How To Handle Your Car Paperwork When You Sell Your Car

When you sell a car there is important paperwork to get ready now.

Doing this now instead of scrambling for it at the last minute when your potential buyer is on the way over to look at your car will save time and keep you from blowing the sale.

How could not having all your paperwork ready possibly blow the sale?

The reason is that some buyers want and need their car NOW and they won't want to wait around if you don't have everything ready.

When you sell a car you need to gather together all those important papers like...

Title: Depending on where you live; the Title is the same thing as the Certificate Of Ownership, "Pink Slip", etc.

Vehicle Registration and/or License Paperwork: Get your cars vehicle registration paperwork or any license paperwork.

Receipts: Get together all receipts for repairs and maintenance that you had done as proof that you actually had the work done.

Safety Check: Get a safety check if needed. This varies from state to state.

Vehicle History Report: A vehicle history report is one more thing to help build trust between you and your buyer...and that means you will sell a car sooner.

Smog Certificate: Get a smog check if needed (varies by state - mandatory in California and is customary for the seller to take care of.

Bill Of Sale: I like to include something on the Bill Of Sale in very clear terms that the "sale is final" and that "the seller is not responsible for any future repairs." Make sure you have them initial and date the Bill Of Sale.

Receipt For Deposit: I only accept a cash deposit. I like to put something on the deposit receipt that clearly states that if they change their minds - they lose their cash deposit. Have them date and initial that too.

Having all these items ready when your buyer shows up can make the difference between you be able to sell a car sooner, with less hassles.

The alternative is wasting your time by having to show your car to millions of people because your "buyers" bail on you because they don't want to wait around for you to get the paperwork in order.

Like I said before: When you sell a car, make it as easy as possible for your buyer. The more hoops you make them jump through then the more likely they'll say "screw it!" and look at someone elses car.

I should mention that the legalities of your car paperwork will vary from country to country and state to state. So don't take this car paper-work information here as the way you do things EVERYWHERE...it isn't! Fair enough? Good!

So look online for your DMV (or whatever government agency is in charge of handling these things) and find out exactly what you need for your area when you sell a car.