The No Limits Ladies have posted an article on how to flip cars — how to buy used cars for cheap and sell them again for a profit.
I find used vehicles for sale, often times through Cars.com, and I price them using KBB.com. When I find one that I know is in more demand, with a motivated seller at or below private party pricing, I go look at it and sometimes buy it. Then I drive it for a while for free, and sell it when I’m ready, for more than I bought it for. Then I roll that money into the next vehicle, or sometimes keep a bit for myself.
According to the article, the steps to flipping a car are:
- Screen used car ads for in-demand cars priced below market.
- Make a cash offer for below the asking price.
- Make necessary repairs.
- Get the car cleaned and detailed.
- Have the title free and clear, ready to hand to the buyer.
- Show the vehicle in a safe location.
- Don’t negotiate — you don’t need to sell the vehicle, so wait for your price.
- Accept only cash.
This doesn’t interest me — I’m not a car guy — but if you’re mechanically inclined, this could be a great way to make some extra cash.
[No Limits Ladies: More Money Mondays: Flipping Cars]
This article is about Cars, Entrepreneurship
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I’ve profited and thus not paid a penny for my past 4 cars. Drove one for four years. It all depends if you have the eye for these things. I mainly look for killer deals with nearly nothing needed for the car. Find someone hard up on cash and low ball them. IMO flipping cars is a heck of a lot less risky than flipping a house. Car = $1000 and the market for a used car is pretty steady. House = $100k and the market is all over the place and your stuck with a huge liability.
Don’t fear flipping cars.
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I came across a pretty cool website that has a lot of information on this subject.
http://www.sell-cars-for-profit.com
I myself have flipped a couple cars on the side. First I drive them for a couple months, then I sell them for a profit. I’m driving for free, and making extra money on the side.
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Wow! Just reading about flipping cars is exciteing, been doing it for about 4 years and got a license this past september, still learning alot and haveing fun makeing money while selling happiness to my friends and family .Lots of good points made , its all in how you do your buisness, learn as much as you can and be fair and honest and like george said stay away from ” overly analytical negative types , they will suck the life right out of you!!!!!!!!!
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Hi I live in Canada does anybody have a recommendation on which kind of cars I should start flipping first. I was thinking of selling hondas and acuras simply because I use to sell hondas at a dealership and I know the product as well as resale value is good, so if it doesnt sell right away I have a little lee way any suggestions
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very exciting stuff…matter of fact, flipped my first car a couple of weeks ago, netted $1,200….I was wondering if there’s a discussion forum, or a community of flippers that do this stuff from home, not deals. A way to share and expand our experiences…the whole idea of being small and doing this is what excites me. I have a friend of mine who has 2 mid size dealerships and he has all the headache in the world…small is the next big thing…. let me know please.
Thanks for the help guys.
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Looking at all these replies has made me realize that this is not the land of the free and home of the brave. More like, land of the fee, home of the slave. Our goverment takes everything it can from us and the sheeple do nothing about it but stupidly follow. someone says your breaking the law for doing a honest deal like buying and selling a car and not reporting it to the dmv. that doesnt sound like a free country to me. One of these days the people need to take the country back by not electing the morons who are taking everything from us via taxes. Wake up people!
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Imafishfreak, I’m with you. I felt sick to my stomach reading that you need a “license” to be a “car dealer” just to buy a car for purposes of resale. In most states you apparently need a “license to handle food” just to make and sell food – as if mass poisonings were a major crisis before such laws. There is so much of this nonsense, I guess it helps protect big businesses from the competition of the little guys but in the long run America is only screwing itself. This is why other economies can manufacture things much more efficiently and they’ll just overtake and eat America’s lunch soon unless we reverse these ‘communist’/fascist laws.
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I have bought and sold several cars in the past two years and now I’m upset. I don’t have any dealer’s licence. Just buy and sell as a private party. I want to ask prlinkbiz and John Franken and other guys who are doing this. Was there a time you asked a seller to put less amount on title than you actually paid in order to save on sales tax? Was there a time when a buyer begged you to do the same thing when you were trying to sell it? I believe you’ve done it. Chances are you’ll never get caught by IRS. But once you get caguht,
(IRS may contact all the sellers and buyers to nail you) you might spend 5 years in jail becase tax eavsion is a felony in the states. Plus, it is illegal to buy and sell more than 5 cars in a year. You might say it is unreasonal. But say it to who? to judge?
I started to doubt if it is worthwile when I can’t sleep well because of these.
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Ive done this quite a few times with honda civics, because I know them like the back of my hand. If you know the car you can’t go wrong.
http://www.carflipper.org is a pretty good resource too
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I’m starting to consider flipping cars, but I’m very confused on one thing. How can you avoid your state limit? (I live in california btw). How do you buy and sell cars w/o registering under your name w/o getting caught? Like, lets say you buy a car from person A. You let person A fill out the seller info, but then you leave your section blank. It is now an open title. You then immediately sell it to someone else. But when person A turns in the release of liability form to the DMV (with my name/address on it) what am I supposed to do?
Basically, I’m asking how to “title jump” without getting caught.
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Jack –
– It is IMPOSSIBLE to get caught by the IRS. You’re forgetting that the seller has every right to sell the car for however much he/she wants to, whether its 10K, 20K, or 500 bucks. It is impossible for the IRS to PROVE that you didnt pay the amount you wrote down, considering the Bill of Sale states, with both the buyers and sellers signature, how much the buyer paid. ALSO, they can’t determine the actual value of the car, so its not like they gonna bust you for selling a nice car for 100 bucks (for all they know, the car could be salvage, broken, parts missing, no engine) there is no legal way to prove you wrong, so the chances of getting caught are zero.
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If you know about cars and the market, you can make a nice living “flipping” with or without traditional job. If not, you will blow money like the wind. Build relationships with a general mechanic, body, interior and auto electrical tech that does good work, and that is cheap. The name of the game is low overhead. I typically buy cars @ dealer auctions that are cheap (in price), clean and need little to no work done on them. If you can get sponsored as a buyer by a small dealership, do so rather than starting your own.
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I think it’s a great idea to buy & resell cars. In Florida, you can sell 3 per year without needing a dealers license…I’m kinda sad that I didn’t think of it before now. (like december of 2008)
I am always finding cheap cars (200-800) that are fixer uppers and can be resold for profits anywhere from $1000-4000 a pop. I have never done it before but I am kind of scared to invest my money in something I know nothing about..But I figured the worst that can happen is I break even…but I seriously doubt it if I buy a car that cheap. I think it’s a start to “grow” my money and if I can do it then I will get my dealers license after the 3 cars are sold. I can probably make good profit selling the cars…we will see! My moms car broke so I also plan on finding her a fixer upper to surprise her with. =)
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weird how this attracted some whiny libertarian goth kids. this isn’t the land of the free, waaa waaa waaa. stfu, name one country where you can make money this easily flipping cars? you can’t because you’re so busy whining you don’t realize how great you have it. even the highways are free and you’re still whining about taxes!!!! go to europe! go to japan! you libertarian tards!
omg the government takes sales tax!!! how dare they!!! we have the cheapest gas and roads and lowest taxes in the world and you’re all whining. grow up, infrastructure doesn’t build itself.
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There is VERY good money in flipping cars.
I flip 5 per year in my name and flip another 5 per year in my wifes name. And before someone start shouting…YES! it is legal. Is there risk? Of course there is. What kind of business has no risk? The best way that works for me is to buy in the $500 to $1000 range so that my cars sell fast. People want cars that are cheap! You can have a very nice car for sale at $5000 but lots of people can’t come up with that kind of money. Stay in the $1000 range and if you do make a bad investment, You won’t loose the farm.
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Hi Smurf,
Do you have to get the vehicles in your name right away after the purchase and get insurance also. I live in California.
Thanks, Jerry
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What I like to do is drive around the car for my actual use until the brakes are well worn or other issues come to play. Sometimes I get a car with a busted window, but is drivable from going from A to B. I bought a 1999 Ford Taurus for $350.00. I did nothing to the car other than change the head light bulb. I drove it for a solid 7900km for 4.5 months and resold it for $1000 after I trashed the disk, brake drums, rotors. A kept braking for 3 weeks after it started to squeak, so I think I messed it up bad. The oil gasket went, and oil was leaking. Towards the end, fuel started to come from the exhaust, so I bought a 1992 Toyota Corolla for $650.00 the difference between what I paid for the Taurus and what I sold it for. The corolla I got 10,600km without having to do anything to it. Unfortunately, the trunk lock broke, and it didn’t close properly after a while. The brakes started to squeak, and the muffler became rusted, and it created a hole in the muffler. Also, the water getting into my trunk and it came into the driver’s side around the feet. The honk and fan motor stopped working due to the electrical, causing defrosting impossible while driving. I sold the car for $800.00 only but I had the opportunity to use it for six months, and I used that money to buy a 1994 Volvo 850 that is in running condition, but with little brake pad life, but since it is a manual transmission, I am able to clutch down and then brake as to not use much brake pads. This car needs a tune up, rotors, distributor, and spark plugs I think. It still runs nonetheless, and starts after a few tries. Flipping cars is something I do not as a business but as a necessity because I cannot afford anything better on $12.00/hour. Over the year, I made no money since I did not recover my vehicle transfer, and annual insurance. But I require a car for my job doing deliveries so I don’t see a car as an investment but rather as a tool. I just sell and get another because I figure if I have to fix these things, it would be easier to have someone buy it off my hands and I could go on looking for some other car to drive in for a few months before I have to replace it again. Although I didn’t make any money at it, I did manage to get 18,500km off the two cars I sold before acquiring the Volvo 850, which is worth putting a bit of money in to fix up.
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Well, I happen to make roughly $25K per month “flipping cars”. A word of advice, you won’t find cars you can resell for profit on Cars.com, sorry. And if you use kbb.com to come up with values to buy or sell in the real marketplace, you’re getting ready to take a bath. I spend a couple hundred bucks a month to maintain an office for my wholesale license, so I’m not a curbstoner. If you study the market, you already know who you’re selling the car to before you buy it, and how much your going to make. It’s not rocket science, but it can be risky if you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s not risky in the same why real estate is though. Being that cars depreciate, your biggest threat is time. Which is why I have the car sold before I even buy it. It’s a legit way to make a living, and can be VERY lucrative.
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Wow James. amazing number on a monthly basis. I do flip cars as well..started 2 years ago along with my brother, and we are making enough to maintain a decent life style.
We have been looking for ways to pump up the volume and take it to the next level. We pretty much find our cars through Craigslist and by driving around.
If it isn’t too much trouble, is there a way to contact you. I would appreciate a few minutes of your time to chat about the business. email: abushreek12@gmail.com
thank you
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I totally agree with the last comment.Used to curbstone,but if u have a wholesale or retail license, buy at dealer auctions and sell at public auctions. It’s working rather quickly and well for me. A car costing $1500 at dealer auction is netting me around $3000 at public auction minus small selling fee. I’m doing three cars a month and making some sweet cash.
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i guess i need to start researching locations of dealer auctions and public auctions.
As of now, i am buying from private owners and reselling to private owners. I am stuck at making $800 to $1200 a car.
Netting $3,000 on a car would be great. yet, i have been asking dealers who go to auctions and everyone is saying that the auction cars are expensive these days and not much of profit to be made.
Also, i have a dealers plate that i use to move cars around,which i am renting from a dealer), so i need to look into getting a wholesale license or dealer’s license.
thanks James for the input.
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Your welcome Ron. Sorry netting $1,500 profit per car.100% profit on what I spent. I usually buy good transp cars like Olds Intrigue, Dodge Intrepid, or even Caddy DeVilles. Older people love Caddy’s. You can pick all these up for around 1500 to 2k at dealer auction, and sell at public auction for 3k to $3500. Make sure to clean them well. Touch up minor scratches. You know make it sexy. I started out 5yrs ago hanging outside dealer auctions I could not get into. Was discuraged, then asked a guy to sponsor me as a buyer. We completed my buyer license, I gave him $500 and my word. I gained his trust, and that was that. To make good money, stick to dealer auctions. There you will pay slightly above trade in prices which is the way to buy. Tow auctions suck, and Craigslist is cool if u can find a desperate seller. Hang in there.
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Wow, think its hard to buy a car and make a profit, well I just bought a 98 lincoln continental for 500 bucks today. I plan to sell it once Im done using it for atleast 3,000. I dont think 2,500 is to bad of profit for somethng that took less than an hour.
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So i want to do this but… How do you deal with the long wait for a title so you can sell???
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I did this quite a bit when I was a kid. I took ads from the “free ads magazine”. Bought cars from $300-$1000 which needed one or two things to be roadworthy. I wouldn’t change the title, and most buyers didn’t care. (Where I am you can only sell 6 cars a year.)I would always clean the car completely including engine bay, get cheap or used parts, get it roadworthy and sell. Made $1000 off a Cadillac with over 40 callers one week. I’m thinking of getting back in. Sense says 4 door Chyslers (cheap to buy), Pontiacs etc. Go for high volume seller cars. Best sell range is maybe $2-$3500….or a little more. There are alot of people who just need a cheap roadworthy ride.
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P.S. Where I’m from we call it “curbsiding” – the derogotory term. To me is makes sense, you are selling cars at the curbside. Where the hell does curbstoning come from?
I think laws against it are stupid. If you were fixing and selling bikes or lawnmowers nobody cares. I never ripped off a buyer. Sometimes you find a car with “Electric window broken” which needs a fuse. Sell low and sell fast.
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My friend’s dad does this for extra cash. Here in Cancun, there’s a kind of car market set up every Sunday where people buy and sell their cars. He’ll go and find someone desperate to sell their car cheap. He’ll buy it, have his son drive it around everywhere with a sale sign and phone number on the back, then sell it its regular market price or more.
He makes between $300 and $1000 per car (inexpensive cars).
Then again, regulations aren’t nearly as strict in Mexico as in the States, so I’m not sure how easy it is to do in the US.
My husband and I are thinking about investing with them in the future for a few extra bucks.
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Its not that risky if you know what your doing, and what your looking for. Asian vehicles are typically gold mines over domestic. Several times ive been able to pick up Civics or Supra’s for around 500, i put a couple hundred in. New brakes, fluids, whatever making sure to include in advertisement whats been done, remove the seats and shampoo and clean the car inside and out 100% and i average a resale of around 1500-2000 dollars i generally manage to sell around 4 or 5 cars per month in my spare time. and i make anywhere from 4-6 grand a month just working weekends. So its not as risky as you would think if you do your homework.
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does anyone know how many cars can you buy and resell in Oregon?
I recently got an opportunity to buy new luxury cars for a third-party company based in US. They pay me $500 for each sale. What I need to do is: go to talk with the clerks in 4S stores and make the deal happen, then take care of the DMV stuff and drive the car to the third-party’s warehouse. All buying charges and DMV charges are on them(need my name to do the transaction). I don’t know how they make a profit, maybe exporting or something similiar..
What I want to know is : Is this way of making money illegal? Is is safe to do so? Or is there a limit of numbers of doing so? Thanks guys!
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Now i never thought of myself as doing this but i guess i have a time or two. I bought a saturn for $250 with a blown motor. I bought a new motor and put it in and i did a little body work. replaced the clutch and throwout bearing while i had it apart. I sold it for 2800. It wasnt a huge profit but since i know some mechanics and went to college for auto body, it made it pretty cheap.
I dont know why people are arguing back and forth on here. Some people like it, some dont. I did everything legally. I registered it and plated it, paid the sales tax. The nice thing about my insurance company is that they have a special insurance that is dirt cheap for vehicles that are not driven. I worked on it and paid under ten bucks a month to insure it.
I understand if you dont like this stuff. I also understand that there are some shady people out there trying to make more money than is fair. Just remember, dont stereotype everyone for a few peoples mistakes. I bought this car at a fair price and sold it at a fair price. I didnt screw the government or the buyer or seller. On the other side, i have bought a vehicle from a used car dealer that had said the car was fully inspected and had repairs done two months prior to me buying it but one month after i bought it, the clutch went out and that was one thing that was “replaced.”
Be fair. I dont come to your office and s#@t on your desk.
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Most of you guys are thinking go pick up a car from someone who is selling it localy. the key to this buisness is three things. one,finding the cars in demand. cars are in demand but what kind is more in demand than others varries so you have to watch the market on used cars, watch the prices. two, look for ccheap repairs. insurance companies will claim a car totaled over a bumper falling of cause its “too expencive to fix”. sports cars are the most wrecked cars out there. say you find a car (BMW m3 for example) and its being sold for $2000 at auction, all thats wrong is that bumper, dealer will sell the bumper for $500, you look around and realize hey i can buy a replica bumper for $50. slap it on and sell it for $10,000, you just invested $2050, sold it for $10,000. profit (minus any charges) $6000 easy (thats covering about $2000 in charges which is a lot but this is just an example) so from that you can see its not hard to do. third, make it simple. simple repairs pay off, as in the example cars are claimed “totalled” for anything now so finding cars that only need simple repairs is easy. so all you nay sayers out there, don’t know what your talking about, this is an easy buisness to make money in if you have a technician to work on it and even easier if you can do it yourself. so dont nock it just cause you dont know what your doing. research, research, research. thats the key to this whole thing. look for deals and take the steal, thats the blood of this buisness. have a friend who makes thousands doing this (he’s only 20 years old) I’ve seen how its done and i understand it very well. anyways i thought i would clear up why people dont like it (they dont know what they are doing) and why people like it (my 3 points). you’re welcome
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i live in iowa ive always worked in a shop and done all my own work.im trying to get a dealer lisence and make something bigger out of flipping cars.ive had great sucsess so far ive flipped 4 cars in the last 2 mo all profiting over $1000. i just go a 2002 buick rondezvouse for $500 that the ppl thought had a bad tranny.i changed fluid and filter drove it for about 5000 miles and sold it for 4500.it kbb for 6000.so i was able to buy it and fix it all for 700 by the time i was done with it.thats a 3700 profit in a month.another was a 2002 dodge stratus.my gpa gave me a old rusted out truck i trades for the car plus he gave me 350 on top.it had bent valves.i put a timing kit a head and new gaskets on the stratus spending about 500 and sold it a couple weeks later for 3800.there can be very good money in this that is why i am taking the next step to get a dealer lisence.good luck everyone!
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I think this is a great idea, and actually, I wrote a little bit about this on my website. I’ve found that there are great deals on Craigslist when trying to flip cars. It gets better if you know a mechanic, or have some expertise in fixing up cars.
I actually purchased a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer for $2000 and ended up making about $1500 profit after all was said and done. It took me about 3 months to turnover the car and the kicker was that I bought the car from a college student and sold the car to another college student.
One thing you need to be careful of is to look at state laws and determine how many cars you can keep at one time without purchasing a car seller license. If you have too many cars, you may have to purchase a license as the government will treat you as a used car dealer. This rule varies from state to state.
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One thing you need to remember is that each state has different laws on what is considered a used car dealer. Make sure you look at your state laws before purchasing a few cars as you may be considered a used car dealer and may need to pay extra fees to sell your vehicles. If you are going to sell one car, then it shouldn’t be a problem;however, if you keep selling cars every month, then you may want to look into your state’s local laws for vehicle sales.
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I use to flip cars back in the late 90′s and made good profit. The only problem was I was not keeping a lot of information (profit, budget & selling price) to the people who would refer sellers to me. Basically, these guys are sales associates working for new car dealerships and each time there is a buyer who would want to trade their car, they would call me and I would buy it from them at a little bit above the price their dealership is willing to pay for. To make a long story short, when they have learned that it was very profitable, they did it themselves and I ended up not getting any referals from them anymore. I guess what I am trying to say is, for those who are in this business, try not to expose how profitable this is especially to the people around you. Because you will come to realize one day that that they are doing it themselves leaving you with a lot of competition.
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I hate the term curbsiding (as it is called in Canada- where does the stoning come in?). the term refers to shady people misleading buyers. If I buy and sell a car and am honest about it, I don’t see the issue. Used car dealers try to make personal sales look bad, but the cars can be in better shape than at a dealer. I bought a Buick once for $300 and fixed a whole in the floor, fixed the horn etc and sold for $1200. Cadillac for $1000, sold for $2000 with 41 calls in one weekend. I would buy bigger unwanted cars in the City, and sell them in the burbs where they are worth more/easier to drive. Best turn is a car than needs only a few things to be roadworthy and owner can’t afford to fix/doesn’t want to fix. Buy in free ads, sell in paid ads. And you may lose the odd time. Ontario now limts to 6 annually, which is plenty, but you can pass the ownership across. Again, if you are honest with the buyer, no one loses….oh the tax man.
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