Buying a used car – paperwork process

[Reynaldo Salcedo]

Dear All,

Can anyone explain the paperwork process to buy a used car from a private owner/seller? Assuminf already agreed on a price.

Most videos that I found breeze through the paperwork or give a bad explanation, all with the assumption that the car dealers take care of the paperwork – But what if I’m not buying from a dealer.

What needs to be done with the title? Any other paperwork from the seller? What needs to be done with the insurance? What needs to be done with the DMV?

Topic

[Jeff]

[quote=”reynal74″ post=157607]Dear All,

Can anyone explain the paperwork process to buy a used car from a private owner/seller? Assuminf already agreed on a price.

Most videos that I found breeze through the paperwork or give a bad explanation, all with the assumption that the car dealers take care of the paperwork – But what if I’m not buying from a dealer.

What needs to be done with the title? Any other paperwork from the seller? What needs to be done with the insurance? What needs to be done with the DMV?[/quote]

Ok,
You and the seller agree on a price, you should ask to look at the title and check the titles VIN and make sure it matches the cars VIN. Once you do that, pay the seller the agreed amount. Seller will sign and date the title, you should also ask the seller for a bill of sale for said car. Once that is done, you will then fill out your info on the title and sign and date it.

Go to your insurance dealer and do the normal paper work that is done when getting insurance on a car, then pay for the insurance. One you have proof on insurance on the car, go to the DMV with the title, bill of sale and your new insurance policy and tell them you want to put a title in your name and get plates for your car.

Then you are done. 🙂

[Reynaldo Salcedo]

Thank you for the reply. It really helped.

[Erin]

It really is pretty simple.
Maybe one last thing to do is ask the seller to see an ID so you know he or she is the actual owner.

Usually when you buy a car from a dealer, there is a lot of extra unnecessary paperwork. Private party though – verify VIN, he fills out seller section, you fill out buyer section, then do the fun stuff at the DMV, all done.

[subhobroto]

[quote=”JefferyB4″ post=157621]Go to your insurance dealer and do the normal paper work that is done when getting insurance on a car, then pay for the insurance. One you have proof on insurance on the car, go to the DMV with the title, bill of sale and your new insurance policy and tell them you want to put a title in your name and get plates for your car.[/quote]

Great concise walkthrough.

I would like to recommend getting your insurance company involed a bit earlier.

Give them the VIN and ask them to do a check to see if the car’s been branded, stolen or otherwise.

Also ask them to confirm the last records against the VIN. Sometimes, the VIN will check out fine, but the VIN might have been copied.

If you don’t know how to check a VIN for authenticity, you can be duped and be out of your money pretty soon.

Also you might want to ask the insurance company to quote you premiums for the car. I have seen different VINs get different quotes because of some additional features between the two cars.

As I often go out with people to assist them in checking out cars before they take it to a shop for final inspection, I have seen cases where, even for the same model, two different VINs had two different quotes because one had some additional options.

Over the life of the car, the additional premiums can often add up, specially if you don’t care either way.

Stay safe!

[Author]

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