Turning Cars for $$$
 

Anyone here turn cars?

I've been doing some research, going to auctions (drug seize/repos/etc) and such and think I can make a few bucks by buying cars and then turning them around.

Their is no limit on the # of cars I buy, but I think their is a state law against how many I sell w/o a dealer lisence. Anyone do this before? Can you shed some advice or pitfalls?

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

One thing I found out about buying cars at auctions is you don't know what you are getting, ie. no test drives is a good example of this, sure you can jump in them rev them up, put them in reverse and forward but by doing that how much can you really tell?
For example I bought a 94 chev lumina mini van, got it for $900 canadian which is right around $675 US. I drove it home, everything seemed to work fine, then bang 1000 kms later the head gasket was gone, come to find out the previous owner just dumped some of the seal all ---- in it and drove it to the auction. Did matter to me that much as I paid practically nothing for it and I fixed it myself for around $150.
But with that being said you may buy something with the same thing done to it, turn right around and sell it to someone else and then the same thing happens to them. So now you have a pissed off owner who wants their money back or the car fixed. You can get around this with putting AS IS on the receipt but if it happens too many times you'll get a bad rep and people won't buy anything from you.
But if you can get some vehicles and turn a good $1000 or more on them I would say go for it. If not it isnt' worth the headaches IMHO.

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

I turn my car all day. It doesn't pay very well though. :P

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

in florida, your allowed 3 cars per year w/o a dealers liscense.

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

in NY its like 10.... I tend to double my money on cars... like i bought a nice 92 Accord coupe for $1000 and sold it for $2000... not bad for keeping it for a month and putting nothing in it, but my current 95 accord im barely gonna break even with, so you might not make a profit on all of the cars.

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

theres some house i pass everyday, and theres a differnt car in the front every week for sale. the guy must make a ---- load of money doin this. i dont know how many cars you can sell hear in CT without a dealers liscens. but this guys got to sell well over 50 cars a year. hes got a real good location where he sells them.

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

I used to go to a local (Tacoma) auction all the time and buy $1000 ---- boxes and then sell them for a couple hundred more. Kinda fun, cause' I got to beat on them for a few weeks til the title came. In WA I believe you can sell 7cars in a rolling 12month period w/o a license.

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

I think it's 4 a year out here. I have bought and sold cars without the title ever being in my name. I just have the previous owner notarize the title and I don't sign it. I just pass the title on to the next guy after I raped it for what I wanted. ;)
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Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

just dont sign the title jsut have the previous owner sign and leave it at that... then just have the new owner sign and you never owned it on paper... sell as meny as you want...

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

the limit in WA is 4

yea i was pissed to. ive tured around a few cars and made $$$ i bought a 88 Lebaron coupe for $150 fixed its hed gasket and sold it for $1700 ;D

Ill only make a few hundred on the 86 lancer im driving right now.

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

When I lived on the border (el paso) I wanted to start buying totaled cars, rebuilding them, and resaling them. You can find new totaled escalades for like $8k, get them over to Juarez Mexico, have them rebuilt for like $3-4k and then resale them for however much you want.

I did a ton of research because I was real serious about it, but I realized it just wasn't worth it. You can get the title cleared of the salvaged status, but by law you have to disclose to the buyer that you have rebuilt it. Furthermore, when the 3" thick bondo starts cracking out in a few months you've got some explaining to do.

I do know that if you can get a truck over to mexico they sell for a ton more than they do here, so you buy a truck for like $15000 here and you sell it for like $25-30k there.

Hmmm...maybe I'll brush up on my spanish and do that...

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

i do this for a living.. who ever paid 675 us dollars for a 94 lumina i don't car if its clean or not.. we get those in for like 300 bucks... as far as auction, (drug seize/repos/etc).. MAYBY sometimes you might score on a good price.. see public people buy so there paying more for what they should.. go to a real auction like manheim and you'll get really good deals.. but you have to be bonded with 25,000 and a license of some sort. Best way to do it is buy from private owners. thats the closest to auction prices you can get. find old people and tell theme your in highschool carry a back pack with you, do or say whatever you have to do to make your story convincing for theme to feel sorry for you and drop the price.. trust me it works.. o and if your gonna turn cars make sure the tittle is open. if you need some help for registration i'll hook you up with a tag transfer form. that way you don't have to register it for like 30 days.

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

allright first your stupid ass post on doing extacy and now this one- you're really starting to get on my nerves with your total lack of morals. i truly don't understand how people can go through life being total scum and be perfectly fine with it.
::)

Re:Turning Cars for $$$
 

Thanks everyone...good info.

So far Ive been going to the Tacoma auction these last few weeks and taking notes on what the cars go for, and who buys them (a few guys there are re-occuring charactors)

I really am not trying to make the mistake that this is in any way "easy money", but Ive got a few thousand from taxes coming up and need something to replace my '74 mercedes
(my daily driver since my CRX got stolen) and thought it would be good to make a few extra dollars.

Warrn-teg - you are right, it is a public auction and on some cars their really is not a whole lot of savings, but on other less popular cars Ive seen about a 1k-2k difference in fair market value (I research using AutoTrader online. Seems to me the best deals out there were like the late model Dodge Caravans, Ford Explorer's and such, basically the really nice family cars with all the options on them.

Anything popular.... ie hondas, bmw's, etc. tends to go into territory that I would not pay. Thanks for the tips and confirming the 4 car WA limit

My goal is just to get a few hundred more then I paid for them.