How to sell your car privately: simple advice on selling your car fast

Selling your car has become incredibly simple, with the advent of Magaripoa and a number of other online car sales services, finding a buyer should be easy. However, the hard part is getting the most money for your car, which is where this guide comes in.

If you are selling privately, careful attention should be paid to your adverts, as this is the first thing buyers will see. Meaning a high quality description and pictures, should help get the most money for your car. If you are trading your car in with a dealer, you still need to follow most of the steps below to make sure you get a fair price and don’t get scammed. And the same goes for those online car sales options that promise you a good deal fuss free, it’s important to follow some of these steps to make sure you get the right price.  

On the subject of online car sales scammers, we have also included a few hints and tips to ensure you walk away with a pocket full of cash, instead of being taken for a ride by criminals.

1. Ensure your car is ready to be sold

The majority of people who have bought a used car privately, will probably have a haunting memory or two of dirty and even smelly cars. Including cars with sticky steering wheels and door bins full of half-eaten mukimo etched into their minds. However, the key thing to remember is, portraying yourself as a buyer who cannot keep their car clean, also suggests you cannot maintain a car properly.

So the first step to selling your car, is to clean it thoroughly. It may sound incredibly obvious, but if you have a look at some adverts you will see a large number of sellers who haven’t bothered to wash the exterior, hoover the carpets, or even clean the windows.

Repairing any cosmetic faults will obviously help you sell your car too. Crazed or cracked lights, broken mirrors and nasty parking scuffs can all be repaired relatively cheaply, and will help to make sure you don’t get silly low offers on your asking price.

It is a similar story with the mechanical side of things. Any faults you leave for the new owner to repair, is the same as giving them free money, as the price they offer you will likely be reduced due to them needing to sort the problems. 

2. Have the correct documents ready

As you have fastidiously filed away all the paperwork for the car during your ownership, you should be able to quickly show any prospective buyer that the car has been well looked after.

Out of all the documents the Logbook is the most important. It should be presented when people come to look at the car. However, do not let anyone take it away or photograph it before you have the cash for the car.

3. Work out a fair asking price

While you have owned the car, depreciation will have been working against you. Which means come time to sell, you need to focus on what someone will pay rather than what you paid. If you are struggling to value your wheels, start by looking at similar cars that are advertised on sites such as Magari Poa.

After arriving at the price you think your car is worth, start looking at where you would like to advertise the vehicle. Again if you are trading in or even scrapping it, don’t be afraid to hunt around as well, as offers from different dealers will vary depending on how desperate they are for stock.

4. Advertise your car effectively

The best way to sell your car in this day and age, is to take out an online advert on a site such as Magari Poa. These websites allow you to put a large number of photos and thorough description to entice buyers.

You can also go back to the Stone Age and put a physical ad in a publication. However, unless your car has a following with a dedicated publication e.g. a classic Mini, you are unlikely to get it seen by the right people.

 There is also the incredibly free option of making a homemade ‘for sale’ sign and parking the car at the side of the road. While you may get lucky with this, it is probably best avoided if you are after a quick sale.

On the subject of drawing people in, your pictures are key – you need to make sure they present the car clearly. What we recommend is taking a series of at least six photos which show a walk round of the car’s exterior. Start with a photo at the front, move around to the passenger side front quarter, then the passenger side rear quarter and so on and so forth, until all the car has been well photographed. Make sure the car fills up most of the photo and isn’t cropped off by the side of the frame. This will focus the buyers attention on the car, and not the trees in the background. Then get photos of the interior, including the front, rear, and boot.

It makes sense to photograph things such as the engine bay, wheels, and close ups of the seats, however these do not necessarily have to feature in the advert, but can be seat to any interested party upon their request.  

For the accompanying description, stick to what the reader wants to know. Avoid phrases such as, ‘lady driven, Asian owned’, as these could have the reader bored after the first sentence and makes them more likely to miss key information. Make sure you have included the Make/model, YoM, car spec, and Reg No. If there is a major problem with the car, for example the engine does not work, put it in the advert. If it is a nearly new car, it is worth mentioning any body defects as people will expect it to be mint. However, older used cars are expected to have the odd mark here and there, so unless it is a really bad mark there is no need to include it in the advert.

5. Don’t get ripped off by scams or thieves

While it would be nice to think no one will get ripped off, some people out there will. To ensure it is not you, there are a few simple measures that you can use to protect yourself. Firstly, when a potential customer calls up wanting to buy or test drive the car, make sure you have their full name and phone number.

Also, before you let anyone get behind the wheel of your car, make sure they have their driving license. If they do not, you can demonstrate the car to them buy driving it yourself.

It may make you wonder if there is any trust left in the world, but never let a potential buyer test drive the car on their own, and if you do leave them to look over the car, don’t leave the keys in it.

6. Make sure you get paid before handing over the car

Never hand over the car keys or documents until the money from the buyer is safely in your hands. Whether that means counting cash in an envelope, or your own bank confirming that funds from transfers, personal or bankers cheques have cleared into your account, the principle is the same.

Avoid overseas buyers at all costs. There are so many cases of fraud involving buyers claiming to want to ship your car overseas or conduct complicated money transfers, that it’s not even worth entertaining the idea for a moment. Just say no, or don’t bother replying to the emails.

7. Completing the sale

Once the money has been handed over, you’ll need to draw up some simple paperwork to keep things clear and above board for both parties.

At the very least you’ll need to provide a written sale agreement, and it makes sense to get the wording right.  In fact you can download a car sale agreement from the AA website which does the job perfectly. Just print off a couple of copies, get the buyer to add their dated signature next to yours on both of them, and keep one copy each.

You’ll also need to complete the sellers section of the C7 form (NTSA) and sign the declaration, as will the buyer who will need the form to apply for the change of ownership.