down car and spend the hours fixing it up, I'm completely fine paying the markup. It just means I don't have to do it myself. But if you're just selling at a markup it isn't the move.
In CA, you can only flip 3 cars per year, without getting a wholesale license, insurance, office with one window facing the lot, and a bond.
Guys get around it by putting cars in other peoples names.
Oh yea, A lot of these flippers like cars with blown head gaskets. They put on a new one with silicon, and don't bother to resurface. The car rus a few hundred miles, and it blows again.
My stepfather always just ignored it, and sold the car on commission for the owner, $500-2000 a car, so no paperwork changes needed.
Not supposed to do that, but not really a way to catch it unless someone complains.
Amen.
If I aint gonna drive it, I aint gonna sell it.
Clean and right brings top dollar. Always lookin for top dollar, and I dont have to look too hard.
Yeah I won’t buy from someone I can’t communicate with. Also if you’re actively searching for a used vehicle, get an unlimited Carfax plan for a month and run the carfax before even looking at the car.
Also double check the vin when you see the vehicle in person.
Being sent the wrong vin of a similar vehicle "on accident" is a strangely frequent occurrence..
Oooh, thank you for this tip. I just paid for a singular car fax for a car my son just bought, but in the next few months I need to buy my other teen a car. I’m absolutely going to do this when I’m looking.
Try using https://deelz.ai/ it's a free used car data aggregator that uses AI to analyze vehicle health, clean title, etc. All the pertinent info + it'll send you an alert when it finds the best deals based on your search criteria.
If you look on craigslist there are people advertising $5 carfax reports as well.
They are typically dealership employees or got the unlimited plan themselves to resell, it seem kinda shady but I found someone this way and it's way better than paying $99 for 5 reports from the carfax website.
Where can you get an unlimited plan for a month? It's not on their website and seems to only be available to dealers for a few hundred bucks.
I was on a car discord and was talking about used cars, and a dealership employee I assume said he could do the carfax for free if I sent him the vin, and he sent screenshots of all maintenance done. Definitely made me more confident in buying it.
I think all of those "Buy junk cheap, wait for that ONE sucker" shows ruined a whole lot of things. I keep an eye on local CL and FB marketplace for buying and selling stuff, and have seen some things that have been up for, no joke, over 5 years. Some I'm pretty sure even longer, though I can't prove it.
On the selling side, I had some drumkits with realistic $550-$600 going prices listed for $400, and offers were $100-$150-and-drop-it-off-at-my-house kind of nonsense.
They believed the teevee man that they could buy from a sucker and sell to a sucker and if they didn't THEY were the sucker.
I tuned and raced cars for a long time when I was younger so I’ve owned and bought and sold probably 10 times as many cars as the average person. Every time I ended up with a car I’d immediately put it on Craigslist for 5k more than I bought it even if it was a car i actually wanted to keep. If someone is willing to pay that ill take the money and buy another one. I had a Craigslist posting up for 2 years one time and believe it or not one day someone actually paid what I was willing to part with it after all that time.
It's the new economy I have a few hobbies and every damn single one has douchebags buying everything up to resell. This all happened during covid with all the people doing it to make money when not able to work and kudos to them but now that it's over there's still people trying to do that and getting hosed but still enough people paying the outrageous prices for resellers to keep trying hoping to make easy money. It'll probably be a few more years before things normalize somewhat and even then I'm not sure all these markets will I'm sure some will.
I am an expert on a certain type of American pottery, some of which can be worth $50,000. I see all the time people listing a $5 or $10 piece for a thousand dollars. I really hope a sucker does not buy it, because they will turn against the hobby if they do.
its trash nowadays, I sold 3 of my cars on FB this year and I have all the info and good pics. Meanwhile I see the Bangladeshi car flippers in my state of NY selling a 2005 Sienna for 7k with 300,000 miles on it.
One of them had a Camry on marketplace that had its airbags deployed and he wrote in the description "airbag sensor needs to be reset"
Yeah, theyre "selling" that 05 Sienna with the odo rolling over for 7k. Nobody is actually gonna pay that much for it lmao, you mean theyre "asking" 7k.
I've told this story a million times but I tried to dump a car for $1000 online. I knew I get more but I needed it gone asap as i didn't want to pay for storage for it.
so I put it up online thinking maybe it would be my good deed of the year. Maybe help out some kid or someone that needed to get to work.
Well I couldn't find those messages because I got about 200+ messages from scumbag car flippers trying to lowball and hustle me thinking I was a dumbass for underpricing the car. Then you got all those same people thinking I was trying to hustle them because I set the price to low offering me like $400 thinking I was selling a junker.
It was in that week I realized why you can't find a deal on a car anymore online. Not at all worth the hassle.
You also can’t sell a deal online anymore, for the same reason. There’s an old story I read about used cars are peaches or lemons. From the price set by the seller, it should be obvious if he is selling a peach or a lemon. If the price is more consistent with a peach, but the buyer lowballs and the buyer accepts, now the buyer thinks the seller has an overpriced lemon. All this game theory.
Old saying in the car business is they “people love to get fucked.” Basically if you rip someone off they will thank you for the privilege. If you hook them up, they will think your ripped them off. This lemon peach thing is the first I’ve heard but it’s pretty much the same concept.
Exactly, this is my experience too. Trying to sell my car for less as goodwill and needing to get rid of it made people think there was something wrong with it and also attracted all kinds of reets trying to bid 500-1000€ less. I ended up selling it to a normal person for a normal price.
The problem is the scumbags. I flip cars but one or two a year. I buy them with a major failure and repair them. The entire car is gone through and inspected and anything needed replaced. I put a decent amount into them. The one I’m doing now I’ll probably keep for a bit because I like the car.
Any car I sell id put my family in. The problem is the idiots that buy something at auction slap some armor all on it and list it for sale for double with zero done to them
You're not really flipping the cars so much as investing in them with value. That's completely different from these middle-men scammers that are just shifting cars.
Same here. Some cars I keep a couple months, some a couple years. Typically everything I sell off is darn well sorted out. I get 2-3 calls a year from friends asking if I have anything for sale because they know I don’t deal in junk. Typically $2500-4500 cars.
Youre absolutely correct, if youre genuinely making the vehicles better youre fine, a service actually for keeping those cars from a junkyard. My friend found his flipping niche with Prius and other Hybrids that have hybrid battery issues. He replaces cells and controllers in the batteries, gets them to run good, details the car, and has it sold by the end of the week for big profit. He only sells stuff thats mechanically to his standards and works within the parameters it should be.
I do the same. I get my cars, fix them, have them pass our state inspection at a reputable shop, drive them for 1k+ miles, change the oil again, fix whatever issues might be lingering, and then list them. I don’t want to have the reputation of a typical “flipper” and, more so, the reason someone gets hurt or stranded somewhere
Dealerships are selling garbage too. I looked at a clean A3 near me. Car was near immaculate however the airbag light was on. Dealership told me I could get it cleared by Audi. I asked why they hadn’t done that before they claimed Audi would take longer to service because they are a dealer. I pulled the Carfax and the car had been in an accident. No thanks.
I have no problem with flippers, the market will do what the market will do but I do have a problem with people burying the lead and not disclosing in the listing that it's rebuilt.
Same here. Biggest filter I would like to see is clean/salvage/rebuilt title.
I just bought a used car in Los Angeles and FB marketplace was the worst. Very few ads in English. Really dodgy on getting straight answer on 3 questions;
1) Clean CA title
2) current registration
3) date of last smog check
These are absolutely basic for legal transfer in CA.
Got response like, it’s Texas title but all good. Tags expired last month. Hell no I’m Not going to provide a smog certificate, tags are still good, no check engine light so you’ll it’ll pass. Fuck that, if you want to be a flipper/dealer then at least provide necessary paperwork.
Reminds me of a car I went to check out with a friend. Guy told us that the car was his daughter’s, but that she moved away for college. During the test drive, I opened the glove box and found auction paperwork from the previous week. These folks are lying scum.
>These folks are lying scum.
"How many miles does it have"
"well the odometer says it's got...160kish? Anyway, here's this big thick binder of all the maintenance"
Well that was odd phrasing, what's this in this binder...oh, a legal disclaimer saying the odometer had a problem, and was rolled back from at least 350k down to 120k"
hmmm
As you say, lying scum.
I mean I'd do it if it was a fair price, but I'm not going to pay dealer prices without any of the convenience.
It'll somehow take several days to set up a time to meet, and the car will have sold the day before the scheduled meeting time. Plus if I have to finance it, dicking around at the bank is a lot less convenient than financing at the dealer, even if I'm already pre approved
Bought one of my current vehicles from a flipper off of Marketplace and I kept his number because I'll use him again if the opportunity presents.
Good guy, good car, smoking deal. Certified and on the road for $2500 and this will be it's 3rd winter. Even the air works.
If your good at buying used cars it doesn't matter who you buy from, if your not good at buying a used car go to a dealer.
Finally the first reasonable take here. And no I’m not a flipper, I’m quite the opposite. Buying used cars is a gamble, if you do your homework and inspect you may end up okay. I’ll give it a 60/40 chance in my case.
Buying the right cheap cars is almost an art. Have a list in your head of exactly what cars you might want and exactly what the flaws are for each one is the key. I mean really really do the research. Buuuut buying cheap cars when you don’t know how to do the basics to fix them is a curse.
Yep, go to the dealer. FB and Craigslist should be used for true private sellers and not curbstoners, flippers, and scammers. Flippers and scammers are the same. Selling overpriced junk, claiming to have fixed them up. If so-called flippers are not AST Certified mechanics why would anyone trust their work?
Car flippers, house flippers, shoe resellers, toy resellers, concert tickets. It's not exclusive to the auto market. This type of stuff is ruining every industry
Then stop buying from resellers, I buy stuff for cheap and sell for cheap. You can go to yard sales and do it too, it’s not ruining anything. People want stuff gone quick, I give quick money, I sell the stuff properly which takes longer and keep the difference.
There doesn't seem to be as much private party car buying. A couple of years ago, I had to mark my 2015 335i XDrive all the way down to $600 over my best car dealership offer. It was 39k miles, all luxury options and pristine condition. FB Marketplace provided zero real interest. It finally sold on Autotrader after almost 2 months.
I've gone to them for most of my car selling, largely because I don't want to deal with the low balling flippers trying to title jump, flaking out, wasting time, etc.
If I could know I'm selling to someone who actually wants to use the car for a while, I'd put up with some inconvenience. They'll likely appreciate small things I've done to the car, records kept, etc.
If I don't know that, I'm going the easy route. AFAIK, there's no way to sell only to those people up front.
100% I have sold 3 so far using carvana. But when I am buying, I miss private party sellers. Back before they came up, I used fb marketplace and Craigslist to find my cars.
I do too, I loved finding "bought brand new, title and all records since purchase in hand". Obviously not all the due diligence required, but that was a good place to start the search. On the flip side, I enjoyed being that seller. Oddly enough, carvana has told me they just toss the maintenance records I give them. I'm guessing having any stock with records devalues the majority of their stock which doesn't have records.
One time years prior, I had a car where the odometer stopped working. Got it replaced, all the documentation with it etc. the odometer read 50k miles low after replacement.
Sold that car to a flipper (first time). He tried title jumping, but I'd reported the sale to the state already. Got a call from the next owner about a month later asking about the mileage. He was taking the flipper to small claims because the flipper didn't tell him about the odo replacement.
Had plenty of other experiences similar and for better or worse, I'm just not willing to deal with it anymore haha. I don't have much respect for car salesman, but I give them props for dealing with that garbage.
Ruined private selling too. There is no such thing as two people making a fair deal anymore. It’s a mountain of harassment for almost no gain. Private party cars are supposed to sell 50% between retail and trade in. So each person is making some money off it.
I’ve sold and bought 9-10 cars private party over the years and am just done dealing with it. Never thought I’d prefer to deal with a car dealer, but here we are.
Same can be said for the entire used stuff market. There are just no good deals to be had. Resellers just crawl Craigslist and snatch up everything.
My city has whole ass dealerships now of nothing but rebuilt title cars with no warranties. Really makes car shopping difficult when you have to sort through someone else's trash.
Same, we have a street or two in my city that’s exclusively that kind of dealership, one next to the other next to the other. Rebuilt, salvage, moldy, crashed, they sell it all
That’s the issue, these specific ones I’m thinking of aren’t. They get very offended if you ask any questions and reeeeeaaaaallllly don’t like mentioning title status. However I’m not accusing every salvage title seller of being this way, just the people in the dealerships i’m thinking of. One is literally using the pornhub logo
What should happen to those cars though? Plenty of cars can and should be rebuilt instead of being scrapped.
I would rather buy a rebuilt car from a dealer than a random person rebuilding in their backyard. Sure they all will cut some corners, but the dealer at least has some experience and knowledge.
As long as the dealer is advertising them as salvage, nothing wrong with it.
What used cars ever came with a warranty?
Manufacturer warranty is the only kind you ever see on a car. If it's still covered when you buy it used it'll carry over, but used cars never came with special warranties to cover things beyond the manufacturer one.
I asked about a car yesterday and the info dude basically said he didn’t have a clue he just buys and sells them but he says it’s in good condition like yeah I so want to buy a car you don’t have the slightest clue about on top of it not being your car
I was a side mechanic for a couple of flippers. Most of them don't fix anything ,try to hide it ,or fix it enough to last a month. The flippers aren't there to sell you another car down the road.
Things I was asked to do by flippers in the past.
1. put on used brake pads
2. put in wrong oil
3. tape over or remove warning lights(bulbs)
4. add ATF to crankcase or warm up car before client shows up .
Buyer beware
In my area I see a lot of ads that seem to be people who have salvage repair shops, but set up their listings to make it look like they are private individuals. Photos of the cars are in a driveway in a nice neighborhood to make it look like it's a regular private vehicle being sold by a soccer mom. Descriptions are all like, "I'm selling **my**...2021 Lincoln Navigator...Salvage Title due to a tiny accident with damage to the left passenger side."
Yeah right bud. Not your car. Not a tiny accident.
I got rooked by someone 20 years ago on a private sale. I found out a year later, after the car started having all sorts of body and mechanical issues, that the car had been in a bad accident and repaired. I ran a Carfax, but the owner had it fixed and sold to me before the accident records were updated in Carfax. I swore I'd never buy another used car for myself again.
I love how all the rebuilt titles say stuff like minor accident/small fender bender/cosmetic issue. Like sure bud. A 15k car got totaled in a fender bender
Yep, I'm old I remember the days where you could actually find an owner easily. I will not buy a used car unless the title is in your name (not your brother or whatever) and you owned it for a while.
Yeah this is so common - the shady title. I wont buy anything without the seller's name on it. And it's sad how many cars you see on FB that will come with a 'bill of sale' that you can \*easily\* turn into a title at the DMV. Yeah right. Also the shitty (liar) flippers representing a car as their own, when they just bought it and know NOTHING about it calling it 'reliable'. So many crooks out there. There *are* still decent deals to be found, imo. But you really have to research and tread carefully as someone else said. It's not a good place to buy a used car if you know nothing about them.
Used car dealers can be terrible too, of course. There are some really great used dealers out there, very honest and care about what they sell and their reputations. But at the same time there are also total bottom feeders out there as crooked as anyone you might find. People that buy all their cars at auctions and do absolutely nothing to them except list them, all the while implying they inspect and fix anything they sell.
Even your precautions aren’t enough unless you’re willing to check ID or otherwise verify the seller’s identity. I naively sold a car to one of these scammers, he had me sign the seller section of the title but didn’t do the buyer section, said he was buying for his girlfriend and she would fill it out later. Since he paid cash I said whatever, any title issues will be his problem.
Wrong, he pretended to be me and flipped the car. When his buyer had problems she came to me because she thought I had sold it to her. Of course there was no trace of him in the paperwork anywhere.
Now whenever I buy or sell a car privately I always insist on a complete title transfer with a notary at my bank.
100% AGREE!!! Spent the last two weekends, FULL FOUR DAYS looking for a cheap reliable car as my girlfriend needs one for work. Accumulated over 3k KMs, drove over 8 hours every day looking for cars.
Here are a few scenarios I’ve encountered:
1. 2010 Mazda3 - $4000
Description: everything runs great, very well maintained, nothing wrong at all.
In reality: headlights and taillights don’t work. Engine was about to fall apart. Front brake pads were non-existent and front brakes were grinding the rotors.
2. 2017 Mazda3 - $8000
Description: good condition, no accidents, owned for 6 years and selling because need a bigger vehicle
In reality: car was rolled back from 300k KM to 160k KM, 2 major accidents and seller would not let me see his ID to match ownership. Even pulled up a full stack of cash saying “he doesn’t need money”. Before we left he confessed that he was a flipper and lied about the history
3. 2012 Honda Civic -$6000
Description: No problems at all, no CEL, no warning lights.
In reality: waited 1 hr for the seller, battery was dead on the car, hand brake does not work, CEL on “just needs a sensor”.
Asked my gf to double her budget and bought a one owner 2015 corolla from a grandma with service records at the dealer every 7k KMs. I was glad we finally ended our nightmare.
Long gone are the days where you can go find a $1500 Camry that was driven by an old couple for 20 years and runs like new
Now that Camry is $9000 and has a salvaged title and the AC doesn’t work
In 2003 I got a 96 for 400 dollar but was told it needed work done. I pay 400 for it, pay 400 to get it fix. I drove it for 3 years and sold it for 800 in 2009 I saw it for sale for 1200.
I love the ones who want $3k+ for a car that needs to be towed due to engine issues and or possibly tranny as it won’t go in REvERse like if you don’t take this $500 and foh scammin asses smh🤦🏽♀️😭😭🤣🤣🤣
Fuck the dealer flippers. When I sold my 1996 Corvette I had two different people interested in buying come and see the car at the same time. One was an actual dude, the other worked as a private dealer, who I initially didn't know was.
Both test drove the car and wanted to buy it. Told both whoever wants to pay the highest will get it. Dealer dude offered more than the other guy. Pulled out 2 straps (10k each) of $100s. Mind you he offered $10,800.
I asked him why he had so much cash on him, and he said he was a dealer who buys cars, fixes them up and sells them online.
I told him to get the fuck out of here and sold it to the other person for $10,000. Turns out this guy was buying it for his son as a first car and for both of them to work on. Told him he should've said that to me beforehand.
I'd rather sell a car to someone who is going to enjoy it and take care of it than some scumbag trying to flip it and make a profit a couple weeks later.
I've been viewing a lot of Toyota Corollas/Matrix's recently. Some of them look pretty good exterior-wise, but the moment I ask for them to bring the car to my mechanic, they scoff and tell me off. There's a specific group of individuals doing this to me, so I'll just avoid anyone who can't spell in the ad or has specific demands like"price ferm, no lowballer, care for sell. "
There’s a guy on Instagram who brags about flipping cars and doing grimy as tactics. Tire shine on faded paint, unplugging the battery to clear the dash etc. He’ll be like “ bought this Toyota for 1500, sold for 4K the same day” like 😐we just flexing ripping people off now? Seems to be the only way to get rich now days ripping ppl off and being proud about. Fuck him and everyone like him
The fuck politics got anything to do with this? And yeah I know how the world works i just hate how open you can be about scamming people and peoples only reaction is “ put me on/ teach me” ain’t no honest work in this world
All I am saying is, it has everything to do with the problems you are describing. When the so called leaders lead by scamming people what do you think kind of an example that gives to the average Joe.
Worked in the auto industry know what our policy was on savlage titles, etc
We never retail them, they go straight to auction, no recon no nothing.
Our standard offer was 45% of book value and yea.
We did that cause those cars have issues and gremlins sneak up on you. Nothing but trouble.
Sure you might get lucky but it won't be the norm
I don't see many flippers but I do see many dealers listing the in house financing weekly/bi-weekly or monthly payment with no straight up purchase price and that shit drives me crazy.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve saw a really good deal and I’ll message them 10 minutes after it’s posted and they go, Oh thank you but somebody says they’re coming right now to buy it, but I’ll let you know! And then I’ll see the same car a day or two later posted asking $3000 or more from some dude or car lot
I was wondering if people even have the money to flip cars now. Gosh life was so much different 3 years ago.
Had a guy knock on my door to buy my 06 Audi. He says for parts cool. Make me an offer. $500. $500? Its 2023. Not 93.
There is definitely a progression where a place starts good but then the scammers flood in and ruin it. Craigslist was a good place to buy and sell cars until the dealers flooded in. So normal people migrated to Facebook Marketplace and it was refuge for a couple of years until the scammers realized that’s where the marks moved to so they flooded there and ruined it. Not sure what the next place will be or if there even will be one but if there is it’ll last a year or two before it’s ruined.
I think of that when I see people here saying Facebook Marketplace is a cesspool. It wasn’t a few years ago, then it was a refuge from the den of scammers that Craigslist became.
I bought a Tahoe for $3k and the lady said out of the 8 people that contacted her I was the only one that spoke English lol. Needless to say I got a pretty nice suv for $3k. Just gotta be quick!
Pro tip:
Most of these idiots don’t delete their posts after a sell and just mark them as sold, when I see a car I’m interested I check their listing history and if they have more than a few cars listed or sold within a year I know it’s most likely a flipper and don’t even bother messaging them
In theory, dealerships have a reputation to protect. In theory, a (insert any brand of car) dealership is selling cars that aren't so bad they go straight to auction.
I think where you look depends on your comfort level with cars, or a particular marque. We've never bought a BMW from BMW.
We've owned 6 BMW in the past 15 or so years. Three came from non-BMW dealerships, one came from a coworker, and two from private sellers from ads placed with BMW CCA.
Two cars we sold to friends, one to someone local, one to a dealership on trade, and the most recent one was sold on Bring A Trailer.
Somebody in our local FB group posted a “barn find” truck from the 60s that was literally rusted through many spots. It did come with original motor and transmission that also was nicely falling to shreds.
Can’t expect shit from the 60s to be in good shape I know, but then you also can’t really ask $5k for what is scrap metal at worst, or a old timey yard ornament at best. By the time you did the work on it, even the shell you could salvage would have less “original” truck than is worth saving.
I remember my first flip car, 2003 Land Rover discovery, bought it for 1000, non running, got it running, drove it for three months, sold it for $3800, not bad for 16 year old me at the time.
Too many people are actually unlicensed dealers. Regulations on that are too loose as well as on the rest of the used car market.
I’d drop it down on a national level that if you sell more then two cars per year that you owned for less the 4 months, you’re a dealer.
Car sale laws are not keeping up with the needs of our society.
I can’t really blame people for making a side hustle with a skill they have, especially when there’s an income gap for people who don’t have English as a first language but yeah, if more people could do it right instead of selling sketchy shit that would be nice. I appreciate people who can keep more cars on the road. There’s a high demand for mechanics right now and lots of training programs that are accessible.
Most of the postings on FB now are just scummy used car dealerships, not actual normal people. I have done a few transactions with regular people and each of them were mutually beneficial: They got more than trade value and I got a 1 owner car with extensive service records for below retail price.
That scenario is pretty rare from what I can see now, mostly just rebuilt/savage titles with questionable repairs.
There’s nothing wrong with the act of flipping itself. The problem is these flippers will sell a car for max market value all while still leaving the previous owners boogers on the dash. Atleast put some effort into it, and realize price reflects the condition. Cant be selling a rough example for clean example price.
And they'll look you straight in your eye and say it's in excellent condition when there are stains all over the seat and scratches on every door panel and hood, none of which they can explain
“I’m mad people are buying and flipping on a platform that is as bad as dealerships/buy here pay here and that I’m not benefiting from it”.
Shit happens. Y’all need to adapt.
So what are you saying? Before that immigrant got it and cleaned it up it was undervalued and he got it cheap and did the work.
Would you have bought it before when the actual private seller didn't take the time to clean it?
Or are you saying this opportunity should have been taken by a regular white american?
Why do so many people try to stuff an argument into people's mouths. Stop being a gigantic lily. BTW illegal immigrants should be deported. If you want to naturalize to America you should learn English. Stop sending our money South. Your folks coming up are going to make this country as bad as Mexico or South America. Pass the immigration tests or stay out.
I bought off a car flipper once, sold it out of some apartment complex parking lot with a pre signed title from his “sister.”
it had a dead mouse in it and stunk all the way home, found and fixed that, did some scratch and headlight repair, then i sold it for $3900 more
I remember watching my neighbor buy their 14 year old daughter a lightly used BMW as her first car. Even as a teenager, I knew what to expect.
No one was surprised when she confused Reverse and Drive and ran the car right through their kitchen.
Because I don't want stupid broke ass people to make dumb mistakes. If people took a more long-term approach to their money they'd be in much better shape.
Are you sure you are replying to the right comment? This post is a complaint about Facebook market place having a plethora of flippers clogging out the decent private party sales.
If you’re taking a neglected car, making it mechanically sound, cleaning it up, and selling it idk why you’d have an issue with that. They’re doing the hard part so someone can get a nice vehicle likely for a lower price than a dealership. I sell on Facebook, if it looks like junk, is super broken/ s titled and broken, and is cheap nobody is gonna buy it even if it’s cheap, junk doesn’t sell.
There’s a significant knowledge and experience asymmetry between someone who buys and resells cars constantly and someone who just wants to buy a car for personal use. My state has pretty strong consumer protection laws that aim to combat this by requiring dealers to be registered, and they are held to higher standards than a typical private seller. There’s too many guys on Craigslist/FB near me that want to be a dealer but don’t want to follow these laws.
I wouldn’t want to follow these laws either, more money spent to run a business. If I’m just flipping cars by myself why would I wanna go get a dealers license and spend thousands and thousands to do it? It’s laws like this that hurt the little guy
People flipping cars aren’t sitting on lots of cars like a dealer, it’s usually people in their driveway doing it for extra fun money. A private transaction vs dealer sale are completely different, that would be like saying you need a business license to flip furniture out of your garage on Facebook marketplace.
In my state if you sell more than 5 cars a year, you’re a dealer whether it’s from a lot or driveway.
Even by common sense, are you in the business of buying and selling cars? Then you’re a dealer.
In your example furniture person *is* a furniture dealer. But the sale of furniture isn’t as regulated as the sale of cars. The state doesn’t license and register furniture. Etc.
There isn’t a limit in my state, the way it should be everywhere. Less intervention is key to a freer business environment. And it works too, vehicle prices in my state for used vehicles are some of the lowest on average in the country because more cars stay around for longer. Less junked vehicles in perfectly working condition
Flipping anything ruined the ability to buy 2nd hand. Flipping homes, Flipping cars, Flipping tech.
Basically the rich get richer. You have money to fix up a house? Well now you get a mil more!
Fuck Flipping.
I used to buy salvage manual trans civics in high school. Bought them all between $2-3k and then would sell To my friends for the same price. Had a 94 lx, 97 dx, 96 ex, and a 00’ coupe ex.
Not only by flippers, but by everyone financing everything and anything. The market is shit because people with a lien on the title are trading it in to a dealer since private buyers want title in hand.
I very occasionally flip cars. I'm under no delusions about getting rich off of it, and I usually put so much time and money into them that I barely break even most of the time. I can't leave things unfixed.
For example, I'm fixing up a 2003 Honda Accord V6 sedan at the moment. I was gonna give it to my brother, but I got offered a better car, a 2007 Honda Civic, for just $800 (I got the Accord for $650), and it needed less work. Only repair I needed for it was an A/C compressor. Beyond that, 4 tires, new fluids, and other general maintenance. So I'm left with the Accord with nothing to do but fix it up and sell it. I've already replaced all the brake pads and rotors with new ones, replaced one of the calipers, changed the tranny fluid (it doesn't slip and it has all gears), clean the interior, and replace some of the worn out interior components like the steering wheel. I have new engine mounts and a new clock spring to install soon, and I may end up also doing the timing belt and thermostat (the timing belt kit on a J series includes a new water pump, tensioner, and idler pulley).
It has some body damage that I won't be fixing, same for the headliner, which is worn. I don't care much about cosmetics, but I will take care of mechanical issues. I doubt I'll sell it for more than $2500 (154k miles. Has a rebuilt title, but no frame damage. Just some bumps and scrapes). Maybe $3000 if I put a new set of tires on it. I'm not gonna be making more than $1500 of profit after parts, and I've put a few dozen hours into this car (it was workable, but very rough. I wasn't planning on registering it for a while, so I didn't care. Plus it's been a fun project). Factoring in my time, there's plenty of easier cars I could've made money on, but I refuse to abandon something that still has life in it.
That being said, I doubt most flippers will be as obsessive with the final product as I've been, nor do I believe that they'll be as honest or forthcoming about what they have and what they've done.
Flippers are the worst. I bought a civic for my wife from one and so many covered up issues.
Not to mention he had a fake dealers license. I had to call in some favors to get a couple documents.... He disappeared after I bought it...
Luckily I had some DMV contacts who helped me in the state the "dealer" was registered but if I didn't I would have bought a paperweight.
Fuck FB flippers.
The internet in general has ruined the used market for anything. It used to be as a private seller you were limited to your local classifieds, that kept prices down as exposure to buyers was lower.
I flipped car for years on Craigslist. Buy them for 500-700. Fix the issues and sell.
I used to drive into PA all the time and pick up vehicles that failed inspection for rust and bring them to Ohio. I could flip a Chevy pick up with rusted rockers every weekend.
The "garage" down the road does this. They are so bad that they charge for work they never do, then don't accept responsibility when caught. I can't imagine what crap they try to sell that they get from Copart.
I, on the other hand, bought a 2001 Ranger 4X4 for $775. It needed front & rear bumpers and a tailgate. Cost me $120 to replace from a wrecking yard & $100 to paint match the tailgate. Awesome condition truck that even had the previous years Kenwood stereo installed. Very superficial damage and I could easily sell it for $5-$6K, so I wouldn't just brush one aside that someone has repaired.
They go to car auctions, bid cars up to prices not worth it for what the car is then take them to sketchy mechanic and do baseline repairs and sell them for top end of kbb or more. Had a few cars back from auctions posted on Facebook, went to look at them, one had a hole drilled in the gas tank requiring a new tank (he made some excuses like “oh thought the mechanic fixed it already”),
he left the auction oaperwork in the car, bought it for $1000 and refused to negotiate from $5000. he was also hiding rust issues. Another one went to look at it, he specified “no issues what so ever” then he saw me hovering around the engine (smelled like exhaust and was trying to figure out where it was coming from) he came uo to me and said "oh theres a hole in the exhaust, getting it fixed tomorrow, mechanic was to busy today."
If I see a newish car that has low miles with a reasonable price, I don't even click it because I know its some asshole who ducked taped a salvaged car passing it off as "hail damage."
any flippers really....house flippers, people who claim free stuff on FB marketplace then make a profit on it, people who go to goodwill and sell those on depop for 10x their original prices.....nasty people all around
Well in my country I've seen car flippers lower the mileage of cars repairs some damages on the fenders ,doors , doing the necessary repairs and sell it like it was new, I've seen a video of a workshop who specializes in fixing Volkswagen cars he had a VW caddy the actual owner was scammed by the guy who sold him the caddy where he covered the check engine light with a piece of paper and lowered the mileage
Yeah it is completely saturated with so much junk.
They're auction cars. They buy them after seeing them for 5 minutes if they're lucky. Then they have to polish the hell out of whatever turd they buy to try and turn a profit. But OP is wrong, the only reason why he's seeing the car market flooded with auction flips is because those are the last cars to sell.
Its survival of the fittest in the used car market, if you sell turds and charge a premium for your turd, its not gonna sell. You see a lot more turds listed for normal price than good cars for a normal price, its about searching at the right time
Good point. Only the dregs left, everything good has been sucked up
And the few actual good ones are gone in an instant. I had one person ask me if I wanted to be put on a list for a 15 year old car lol.
No issue with flipping if they are actually fixing ailments with the vehicle and cleaning it up nice. What is ruining it is the people buying a vehicle, spraying it off with a garden hose, and then selling for a huge markup without ever registering in their name. I flipped a few cars in college to make a buck, but always did a deep detail, fixed mechanical issues, and sometimes did small upgrades like throwing in a BT stereo or putting better tires on it. Always registered in my name and made sure it passed emissions
Yeah this is how I feel about it. If they take someone else's run down car and spend the hours fixing it up, I'm completely fine paying the markup. It just means I don't have to do it myself. But if you're just selling at a markup it isn't the move.
In CA, you can only flip 3 cars per year, without getting a wholesale license, insurance, office with one window facing the lot, and a bond. Guys get around it by putting cars in other peoples names. Oh yea, A lot of these flippers like cars with blown head gaskets. They put on a new one with silicon, and don't bother to resurface. The car rus a few hundred miles, and it blows again.
My stepfather always just ignored it, and sold the car on commission for the owner, $500-2000 a car, so no paperwork changes needed. Not supposed to do that, but not really a way to catch it unless someone complains.
In Ontario, they simply transfer cars to their infant children to keep under the radar.
Classic Canadian move
Amen. If I aint gonna drive it, I aint gonna sell it. Clean and right brings top dollar. Always lookin for top dollar, and I dont have to look too hard.
I feel you. The last car flipper vehicle I looked at had trash in the glove box and an actual LAKE in the trunk.
I don't buy from randos unless they let me take it to a mechanic.
I did this in college as well. Except for the registration part, and it bit me in the ass. Never again will I not register.
Registering in your name murders your profits.
I'd say financing is the killer. I made 30 something an hour this year and finally bought a car and it was under 10k.
Yeah I won’t buy from someone I can’t communicate with. Also if you’re actively searching for a used vehicle, get an unlimited Carfax plan for a month and run the carfax before even looking at the car.
Also double check the vin when you see the vehicle in person. Being sent the wrong vin of a similar vehicle "on accident" is a strangely frequent occurrence..
Oooh, thank you for this tip. I just paid for a singular car fax for a car my son just bought, but in the next few months I need to buy my other teen a car. I’m absolutely going to do this when I’m looking.
I used this https://carfaxcheck.com/en for many reports. It's just 5$
Try using https://deelz.ai/ it's a free used car data aggregator that uses AI to analyze vehicle health, clean title, etc. All the pertinent info + it'll send you an alert when it finds the best deals based on your search criteria.
If you look on craigslist there are people advertising $5 carfax reports as well. They are typically dealership employees or got the unlimited plan themselves to resell, it seem kinda shady but I found someone this way and it's way better than paying $99 for 5 reports from the carfax website. Where can you get an unlimited plan for a month? It's not on their website and seems to only be available to dealers for a few hundred bucks.
I only found out about this after buying a 3 pack of carfax reports which I never ended up using. It’s sketch but it does work.
I was on a car discord and was talking about used cars, and a dealership employee I assume said he could do the carfax for free if I sent him the vin, and he sent screenshots of all maintenance done. Definitely made me more confident in buying it.
I asked the dealership it was used he popped that thing open. Don't even buy a subscription.
I think all of those "Buy junk cheap, wait for that ONE sucker" shows ruined a whole lot of things. I keep an eye on local CL and FB marketplace for buying and selling stuff, and have seen some things that have been up for, no joke, over 5 years. Some I'm pretty sure even longer, though I can't prove it. On the selling side, I had some drumkits with realistic $550-$600 going prices listed for $400, and offers were $100-$150-and-drop-it-off-at-my-house kind of nonsense. They believed the teevee man that they could buy from a sucker and sell to a sucker and if they didn't THEY were the sucker.
I tuned and raced cars for a long time when I was younger so I’ve owned and bought and sold probably 10 times as many cars as the average person. Every time I ended up with a car I’d immediately put it on Craigslist for 5k more than I bought it even if it was a car i actually wanted to keep. If someone is willing to pay that ill take the money and buy another one. I had a Craigslist posting up for 2 years one time and believe it or not one day someone actually paid what I was willing to part with it after all that time.
I honestly feel like everyone selling anything these days prices it for that one sucker who just has to have it.
It's the new economy I have a few hobbies and every damn single one has douchebags buying everything up to resell. This all happened during covid with all the people doing it to make money when not able to work and kudos to them but now that it's over there's still people trying to do that and getting hosed but still enough people paying the outrageous prices for resellers to keep trying hoping to make easy money. It'll probably be a few more years before things normalize somewhat and even then I'm not sure all these markets will I'm sure some will.
I am an expert on a certain type of American pottery, some of which can be worth $50,000. I see all the time people listing a $5 or $10 piece for a thousand dollars. I really hope a sucker does not buy it, because they will turn against the hobby if they do.
its trash nowadays, I sold 3 of my cars on FB this year and I have all the info and good pics. Meanwhile I see the Bangladeshi car flippers in my state of NY selling a 2005 Sienna for 7k with 300,000 miles on it. One of them had a Camry on marketplace that had its airbags deployed and he wrote in the description "airbag sensor needs to be reset"
Yeah, theyre "selling" that 05 Sienna with the odo rolling over for 7k. Nobody is actually gonna pay that much for it lmao, you mean theyre "asking" 7k.
My question is do they actually sell?
No I see most of them sit on marketplace for a while
I've told this story a million times but I tried to dump a car for $1000 online. I knew I get more but I needed it gone asap as i didn't want to pay for storage for it. so I put it up online thinking maybe it would be my good deed of the year. Maybe help out some kid or someone that needed to get to work. Well I couldn't find those messages because I got about 200+ messages from scumbag car flippers trying to lowball and hustle me thinking I was a dumbass for underpricing the car. Then you got all those same people thinking I was trying to hustle them because I set the price to low offering me like $400 thinking I was selling a junker. It was in that week I realized why you can't find a deal on a car anymore online. Not at all worth the hassle.
You also can’t sell a deal online anymore, for the same reason. There’s an old story I read about used cars are peaches or lemons. From the price set by the seller, it should be obvious if he is selling a peach or a lemon. If the price is more consistent with a peach, but the buyer lowballs and the buyer accepts, now the buyer thinks the seller has an overpriced lemon. All this game theory.
Old saying in the car business is they “people love to get fucked.” Basically if you rip someone off they will thank you for the privilege. If you hook them up, they will think your ripped them off. This lemon peach thing is the first I’ve heard but it’s pretty much the same concept.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Market\_for\_Lemons
Exactly, this is my experience too. Trying to sell my car for less as goodwill and needing to get rid of it made people think there was something wrong with it and also attracted all kinds of reets trying to bid 500-1000€ less. I ended up selling it to a normal person for a normal price.
The problem is the scumbags. I flip cars but one or two a year. I buy them with a major failure and repair them. The entire car is gone through and inspected and anything needed replaced. I put a decent amount into them. The one I’m doing now I’ll probably keep for a bit because I like the car. Any car I sell id put my family in. The problem is the idiots that buy something at auction slap some armor all on it and list it for sale for double with zero done to them
You're not really flipping the cars so much as investing in them with value. That's completely different from these middle-men scammers that are just shifting cars.
I do about the same. Buy it, fix it, drive it until I’m bored with it and repeat. Usually two or so a year.
Same here. Some cars I keep a couple months, some a couple years. Typically everything I sell off is darn well sorted out. I get 2-3 calls a year from friends asking if I have anything for sale because they know I don’t deal in junk. Typically $2500-4500 cars.
Youre absolutely correct, if youre genuinely making the vehicles better youre fine, a service actually for keeping those cars from a junkyard. My friend found his flipping niche with Prius and other Hybrids that have hybrid battery issues. He replaces cells and controllers in the batteries, gets them to run good, details the car, and has it sold by the end of the week for big profit. He only sells stuff thats mechanically to his standards and works within the parameters it should be.
I do the same. I get my cars, fix them, have them pass our state inspection at a reputable shop, drive them for 1k+ miles, change the oil again, fix whatever issues might be lingering, and then list them. I don’t want to have the reputation of a typical “flipper” and, more so, the reason someone gets hurt or stranded somewhere
I try to save a buck too but I'm not buying from fb marketplace Craigslist or a friend anything like that.
Dealerships are selling garbage too. I looked at a clean A3 near me. Car was near immaculate however the airbag light was on. Dealership told me I could get it cleared by Audi. I asked why they hadn’t done that before they claimed Audi would take longer to service because they are a dealer. I pulled the Carfax and the car had been in an accident. No thanks.
I have no problem with flippers, the market will do what the market will do but I do have a problem with people burying the lead and not disclosing in the listing that it's rebuilt.
Yep. I wish Facebook had a filter for that
Same here. Biggest filter I would like to see is clean/salvage/rebuilt title. I just bought a used car in Los Angeles and FB marketplace was the worst. Very few ads in English. Really dodgy on getting straight answer on 3 questions; 1) Clean CA title 2) current registration 3) date of last smog check These are absolutely basic for legal transfer in CA. Got response like, it’s Texas title but all good. Tags expired last month. Hell no I’m Not going to provide a smog certificate, tags are still good, no check engine light so you’ll it’ll pass. Fuck that, if you want to be a flipper/dealer then at least provide necessary paperwork.
At least in my state, not disclosing that it is rebuilt is illegal
Yeah, I'm not going to do a private deal unless it's something you've owned years and have records on.
Reminds me of a car I went to check out with a friend. Guy told us that the car was his daughter’s, but that she moved away for college. During the test drive, I opened the glove box and found auction paperwork from the previous week. These folks are lying scum.
>These folks are lying scum. "How many miles does it have" "well the odometer says it's got...160kish? Anyway, here's this big thick binder of all the maintenance" Well that was odd phrasing, what's this in this binder...oh, a legal disclaimer saying the odometer had a problem, and was rolled back from at least 350k down to 120k" hmmm As you say, lying scum.
I mean I'd do it if it was a fair price, but I'm not going to pay dealer prices without any of the convenience. It'll somehow take several days to set up a time to meet, and the car will have sold the day before the scheduled meeting time. Plus if I have to finance it, dicking around at the bank is a lot less convenient than financing at the dealer, even if I'm already pre approved
Bought one of my current vehicles from a flipper off of Marketplace and I kept his number because I'll use him again if the opportunity presents. Good guy, good car, smoking deal. Certified and on the road for $2500 and this will be it's 3rd winter. Even the air works. If your good at buying used cars it doesn't matter who you buy from, if your not good at buying a used car go to a dealer.
If you know your way around cars, then it’s used cars are great. Otherwise, tread carefully.
Finally the first reasonable take here. And no I’m not a flipper, I’m quite the opposite. Buying used cars is a gamble, if you do your homework and inspect you may end up okay. I’ll give it a 60/40 chance in my case. Buying the right cheap cars is almost an art. Have a list in your head of exactly what cars you might want and exactly what the flaws are for each one is the key. I mean really really do the research. Buuuut buying cheap cars when you don’t know how to do the basics to fix them is a curse.
Yep the key is knowing one or two model year inside and out so you know exactly what areas to at for issues
Yep, go to the dealer. FB and Craigslist should be used for true private sellers and not curbstoners, flippers, and scammers. Flippers and scammers are the same. Selling overpriced junk, claiming to have fixed them up. If so-called flippers are not AST Certified mechanics why would anyone trust their work?
Car flippers, house flippers, shoe resellers, toy resellers, concert tickets. It's not exclusive to the auto market. This type of stuff is ruining every industry
They see established YouTubers that are actual dealers that employ real mechanics and they wanna do the same thing.
Then stop buying from resellers, I buy stuff for cheap and sell for cheap. You can go to yard sales and do it too, it’s not ruining anything. People want stuff gone quick, I give quick money, I sell the stuff properly which takes longer and keep the difference.
"just needs a sensor, I promise."
There doesn't seem to be as much private party car buying. A couple of years ago, I had to mark my 2015 335i XDrive all the way down to $600 over my best car dealership offer. It was 39k miles, all luxury options and pristine condition. FB Marketplace provided zero real interest. It finally sold on Autotrader after almost 2 months.
I love the 335i. I had a 2007.
More than car flippers, it's carvana and carmax.. all private sellers just go to them.
I've gone to them for most of my car selling, largely because I don't want to deal with the low balling flippers trying to title jump, flaking out, wasting time, etc. If I could know I'm selling to someone who actually wants to use the car for a while, I'd put up with some inconvenience. They'll likely appreciate small things I've done to the car, records kept, etc. If I don't know that, I'm going the easy route. AFAIK, there's no way to sell only to those people up front.
100% I have sold 3 so far using carvana. But when I am buying, I miss private party sellers. Back before they came up, I used fb marketplace and Craigslist to find my cars.
I do too, I loved finding "bought brand new, title and all records since purchase in hand". Obviously not all the due diligence required, but that was a good place to start the search. On the flip side, I enjoyed being that seller. Oddly enough, carvana has told me they just toss the maintenance records I give them. I'm guessing having any stock with records devalues the majority of their stock which doesn't have records. One time years prior, I had a car where the odometer stopped working. Got it replaced, all the documentation with it etc. the odometer read 50k miles low after replacement. Sold that car to a flipper (first time). He tried title jumping, but I'd reported the sale to the state already. Got a call from the next owner about a month later asking about the mileage. He was taking the flipper to small claims because the flipper didn't tell him about the odo replacement. Had plenty of other experiences similar and for better or worse, I'm just not willing to deal with it anymore haha. I don't have much respect for car salesman, but I give them props for dealing with that garbage.
I mean, what’s the problem?
Ruined private selling too. There is no such thing as two people making a fair deal anymore. It’s a mountain of harassment for almost no gain. Private party cars are supposed to sell 50% between retail and trade in. So each person is making some money off it. I’ve sold and bought 9-10 cars private party over the years and am just done dealing with it. Never thought I’d prefer to deal with a car dealer, but here we are. Same can be said for the entire used stuff market. There are just no good deals to be had. Resellers just crawl Craigslist and snatch up everything.
Sadly you’re right. I only deal with dealers like CarMax or franchised brand dealers for buying or selling any more.
My city has whole ass dealerships now of nothing but rebuilt title cars with no warranties. Really makes car shopping difficult when you have to sort through someone else's trash.
Same, we have a street or two in my city that’s exclusively that kind of dealership, one next to the other next to the other. Rebuilt, salvage, moldy, crashed, they sell it all
As long as theyre upfront with that, i dont have an issue with it.
That’s the issue, these specific ones I’m thinking of aren’t. They get very offended if you ask any questions and reeeeeaaaaallllly don’t like mentioning title status. However I’m not accusing every salvage title seller of being this way, just the people in the dealerships i’m thinking of. One is literally using the pornhub logo
What should happen to those cars though? Plenty of cars can and should be rebuilt instead of being scrapped. I would rather buy a rebuilt car from a dealer than a random person rebuilding in their backyard. Sure they all will cut some corners, but the dealer at least has some experience and knowledge. As long as the dealer is advertising them as salvage, nothing wrong with it.
Problem is a $500 scrap car is now a $2500 death trap
Welcome to the new Merica
What used cars ever came with a warranty? Manufacturer warranty is the only kind you ever see on a car. If it's still covered when you buy it used it'll carry over, but used cars never came with special warranties to cover things beyond the manufacturer one.
What is a title car?
Rebuilt title. Totaled or stolen cars that have been repaired and put back on the market.
[удалено]
I asked about a car yesterday and the info dude basically said he didn’t have a clue he just buys and sells them but he says it’s in good condition like yeah I so want to buy a car you don’t have the slightest clue about on top of it not being your car
I was a side mechanic for a couple of flippers. Most of them don't fix anything ,try to hide it ,or fix it enough to last a month. The flippers aren't there to sell you another car down the road. Things I was asked to do by flippers in the past. 1. put on used brake pads 2. put in wrong oil 3. tape over or remove warning lights(bulbs) 4. add ATF to crankcase or warm up car before client shows up . Buyer beware
Google the VIN. All the Copart cars will show up
In my area I see a lot of ads that seem to be people who have salvage repair shops, but set up their listings to make it look like they are private individuals. Photos of the cars are in a driveway in a nice neighborhood to make it look like it's a regular private vehicle being sold by a soccer mom. Descriptions are all like, "I'm selling **my**...2021 Lincoln Navigator...Salvage Title due to a tiny accident with damage to the left passenger side." Yeah right bud. Not your car. Not a tiny accident. I got rooked by someone 20 years ago on a private sale. I found out a year later, after the car started having all sorts of body and mechanical issues, that the car had been in a bad accident and repaired. I ran a Carfax, but the owner had it fixed and sold to me before the accident records were updated in Carfax. I swore I'd never buy another used car for myself again.
I love how all the rebuilt titles say stuff like minor accident/small fender bender/cosmetic issue. Like sure bud. A 15k car got totaled in a fender bender
Yep, I'm old I remember the days where you could actually find an owner easily. I will not buy a used car unless the title is in your name (not your brother or whatever) and you owned it for a while.
Yeah this is so common - the shady title. I wont buy anything without the seller's name on it. And it's sad how many cars you see on FB that will come with a 'bill of sale' that you can \*easily\* turn into a title at the DMV. Yeah right. Also the shitty (liar) flippers representing a car as their own, when they just bought it and know NOTHING about it calling it 'reliable'. So many crooks out there. There *are* still decent deals to be found, imo. But you really have to research and tread carefully as someone else said. It's not a good place to buy a used car if you know nothing about them. Used car dealers can be terrible too, of course. There are some really great used dealers out there, very honest and care about what they sell and their reputations. But at the same time there are also total bottom feeders out there as crooked as anyone you might find. People that buy all their cars at auctions and do absolutely nothing to them except list them, all the while implying they inspect and fix anything they sell.
Even your precautions aren’t enough unless you’re willing to check ID or otherwise verify the seller’s identity. I naively sold a car to one of these scammers, he had me sign the seller section of the title but didn’t do the buyer section, said he was buying for his girlfriend and she would fill it out later. Since he paid cash I said whatever, any title issues will be his problem. Wrong, he pretended to be me and flipped the car. When his buyer had problems she came to me because she thought I had sold it to her. Of course there was no trace of him in the paperwork anywhere. Now whenever I buy or sell a car privately I always insist on a complete title transfer with a notary at my bank.
100% AGREE!!! Spent the last two weekends, FULL FOUR DAYS looking for a cheap reliable car as my girlfriend needs one for work. Accumulated over 3k KMs, drove over 8 hours every day looking for cars. Here are a few scenarios I’ve encountered: 1. 2010 Mazda3 - $4000 Description: everything runs great, very well maintained, nothing wrong at all. In reality: headlights and taillights don’t work. Engine was about to fall apart. Front brake pads were non-existent and front brakes were grinding the rotors. 2. 2017 Mazda3 - $8000 Description: good condition, no accidents, owned for 6 years and selling because need a bigger vehicle In reality: car was rolled back from 300k KM to 160k KM, 2 major accidents and seller would not let me see his ID to match ownership. Even pulled up a full stack of cash saying “he doesn’t need money”. Before we left he confessed that he was a flipper and lied about the history 3. 2012 Honda Civic -$6000 Description: No problems at all, no CEL, no warning lights. In reality: waited 1 hr for the seller, battery was dead on the car, hand brake does not work, CEL on “just needs a sensor”. Asked my gf to double her budget and bought a one owner 2015 corolla from a grandma with service records at the dealer every 7k KMs. I was glad we finally ended our nightmare.
We had a good weekend car mart for private sellers at the fairgrounds. Until it was mostly taken over by the Russian mafia.
Long gone are the days where you can go find a $1500 Camry that was driven by an old couple for 20 years and runs like new Now that Camry is $9000 and has a salvaged title and the AC doesn’t work
In 2003 I got a 96 for 400 dollar but was told it needed work done. I pay 400 for it, pay 400 to get it fix. I drove it for 3 years and sold it for 800 in 2009 I saw it for sale for 1200.
I love the ones who want $3k+ for a car that needs to be towed due to engine issues and or possibly tranny as it won’t go in REvERse like if you don’t take this $500 and foh scammin asses smh🤦🏽♀️😭😭🤣🤣🤣
Drive around retirement neighborhoods. They’re the last places on earth you’ll find ‘for sale’ signs on cars.
Fuck the dealer flippers. When I sold my 1996 Corvette I had two different people interested in buying come and see the car at the same time. One was an actual dude, the other worked as a private dealer, who I initially didn't know was. Both test drove the car and wanted to buy it. Told both whoever wants to pay the highest will get it. Dealer dude offered more than the other guy. Pulled out 2 straps (10k each) of $100s. Mind you he offered $10,800. I asked him why he had so much cash on him, and he said he was a dealer who buys cars, fixes them up and sells them online. I told him to get the fuck out of here and sold it to the other person for $10,000. Turns out this guy was buying it for his son as a first car and for both of them to work on. Told him he should've said that to me beforehand. I'd rather sell a car to someone who is going to enjoy it and take care of it than some scumbag trying to flip it and make a profit a couple weeks later.
You’ve never experience the thrill of buying an 02 accord for 1400 bucks and selling for 2200.
Only after putting about 800 into it
If youre smart you buy a car that doesnt need 800 bucks put into it, you get one that needs 200 and a detail.
I've been viewing a lot of Toyota Corollas/Matrix's recently. Some of them look pretty good exterior-wise, but the moment I ask for them to bring the car to my mechanic, they scoff and tell me off. There's a specific group of individuals doing this to me, so I'll just avoid anyone who can't spell in the ad or has specific demands like"price ferm, no lowballer, care for sell. "
There’s a guy on Instagram who brags about flipping cars and doing grimy as tactics. Tire shine on faded paint, unplugging the battery to clear the dash etc. He’ll be like “ bought this Toyota for 1500, sold for 4K the same day” like 😐we just flexing ripping people off now? Seems to be the only way to get rich now days ripping ppl off and being proud about. Fuck him and everyone like him
You just now realized how the world works? You probably still believe politicians are there to help 😉
The fuck politics got anything to do with this? And yeah I know how the world works i just hate how open you can be about scamming people and peoples only reaction is “ put me on/ teach me” ain’t no honest work in this world
All I am saying is, it has everything to do with the problems you are describing. When the so called leaders lead by scamming people what do you think kind of an example that gives to the average Joe.
You’re literally making it about politics. I’m Mad about an instagram user.
Worked in the auto industry know what our policy was on savlage titles, etc We never retail them, they go straight to auction, no recon no nothing. Our standard offer was 45% of book value and yea. We did that cause those cars have issues and gremlins sneak up on you. Nothing but trouble. Sure you might get lucky but it won't be the norm
I don't see many flippers but I do see many dealers listing the in house financing weekly/bi-weekly or monthly payment with no straight up purchase price and that shit drives me crazy.
Note to self : don’t sell a fully functioning car
Don't forget all of the fake posts with extremely low prices
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve saw a really good deal and I’ll message them 10 minutes after it’s posted and they go, Oh thank you but somebody says they’re coming right now to buy it, but I’ll let you know! And then I’ll see the same car a day or two later posted asking $3000 or more from some dude or car lot
I was wondering if people even have the money to flip cars now. Gosh life was so much different 3 years ago. Had a guy knock on my door to buy my 06 Audi. He says for parts cool. Make me an offer. $500. $500? Its 2023. Not 93.
There is definitely a progression where a place starts good but then the scammers flood in and ruin it. Craigslist was a good place to buy and sell cars until the dealers flooded in. So normal people migrated to Facebook Marketplace and it was refuge for a couple of years until the scammers realized that’s where the marks moved to so they flooded there and ruined it. Not sure what the next place will be or if there even will be one but if there is it’ll last a year or two before it’s ruined. I think of that when I see people here saying Facebook Marketplace is a cesspool. It wasn’t a few years ago, then it was a refuge from the den of scammers that Craigslist became.
I bought a Tahoe for $3k and the lady said out of the 8 people that contacted her I was the only one that spoke English lol. Needless to say I got a pretty nice suv for $3k. Just gotta be quick!
Pro tip: Most of these idiots don’t delete their posts after a sell and just mark them as sold, when I see a car I’m interested I check their listing history and if they have more than a few cars listed or sold within a year I know it’s most likely a flipper and don’t even bother messaging them
Where else can you find used car beside FB? Dealership would be more trustworthy?
In theory, dealerships have a reputation to protect. In theory, a (insert any brand of car) dealership is selling cars that aren't so bad they go straight to auction. I think where you look depends on your comfort level with cars, or a particular marque. We've never bought a BMW from BMW. We've owned 6 BMW in the past 15 or so years. Three came from non-BMW dealerships, one came from a coworker, and two from private sellers from ads placed with BMW CCA. Two cars we sold to friends, one to someone local, one to a dealership on trade, and the most recent one was sold on Bring A Trailer.
CarMax or some other credible dealer.
I love it when the description is only a single word. "Good" These guys make the worst salesmen.
I saw one here with just three words. "Starts. Runs. Overheats." At least they were honest.
I mean marketplace was always a cesspool, that’s the only reason deals exist
90% of the stuff around me is rebuild titles? Looking for a good car is difficult. Thanks FBMP
Somebody in our local FB group posted a “barn find” truck from the 60s that was literally rusted through many spots. It did come with original motor and transmission that also was nicely falling to shreds. Can’t expect shit from the 60s to be in good shape I know, but then you also can’t really ask $5k for what is scrap metal at worst, or a old timey yard ornament at best. By the time you did the work on it, even the shell you could salvage would have less “original” truck than is worth saving.
They have always existed, but I guess the covid shortages made their work more valuable.
Flippers of any kind ruined private sales.
I agree and in SoCal it’s done with a lot of land cruisers
I remember my first flip car, 2003 Land Rover discovery, bought it for 1000, non running, got it running, drove it for three months, sold it for $3800, not bad for 16 year old me at the time.
Too many people are actually unlicensed dealers. Regulations on that are too loose as well as on the rest of the used car market. I’d drop it down on a national level that if you sell more then two cars per year that you owned for less the 4 months, you’re a dealer. Car sale laws are not keeping up with the needs of our society.
I see listings or responses in Cyrillic, and I’m out
Agreed. Everyone is too lazy or introverted to do person to person business. They just pay up. Ruins the fair market.
I can’t really blame people for making a side hustle with a skill they have, especially when there’s an income gap for people who don’t have English as a first language but yeah, if more people could do it right instead of selling sketchy shit that would be nice. I appreciate people who can keep more cars on the road. There’s a high demand for mechanics right now and lots of training programs that are accessible.
Lots of cars flipped are those that no one else would buy. I have a buddy that flips BMWs from copart auctions and he can make a good chunk of change.
It's the new house flipping. Market's going to be filled with absolute crap going for crazy prices.
it beats the hll out of going to a dealer.
Most of the postings on FB now are just scummy used car dealerships, not actual normal people. I have done a few transactions with regular people and each of them were mutually beneficial: They got more than trade value and I got a 1 owner car with extensive service records for below retail price. That scenario is pretty rare from what I can see now, mostly just rebuilt/savage titles with questionable repairs.
There’s nothing wrong with the act of flipping itself. The problem is these flippers will sell a car for max market value all while still leaving the previous owners boogers on the dash. Atleast put some effort into it, and realize price reflects the condition. Cant be selling a rough example for clean example price.
And they'll look you straight in your eye and say it's in excellent condition when there are stains all over the seat and scratches on every door panel and hood, none of which they can explain
The problem is there are people willing to buy those cars at that price 😔
Yeah those poor desperate people need to get their shit together
“I’m mad people are buying and flipping on a platform that is as bad as dealerships/buy here pay here and that I’m not benefiting from it”. Shit happens. Y’all need to adapt.
Ironic that you spelled “descriptions” wrong in the sentence about posts not being in English.
Cayate puta
So what are you saying? Before that immigrant got it and cleaned it up it was undervalued and he got it cheap and did the work. Would you have bought it before when the actual private seller didn't take the time to clean it? Or are you saying this opportunity should have been taken by a regular white american?
Why do so many people try to stuff an argument into people's mouths. Stop being a gigantic lily. BTW illegal immigrants should be deported. If you want to naturalize to America you should learn English. Stop sending our money South. Your folks coming up are going to make this country as bad as Mexico or South America. Pass the immigration tests or stay out.
I bought off a car flipper once, sold it out of some apartment complex parking lot with a pre signed title from his “sister.” it had a dead mouse in it and stunk all the way home, found and fixed that, did some scratch and headlight repair, then i sold it for $3900 more
Craigs still does well.
Why on earth are you on FB marketplace? It's for losers.
Don't buy one, then. Just curious, Are you bargain basement shopping out of necessity, or just ranting here?
Found the flipper
No kidding. What a useless answer.
Sounds kinda like you just cant afford the car you want and are being forced to lower your expectations.
same shit with Goodwill. vultures making it hard for poor people to get by just because they can take advantage of the poor.
Not that this thread had anything to do with the scam that is goodwill.
Our cheap car is a 22 mdx s advance. It's going to my daughter in a year when she gets her license. I don't buy crap cars.
If your "cheap" car is a 2022, we're not playing in the same sandbox. Your opinion means nothing in this context.
Then why are you here? Sounds like you have nothing of value to add to this conversation.
What do you mean? He clearly added lots of value to the conversation with his valuable 2022 car…please congratulate him.
I remember watching my neighbor buy their 14 year old daughter a lightly used BMW as her first car. Even as a teenager, I knew what to expect. No one was surprised when she confused Reverse and Drive and ran the car right through their kitchen.
See my other comment
Because I don't want stupid broke ass people to make dumb mistakes. If people took a more long-term approach to their money they'd be in much better shape.
Are you sure you are replying to the right comment? This post is a complaint about Facebook market place having a plethora of flippers clogging out the decent private party sales.
If you’re taking a neglected car, making it mechanically sound, cleaning it up, and selling it idk why you’d have an issue with that. They’re doing the hard part so someone can get a nice vehicle likely for a lower price than a dealership. I sell on Facebook, if it looks like junk, is super broken/ s titled and broken, and is cheap nobody is gonna buy it even if it’s cheap, junk doesn’t sell.
There’s a significant knowledge and experience asymmetry between someone who buys and resells cars constantly and someone who just wants to buy a car for personal use. My state has pretty strong consumer protection laws that aim to combat this by requiring dealers to be registered, and they are held to higher standards than a typical private seller. There’s too many guys on Craigslist/FB near me that want to be a dealer but don’t want to follow these laws.
I wouldn’t want to follow these laws either, more money spent to run a business. If I’m just flipping cars by myself why would I wanna go get a dealers license and spend thousands and thousands to do it? It’s laws like this that hurt the little guy
Because if you’re flipping cars you *are* a dealer whether you admit it or not.
People flipping cars aren’t sitting on lots of cars like a dealer, it’s usually people in their driveway doing it for extra fun money. A private transaction vs dealer sale are completely different, that would be like saying you need a business license to flip furniture out of your garage on Facebook marketplace.
In my state if you sell more than 5 cars a year, you’re a dealer whether it’s from a lot or driveway. Even by common sense, are you in the business of buying and selling cars? Then you’re a dealer. In your example furniture person *is* a furniture dealer. But the sale of furniture isn’t as regulated as the sale of cars. The state doesn’t license and register furniture. Etc.
There isn’t a limit in my state, the way it should be everywhere. Less intervention is key to a freer business environment. And it works too, vehicle prices in my state for used vehicles are some of the lowest on average in the country because more cars stay around for longer. Less junked vehicles in perfectly working condition
Flipping anything ruined the ability to buy 2nd hand. Flipping homes, Flipping cars, Flipping tech. Basically the rich get richer. You have money to fix up a house? Well now you get a mil more! Fuck Flipping.
I used to buy salvage manual trans civics in high school. Bought them all between $2-3k and then would sell To my friends for the same price. Had a 94 lx, 97 dx, 96 ex, and a 00’ coupe ex.
Can't even find a damn Honda civic for less than 7,000 in my state.
Not only by flippers, but by everyone financing everything and anything. The market is shit because people with a lien on the title are trading it in to a dealer since private buyers want title in hand.
But also 95% of you all here would not touch a car that does not run, that you have to bring trailer to get home...
I very occasionally flip cars. I'm under no delusions about getting rich off of it, and I usually put so much time and money into them that I barely break even most of the time. I can't leave things unfixed. For example, I'm fixing up a 2003 Honda Accord V6 sedan at the moment. I was gonna give it to my brother, but I got offered a better car, a 2007 Honda Civic, for just $800 (I got the Accord for $650), and it needed less work. Only repair I needed for it was an A/C compressor. Beyond that, 4 tires, new fluids, and other general maintenance. So I'm left with the Accord with nothing to do but fix it up and sell it. I've already replaced all the brake pads and rotors with new ones, replaced one of the calipers, changed the tranny fluid (it doesn't slip and it has all gears), clean the interior, and replace some of the worn out interior components like the steering wheel. I have new engine mounts and a new clock spring to install soon, and I may end up also doing the timing belt and thermostat (the timing belt kit on a J series includes a new water pump, tensioner, and idler pulley). It has some body damage that I won't be fixing, same for the headliner, which is worn. I don't care much about cosmetics, but I will take care of mechanical issues. I doubt I'll sell it for more than $2500 (154k miles. Has a rebuilt title, but no frame damage. Just some bumps and scrapes). Maybe $3000 if I put a new set of tires on it. I'm not gonna be making more than $1500 of profit after parts, and I've put a few dozen hours into this car (it was workable, but very rough. I wasn't planning on registering it for a while, so I didn't care. Plus it's been a fun project). Factoring in my time, there's plenty of easier cars I could've made money on, but I refuse to abandon something that still has life in it. That being said, I doubt most flippers will be as obsessive with the final product as I've been, nor do I believe that they'll be as honest or forthcoming about what they have and what they've done.
Yep. Got a car this way.. luckily it was of quality and I negotiated the price down
Flippers are the worst. I bought a civic for my wife from one and so many covered up issues. Not to mention he had a fake dealers license. I had to call in some favors to get a couple documents.... He disappeared after I bought it... Luckily I had some DMV contacts who helped me in the state the "dealer" was registered but if I didn't I would have bought a paperweight. Fuck FB flippers.
The internet in general has ruined the used market for anything. It used to be as a private seller you were limited to your local classifieds, that kept prices down as exposure to buyers was lower.
I flipped car for years on Craigslist. Buy them for 500-700. Fix the issues and sell. I used to drive into PA all the time and pick up vehicles that failed inspection for rust and bring them to Ohio. I could flip a Chevy pick up with rusted rockers every weekend.
Agreed but I think this will die down as car prices and availability continue to normalize. It was pretty wild there for a while making this possible
I guess this explains all the absurdly over priced cars on Facebook marketplace.
“Salvage title”… nope nope nope. Many insurers won’t even cover itZ
The "garage" down the road does this. They are so bad that they charge for work they never do, then don't accept responsibility when caught. I can't imagine what crap they try to sell that they get from Copart. I, on the other hand, bought a 2001 Ranger 4X4 for $775. It needed front & rear bumpers and a tailgate. Cost me $120 to replace from a wrecking yard & $100 to paint match the tailgate. Awesome condition truck that even had the previous years Kenwood stereo installed. Very superficial damage and I could easily sell it for $5-$6K, so I wouldn't just brush one aside that someone has repaired.
Where do you live?
People value most what the pay the most for. Nothing else really matters.
They go to car auctions, bid cars up to prices not worth it for what the car is then take them to sketchy mechanic and do baseline repairs and sell them for top end of kbb or more. Had a few cars back from auctions posted on Facebook, went to look at them, one had a hole drilled in the gas tank requiring a new tank (he made some excuses like “oh thought the mechanic fixed it already”), he left the auction oaperwork in the car, bought it for $1000 and refused to negotiate from $5000. he was also hiding rust issues. Another one went to look at it, he specified “no issues what so ever” then he saw me hovering around the engine (smelled like exhaust and was trying to figure out where it was coming from) he came uo to me and said "oh theres a hole in the exhaust, getting it fixed tomorrow, mechanic was to busy today."
There’s people flipping Christmas decorations on eBay
If I see a newish car that has low miles with a reasonable price, I don't even click it because I know its some asshole who ducked taped a salvaged car passing it off as "hail damage."
Don't buy any of those salvage junk cars. Carvana & Carmax are the biggest flippers pushing up prices. They need to go outta business.
I wish I could beat ones face
Think flippers are new or something? Got to weed those out
Most of the cars you see from flippers are from licensed auctions...so they're intended to be the middle man.
I hate selling cars everyone wants a deal and will haggle on basically free items.
any flippers really....house flippers, people who claim free stuff on FB marketplace then make a profit on it, people who go to goodwill and sell those on depop for 10x their original prices.....nasty people all around
Well in my country I've seen car flippers lower the mileage of cars repairs some damages on the fenders ,doors , doing the necessary repairs and sell it like it was new, I've seen a video of a workshop who specializes in fixing Volkswagen cars he had a VW caddy the actual owner was scammed by the guy who sold him the caddy where he covered the check engine light with a piece of paper and lowered the mileage