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Selling Your Used Car Online – A Step-by-Step Guide

Advice

If you’re like most people, selling things must be somewhere low on your list of fun activities. Human beings are programmed to acquire, and often, letting go of your belongings isn’t the easiest task – especially when you’re selling a car online. To get through the procedure smoothly with the highest price possible, you need to put in both effort and planning.

Unsplash | Who said car shows are the only way you can sell your used car?

So, without further ado, we’re breaking down how you can go about selling your vehicle online.

Let’s jump right in.

Step 1- Picking the Right Platform

It’s all about evaluating your asset and choosing the right sales venue for it. Would you list a Bugatti Veyron on Craigslist? Of course not – unless you want to be spammed by hundreds of bored teenagers. Also, every platform comes with its own set of drawbacks like AutoTraders.com and Cars.com charge you and your ad gets mixed in with those by dealers, Craigslists free ads means a tsunami of posts by the hour where yours can easily get lost, and eBay’s countdown clock forces bidders to act without thinking, ultimately ending in them backing out.

Still, if you’d like to keep the process as distant as possible, eBay is your go-to. But, if you’re hoping to get the job done for free, Craigslist is your best bet. All other platforms lie somewhere in between these two.

Pexels | The internet has tons of suitable platforms to choose from

Step 2- Pictures, Picture, and More Pictures

Cars sell if they have good pictures. No one’s opting to buy anything without seeing it from any and all angles. Think about it, if something looked like trash, would you offer money for it? Of course, you wouldn’t.

Photograph everything: all four sides, the roof, the undercarriage, the interior, the odometer, and even the engine. And remember that “staging” is everything. Pull that baby out of the garage. Photograph it in some sweet golden-hour light, just like you would yourself.

Step 3: Get Fancy with the Words

Your car deserves the same thought and effort you put into writing your dating app bio. Make sure its description has everything – the duration you’ve had it for, its good features, its bad features, how much work you’ve had done on it. Remember that you need to add the flaws as well because no used things come perfect. If you don’t, the buyer might think you’re trying to hide a big fault.

Unsplash | No matter the condition, describe your car exactly as is

Step 4: Decide the Price

First of all, you need to research what other people are charging for similar cars. You don’t want to over or underprice your asset. On bidding sites, we recommend not using a reserve. And, if you do, set it for the lowest sum you can accept.

Step 5: Sell!

You might be scared of getting spammed but, your phone number needs to be in the ad. It’s the quickest way for people to contact you, and the NSA already has it, so there’s no reason to be scared anyway.

Plus, you can keep the bots at bay by spelling your number out like so: 55five1two1three. Some other selling tactics include ending your eBay bid on Sunday so people lounging around can happen across it in their free time or on Thursday for Craigslist, so it doesn’t get lost in a sea of ads coming in over the weekend.

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