When selling your car, you must spend time preparing the vehicle so that it will sell quickly and for the best possible price. This will put the money in your pocket sooner so you can put your butt in a new car more quickly.
With my experience, I am going to give you some tips to assure your car is as ready as you are for the sale.
Start out by doing a fair market analysis. With the joy of technology comes the ability for you to do this yourself. With a few clicks of your mouse and a little motion from your fingertips you will be able to determine an average price so that you can get the most money for your car and sell the car quickly.
The sites for Kelley Blue Book, the NADA Guide and the Black Book will easily walk you through the process. Each site will ask some information regarding your car. One big tip, be honest when evaluating the condition of your car, this is a big portion in the determination of the value of your car. Sometimes people tend to look at their car through rose-colored glasses. This will catch up with you in the market place. Be honest with yourself.
Now, some people take only the advice from one website for determining the value of their vehicle, however the smart person will take a price from all three sites and average them out to determine the most accurate figure. Then check the retail car sites and see what cars like yours are selling for, this will also help give you a more accurate number for your car.
Next, take a trip back down memory lane and think about what it was that attracted you to your last vehicle, maybe it was the one you are now trying to sell. What caught your eye to make you choose to take it for a test drive? More often than not, it was the look of the car. I bet it was pretty, shiny and clean.
So, guess what? This is what you want to do so that the next person feels the same way about your car. Clean it up yourself or have it professionally detailed. This is the best money you can invest in getting your car ready to sell. Since this is the first impression to your next new owner, it will be well worth the time or the money to make it sparkle like new.
Now to prevent yourself from losing a sale, be sure that your car drives well without any noises that shouldn’t be there. You don’t want to hear the brakes grinding on metal when you pull up to a stop sign. If the motor is making sputter and spit sounds, you are going to want to get this fixed before showing the car.
It will be well worth it.
There’s nothing worse than putting someone in the car to test drive and as he or she looks in the rear view mirror and sees a trail of blue smoke following both of you. Save that headacheand service the vehicle before selling your car.
