Do any of you flip cars for profit ?

[21elnegocio]

I was wondering if any of you flips cars. Not to low of a price cars im talking like 10k and up worth cars, pretty much good sport cars well maintained. If so what kind of cars are easier to flip ? How do you do it so that the guy/gal who buys the car doesnt question you about the title etc. Since your flipping it. If someone how is well experienced in this can give us a quick guide. This can help all of us make some more profit towards our goals !

 

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[Ivan]

Are you looking to get the cars from an auction, then sell via Autotrader, Craigslist, eBay, etc? Or low-ball distressed sellers to get $10k cars for $5k-$7k?
I'm assuming by the title question, that you don't intend to register the cars in your name. Is that correct?

 

[GuestUser152]

I personally do not flip cars, but there is a family friend of mine that did this for a living. He mainly worked on older Corvettes (think Stingrays and C3's). He would find them torn to pieces locally and completely rebuild them. I think the Corvettes are a good way to go because you can find them cheap (less than 5k) and when rebuilt they yield a high profit (50k+). There are alot of Corvette guru's always looking for them and the fiberglass bodies can be repaired fairly easily if you know how to work with fiberglass. I hope this helps, and good luck!

 

[21elnegocio]

Are you looking to get the cars from an auction, then sell via Autotrader, Craigslist, eBay, etc? Or low-ball distressed sellers to get $10k cars for $5k-$7k?
I'm assuming by the title question, that you don't intend to register the cars in your name. Is that correct?

No im looking at cars worth around 14k and maybe paying 11k or so for them, yeah pretty much lowball them I mean who is going to come to your home willing to by a car 10k and up cash ? right and yes not register ?

 

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[Ivan]

$10k - $15k is actually the best price range to work with in my experience, so I think your choice is good there. As for the title issue... The people I know who make good money by flipping cars have a dealers license. The expenses and taxes are higher, but there are benefits:

- you sleep better at night
- you can move higher volumes of inventory
- you can charge a premium

I would advise against doing any shady title stuff. I know a lot of people get away with it, but the risk outweighs the reward in my opinion.

 

[Ivan]

I just wanted to mention, I think there are ideas and business concepts on this forum that are way better than flipping cars or iPads for a few grand per month. I do a little flipping on the side, but it's not my main focus. It kinda bugs me when I see really good threads being ignored and the "quick money" threads blowing up. Not knocking you personally, but I think a lot of us young guys are prone to chase the hustle a little too much (including myself in that category, because I'm leaving home to sell an item now lol)

 

[21elnegocio]

$10k - $15k is actually the best price range to work with in my experience, so I think your choice is good there. As for the title issue... The people I know who make good money by flipping cars have a dealers license. The expenses and taxes are higher, but there are benefits:

- you sleep better at night
- you can move higher volumes of inventory
- you can charge a premium

I would advise against doing any shady title stuff. I know a lot of people get away with it, but the risk outweighs the reward in my opinion.

Yeah thats my range from 10k to 15k and well about that dealers license I have read up on it, but you need to have a lot and lots of other stuff to be able to get the dealers license. Tell you the truth I flip motorcycles good ones though not crappy ones and so far knock on wood its been good I just make sure my buyers get the title switched out to their name without any problems. What type of business concepts Ivan, send me some links man it would be highly appreciated.

 

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[jayd]

No im looking at cars worth around 14k and maybe paying 11k or so for them, yeah pretty much lowball them I mean who is going to come to your home willing to by a car 10k and up cash ? right and yes not register ?

It's doable but you have a lot more money just out there while you try to flip the car. And I would imagine a car in that price range is going t take longer to flip.

I usually buy cars I can sell for under $3K. Why?

Because most people don't have $10-15K to buy a car, let alone a sports car these days.

They're credit is shot and they can't qualify for a lease or finance on a new car without paying through the nose, so they take what would have been their down payment money and buy something used that will get them from a to b.

Not saying the $10-$15K range wouldn't work. Just much more risk.

No matter what route you go, definitely make sure you're going after something that has strong demand.

 

[jayd]

I just wanted to mention, I think there are ideas and business concepts on this forum that are way better than flipping cars or iPads for a few grand per month. I do a little flipping on the side, but it's not my main focus. It kinda bugs me when I see really good threads being ignored and the "quick money" threads blowing up. Not knocking you personally, but I think a lot of us young guys are prone to chase the hustle a little too much (including myself in that category, because I'm leaving home to sell an item now lol)

Very true Ivan, but it's not exactly quick money. It takes a little skill and a set of stones to flip cars and flip them for profit.

While it's not my main source of income, it's nice side cash that can be used for a lot of stuff like paying bills, doing stuff around the house, etc.

 

[jayd]

Yeah thats my range from 10k to 15k and well about that dealers license I have read up on it, but you need to have a lot and lots of other stuff to be able to get the dealers license.

Yeah man, it varies depending on where you live.

I'm in NY and it's $450 for a license, you need about $100-400 per year in bonds depending on your expectant volume, and you need insurance which is around $5K per year. Not to mention a real location and land line phone that acts as your place of business.

Probably why most people you see flipping cars on craigslist are just title jumping.

 

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[theBiz]

Its pretty illegal to just buy a car, not register it and flip it, and if you want to go that route, your probably going to have to figure it out on your own, its like asking how do i smuggle cocaine into the US from Mexico?

Did you know, you will have no insurance, you buy a car for 11k, dont register it, it is missing when you wake up, your out 11k cash.
When you transport it, will you use fake plates, pay to use someone elses dealer plates? If you get in an accident driving it to your spot your pretty screwed.

You can make money doing it, but if you have to ask how, should probably not. This is some ballsy stuff and most that are successful at it, just wake up and do it without thinking twice.

How do you do it so that the guy/gal who buys the car doesnt question you about the title etc. Since your flipping it.

Ok ill awnser it anyway, you lie... you freaking look someone in the eye like the scum of the earth and you lie to them. Someone just did that to me, and i knew it, so before i met him i printed out an ad i found of the car at an online auction he bought it 1000 miles away from us... i said oh yeah, its just not for you? You just dont like the car? How about you just bought it at an auction. i googled the vin and it came up. The guy still sat there and tried to tell me he had no idea hahha, some people suck.

 

[Vigilante]

I bought a car on Craigslist just to show my son it could be done. We made 10 stupid offers, 1 was accepted, and we flipped it in 2 weeks and doubled the money. Never registered the car in our name. In Minnesota, if you did this more than 6x a year, you would be classified as a dealer and subject to license as a broker, requiring a physical location.

However, that's not a viable way to make money. If you want to do it right and ethically, take the time to become a legitimate dealer.

 

[theBiz]

Nice Vig, yeah i think you can do it a few times around here too, i believe you still have to register in your name though but i could be wrong. Yeah guys your just asking for stress on this one, its a great way to learn, but you will be a shady person.

 

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[PeteLife]

Ok, heres my take on this.
I spent my Junior and Senior year flipping cars. I made A lot money... thousands... atleast for a college kid it was good money.
Heres a few flaws I see in your post.
#1: you are doubting if you can do it. This is not the business for doubters, its either you kno or you dont. You can lose money just as easy as it is to make money in this business. you must understand that most of your competitors are "crooks" so going into a field like this requires a certain knowledge base, salesmanship, and people skills that will make your customer want to trsut you, because more than likely they have already been screwed by the car guy up the road.
#2: You are planning on going the illegal road... BAD IDEA! Though this may work in the beginning the risk behind it is too great for me to even consider it. The last thing you want is some investigator or the IRS showing up at your door, and trust me they will eventually once they see you moving so much cars and not paying taxes. Also, you have NO DEALER PLATES, which leads me to think you will have an illegal plate on the car for transport; and if not, possibly borrow a dealer plate from someone - if caught, both you and the actual dealer gets screwed big time if you are not an agent for the particular dealership the plate is under. Plus, please be aware that when you selll a car, the potential customer have to test drive the car, in other words you are putting your customer behind the wheels of an illegal car. Not my type of business!
#3: The 14k price range is not worth it. You are risking a huge amount of $$$ for $$$ thats not guaranteed. Also, without the legal issues taken care of, every car you get is just a liability. Let me put it more in perspective. You have no INSURANCE ... and we all know Murphys Law. Thats all ill say on that note.
#4: If your mechanical knowledge of a car is not up to par, this is a dangerous business. Basically If the seller wants to sell you a car with engine problems for 14k, he will. Trust me, the easiest thing to do with a car is to "cover up" flaws, then a week later after car is purchased, new owner is f%$ked. IT ALWAYS HAPPEN! and let me remind you that the typical amount to fix a 14k car is well in the thousands especially engine/transmission/electrical related problems.



Ok so enough of my critiques.
Here are some solutions: First thing you need to do is to get LEGAL. wait.... what most people dont know is that you do not have to spend the THOUSANDS required to get legal. You do not need a physical location... and you do not need to get licensed as a broker. There are programs out there that partners with dealership to offer a "coop" program. By this, the program will register you under a designated dealership, where all the broker needs and physical location etc are all taken care of for you through the network by the already established dealership. In other words, you are working under the dealerhip as their agent. COMPLETELY LEGAL! ... So now you can sell your cars under a dealership name, aka takes out alll the illegal transfer of title because you will now have the power to reassign title work just like a dealership. Plus you seem more legitimate... makes you stand out from the competition.
The other perks of this: you will recieve DEALER PLATES ... INSURANCE THROUGH DEALERSHIP ... a DEALERS License as an agent ... access to dealers auctions ... and best of all the IRS and investigators wont be coming knocking at your door.
p.s. I am not talking out of my a$$...this is personally what I did... $1,500 per year gave me all that. and the 1500 is really pocket change... i made more profit than that on one sale... so one car pays for that.

Another solution: ... Forget the 14k... you want to go for whats in demand by the market. I see you sitting on that 14k car for months trying to sell before eventually selling it for a loss of profit to get it out of your hands. Look at cars that you can get for 3 - 6k. So obviuosly the car needs to worth more. I usaually go for atleast a $2500 profit on each car so the car should be worth atleast 4500 - 8500 respectively. I have bought cars at all price ranges and I can assure you that 3-6k is the best. I personally never sit on a car for more than a week. They come they go... business never slow. a bad sale for me is getting a $1000 profit ... and my best is prolly about $5000 ...average about $3000... And this is with minimum work and selling in 7 days or less. So yea, going in at 14k decreases your market ALOT, plus you are risking alot of money for something that might be a lemon. For me to buy a car at 14k, I need to be getting back 10k in profits... so not worth it!

Finally, this is a business where you may be buying from a competitor. Be careful about that. When a dealer is selling a car for so cheap that you see instant profit, maybe its because it has some type of issues. Think about it, if he sells cheap, he got it CHEAPER ...aka it might be garbage.

Carfax ... i highly recommend it... its worth it... i have seen the most beautiful cars have the worst histories and you will never know without that report. Nothing sucks more than sitting on a car that has a "salvage" history ...and that includes anything from water damage to collisions.
that alone depreciate the car so much. Heres a tip... AutoCheck is a 100% cheaper solution to carfax... $44 gives u unlimited reports for a month... that $40 can only buy you 1 report on carfax. Hope that helps if money was the issue.

As far as auctions are concerned... I will stay away from it... the price isnt that much better than craigslist (if you are a good negotiator)... one reason i say auctions are not the best option is because you are buying cars from someone who knows NOTHING about the car...no history...no maintenance. I rather do business with an owner who knows his car inside out. I just didnt like the idea of selling a vehicle I knew nothing about. Plus auction vehicles are well known for their problems especially ones that sell their vehicle "As Is" ... But if you choose the auction route, I will suggest going to the bank/loan consignment section. These include cars that are bankowned due to its owners not being able to pay for the vehicle. Its always better to buy a car you knew got to the auction because of payment related issues...and not mechanical issues which is the reason alot of people "trade in" their car to dealerships. Yea dealerships take cars that are traded in and run it through the auction to try and make their money back. So yea, those same cars people trade in aka dont want is what you are buying ...

Theres alot more I can tell you about this business.. the rewards are great but its still risky business. I do not flip cars anymore because i recently moved down to the boondocks and there isnt a market here for such services.

According to members here though, this business is not scalable so it cannot be fastlane. I respect their point but sometime I think it can be. I had developed a system that just works. making 3k in profit in 1 week... from one car ... If I had increased inventory to 3-4 cars ... thats atleast 10k profit in a week. Keep increasing inventory...apply my system .. i see a fastlane opportunity but I guess in the long run its just not as scalable as it needs to be to reach millionaire status. If i ever move back to civilization though, ill definitely be implementing this idea on a bigger level (this once a month college gig was just the start).

Good Luck though.

 

[jayd]

Carfax ... i highly recommend it... its worth it... i have seen the most beautiful cars have the worst histories and you will never know without that report. Nothing sucks more than sitting on a car that has a "salvage" history ...and that includes anything from water damage to collisions.
that alone depreciate the car so much. Heres a tip... AutoCheck is a 100% cheaper solution to carfax... $44 gives u unlimited reports for a month... that $40 can only buy you 1 report on carfax. Hope that helps if money was the issue.

I second your statement on Carfax. It's the best money you'll spend in the flipping process. Don't be cheap and skip this step because things aren't always as they seem and you will get burned.

Also, you're not limited to just one report for $39.00. You can do that - which is a waste - or you can get 5 reports for $49.99.

Hmm - 5 reports for $10 each or 1 for $40. Seems like a no-brainer.

They also have another option that's 5 dollars more which gives you unlimited, but that's only for license plate #s so I don't think it's worth the extra $5 because you still only get 5 VIN look ups.

I don't know much about Autocheck other than reviews online give Carfax the edge. If you really want to be sure, get both and use both to do vehicle history search for a car you're looking to flip.

Now since we're on the subject of Carfax and vehicle history reports, do not ever go look at a car or make an offer on a car before you get the VIN and do a look up. You will waste so many miles driven, dollars on gas, and countless hours of valuable time you'll never get back if you do the look up AFTER you go see the car.

Always politely insist on getting the VIN before you go see the car. Unless of course, it's around the corner. Then you can just write it down when you're there.

If someone gives you a hard time about giving it to you or just keeps making up excuses why they can't, don't even bother looking at that car. Chances are it has scary skeletons in its closet or they are super duper shady flippers themselves.

 

[CTamme]

On the subject of carfax I have saved money by asking the seller if they can provide a carfax or if they would pay to run one. I usually buy and sell older japanese sports cars and most times the owner has a carfax to provide to potential buyers. I guess really you aren't trying to buy from sophisticated sellers so this might not be possible.

 

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[RBefort]

Pretty impossible to do this all yourself and become Fastlane, like you mentioned. However, flipping cars if you enjoy it and then having free time for other business ideas is a lot better than going to work for 8 hours making way less. Security is a damn huge factor in ever calculation I have done though, using MJ's matrix

 

[CommonCents]

Carfax has many omissions so is not to be trusted completely. Autocheck seems to have higher ratings. Flipping cars you should have a good bodyman/mechanic to give them a once over to be safe.

The best deals on the best cars are through brokers at dealer to dealer auctions such as Manheim. You and your broker are there on the auction line bidding against the dealer inventory guys. True dealer cost. Brokers also have access to BMW/BENZ etc...corporate off lease sales to 2-3 yr old leased cars.

 

[MaximusDecimus]

As far as auctions are concerned... I will stay away from it... the price isnt that much better than craigslist (if you are a good negotiator)... one reason i say auctions are not the best option is because you are buying cars from someone who knows NOTHING about the car...no history...no maintenance. I rather do business with an owner who knows his car inside out. I just didnt like the idea of selling a vehicle I knew nothing about. Plus auction vehicles are well known for their problems especially ones that sell their vehicle "As Is" ... But if you choose the auction route, I will suggest going to the bank/loan consignment section. These include cars that are bankowned due to its owners not being able to pay for the vehicle. Its always better to buy a car you knew got to the auction because of payment related issues...and not mechanical issues which is the reason alot of people "trade in" their car to dealerships. Yea dealerships take cars that are traded in and run it through the auction to try and make their money back. So yea, those same cars people trade in aka dont want is what you are buying ...

Where were you buying your cars to make stated profit?

 

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[PeteLife]

Where were you buying your cars to make stated profit?

Wow, old thread (btw sorry for the late response but im just now seeing this)... I purchased all my vehicles through craigslist. Tried Dealer auctions before but could never find deals as good as the ones on CL. I also had a personal wholesaler who gave me first priority whenever he did acquire a car.

Yes everyone uses CL but my strategy was a bit different. I never cared about finding a cheap car on CL to resell. Cars being sold wayyy cheaper than their worth screams "problems" (yes they are a few gems out there but chances are you'll be getting a lemon).

I would find a car that was selling at its going price. And I'll set a price in my head as to what Ill pay for it, generally a $3000 lower price point. (My reasoning was to resell for $1000 less than fair market value, and to pocket the extra 2k).

What makes this work is that not much people are calling up the guys who wants max $$$ for their car because theres someone else out there selling the exact same car for 3k less, so everybody overlooks the guy who is selling his car at a higher valuation. So when someone like me call them up a week or 2 after not having much success selling, they are generally happy to let the car go at 3k less. (actually they're not happy, and its not an easy thing to do, especially to replicate the process over and over again)
HAVING NEGOTIATION SKILLS IS A MUST so its not a walk in the park like how Im explaining it.
Currently at the 9-5, so just figured i'd give a brief answer to that question.

Again this was back in my college days, 2 years ago, so not currently flipping cars anymore.

Its a great way to bootstrap cash fast, but overall, you will find it to be time consuming, which affects your ability to scale it. Travelling a hour to check out a car, only to find out its a POS sucks big time. Not really fastlane since you will be trading too much of your time for dollars.

 

[chrisbiz4444]

What are the actual risk that you know of?

 

[chrisbiz4444]

The only issue I can see with this is here... You just said " Who is going to come to your home and buy a car with 10k Cash" If you are floating titles you are going to be selling under the person you bought the car from. Therefore your buyer will be writing the check out to the person on the title. ( That's a problem, Cant cash it lol.) Another problem I see is registering the car because you are limited to a small number of cars per year without a dealers license. It is ruff, that is why im considering getting the dealers license. It might be worth the investment.

 

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[Kak]

Flipping cars is small potatoes.

 

[chrisbiz4444]

Great post!, How did you learn how to go 100% legal?

 

[DeletedUser394]

Flipping cars is small potatoes.

Still better than flipping burgers.

 

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[Kak]

Still better than flipping burgers.

Why concern yourself with either though?

 

[DeletedUser394]

*shrugs* Everyone has to start somewhere. I respect the hustle, no matter how big or small.

 

[JEdwards]

Flipping cars is small potatoes.

Crazy statement.

*shrugs* Everyone has to start somewhere. I respect the hustle, no matter how big or small.

I have a friend that started flipping cars, Bought one, would fix it, etc, sell it buy 2, then 4, then finance, he now has 3 lots probably a few hundred cars and my guess $2-3 million at anytime in accounts receivables. (buy here -pay here)

He lives in a 10k sq foot (has a 5 story tower) house on 5 acres, travels everywhere across the globe. Took him 5-6 years to reach the top and now is just living off the deal.

It all started with that first flip.

 

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[Kak]

Jack it is no longer simply "flipping cars". Now he owns a dealership. Awesome for him.

Making a few hundred bucks here and there flipping cars sounds like a labor and capital intensive, low paying job to me.

 

[JEdwards]

Jack it is no longer simply "flipping cars". Now he owns a dealership. Awesome for him.

Making a few hundred bucks here and there flipping cars sounds like a labor and capital intensive, low paying job to me.

Guys Kyle is right better not flip cars, its a waste of your time.