Steps to sell your used car online
6 Steps To Sell Your Used Car Online
Selling a used car today is much easy, thanks mainly to the internet. Setting up an online ad for your car is probably the must cost effective and efficient way to sell your car. Online ads typically run much longer than print ads and some online classified sites offer free listings. But don’t think you can just throw an ad up and the job is done. There is actually a little bit more work involved on your part. The remainder of this article will discuss how to sell you car, from beginning to tend, in just 6 steps.
Step 1 – Determining An Asking Price
In order to sell your used car in a competitive market you need to know who your competition is. Namely what are other cars of the same make, model and year going for? You want to make sure the asking price stands out from the rest, while still leaving room for negotiation. You can always search other sites for similar cars and see what they are asking and set your price accordingly.
Step 2 – Preparing Your Car For Sale
This is probably the most crucial step. You want to a make sure both the inside and the outside are immaculate before you take the pictures and show it to potential buyers. It is definitely worth the added cost to get your car detailed just before the pictures are taken. Just make sure you keep the car in the same condition before potential buyers come by to view the car. Or in other words, make sure you keep your car clean.
Step 3 – Advertising Strategy
A mentioned at the beginning of this article one of the easiest and most cost effective places to advertise is on the Internet, however if you have a little money to spend it isn’t a bad idea to use other sources as well. By listing your car in multiple places you have a better chance of it selling quickly. Here are a few options:
1) Online classifieds such as Auto Trader and MonsterAuto.ca
2) Free online classifieds such as CraigsList and Kijiji
3) Social Bookmarking classifieds such as Facebook’s Marketplace
4) Local newspaper classified ads
5) And even though I mocked it in the beginning a “For Sale” sign in the car’s window with your phone number can’t hurt
Step 4 – Setting Up The Ad
Once you have decided where your ads are going to be placed the next step is to design an ad that will grab the attention of potential buyers. It is best to start with the basics – make, model, year, colour, etc. But to really grab a potential buyer’s attention you need to include a list of the best attributes of your used car. Such as low mileage, highway driven, new parts such as tires, etc. making sure every statement is true.
Step 5 – Showing Your Used Car
Once your ads have been placed your next step will be to show your used car to potential buyers. Here are a couple of tips to help this process go smoothly:
1) Make an appointment with each potential buyer – this way if they are late you don’t have to feel bad for not waiting for them
2) As mentioned earlier make sure your car is always clean
3) If you have all the service records make sure you have them available for the buyer along with any reports you have on your car
4) Pre-plan a test drive route that you can take potential buyers on. This way you can concentrate on answering questions than trying to make sure you don’t get lost.
Step 6 – Handling Negotiations
The majority of people are not very skilled when it comes to negotiating, many people actually feel really uncomfortable asking a seller to come down on their price. Just understand that everyone wants to pay less than the asking price, but some people don’t know how to do it. If you’ve built in room for negotiation you should have no problem handling any potential buyers negotiating skills. If their offer is too low you can always move on to the next potential buyer.