If you’re selling your car for less than $4,000, life will be more interesting. You’ll get more phone calls. You’ll meet kids buying their first car; people who don’t have the credit to get financing at a dealer; eccentrics; cheapskates; people who like to work on cars; representatives from around the world — and with luck, grownups who just want a cheap car that will last a year or two.
Without that piece of luck, you’ll find that a lot the buyers have a common problem: they have the time to haggle, hassle, hold meetings, crawl under cars, and then haggle some more.
Friday comes. Say you priced it at $2,000. The phone rings. It’s for the car. Their first question is “Will you take $1,500?” You think no, because then you’ll come over and try to hammer me down to $1,200. You say: “No, thank you. The price is firm.” They say “I’ve got the cash!” You think, you’ll have a personal check and call it cash. You say “No, thank you.” Eventually they say they’ll come and look. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. You tell them when you’ll be in. It doesn’t make sense to make special appointments to sell a $2,000 car. Just try to be around home most of Saturday and Sunday.
The phone rings. A foreign voice: “What is your best price?” You say: “$2000.” “I will give you $1,200,” they say. You say: “No, thank you.” Eventually they say they’ll come and take a look.
The phone rings. It’s a kid. “Hey, I wanna buy your car, but I don’t have any way to get there. Can you bring it over here to show me?” You think: No, because if I’m dumb enough to take orders from a kid, then you’ll really start jerking me around. You say: “Sorry, but I’m too tied up here. But you’re welcome to take a look at it if you can get over here.” He says he’ll come and take a look.
The phone rings. “I definitely want it, but I can’t make it over today, so hold it for me until tomorrow.” HAH! Eighty percent of these types never show up at all. Buyer’s remorse? Found another car on the way over? We have no idea. You tell them, “I’d be delighted to, but if someone turns up with the cash first, I’m obliged to sell it to them.”
[In fact, legally, if someone plunks down the full price in greenbacks on your kitchen table, with no conditions, you probably are obliged to sell it to them. You made an offer; they accepted it unconditionally; so a "contract has been formed", in legalese. Likewise, if you accept a deposit and write out a bill of sale, you've formed a contract. You can't accept a higher offer an hour later, and call the first buyer to say the deal is off.]
The phone rings. It’s a teenage girl. She says she wants to come and look. Can she come over tomorrow morning, when her father is free? You tell her, “Sure, I’ll be here. If I’m gone just wait, I’ll be out on a test-drive.” She’ll probably show. Maybe she’ll buy, maybe she won’t. Teenage girls are good customers.
And we don’t like to sell anyone a car with bad brakes or steering, unless we’re sure they’ll do the repairs right away. If they get hurt, it’s kind of hard on your conscience. Plus, they might sue you.
Saturday morning comes. A few of them actually turn up. They poke. They prod. Maybe they discuss it in foreign languages. If the buyer is a woman, you have a big advantage over a man selling his car – they won’t be as worried when they’re buying from another woman.