Flipping Cars - share your secrets

I am the recent recipient of a very generous donation from a family friend to help me in the next phase of my business: she gave me her '98 Voyager. The idea is that I sell it and use the money for some equipment purchases I need to make.

The van is pretty straight and really well maintained (she's basically the first owner, it only has 88k with regular (unnecessary) 3 mo. oil changes, and she's a nun, ferchrissakes), but it needs a very thorough clean/detail before it's presentable for sale.

So, talk to me about your secrets to flipping a vehicle. I haven't detailed a car in probably a decade, so I need some tips there, for sure. (I was just reading about vaseline to rejuvinate the flat rubber trim - more hints like that would be awesome.)

Any general tips for flipping a car for the most money in the least time?

If you're flipping something over the 2 thousand dollar mark, call around for a pro detailer. Sometimes you can get a buff out for under a hundred bucks. Interiors just need lots of free elbow grease.

buy low
sell high

any questions?

srsly, sometimes the only difference between an $800 car and an $1800 car is a weekend's worth of elbow grease, some meguiars paint care products, and a tune-up.

What's good for interior materials these days? The dash looks like it's never even been dusted off, and the carpet is just dirty from years of use (and dogs).

And it definitely needs a buff. There are a couple scars on the rear quarters from rubbing the pillar in the parking garage, and it has a few bumper stickers on the paint that will need to come off. I actually have an older Craftsman electric buffer I can whip out for this project.

Sounds like you need car detailing secrets, not car flipping secrets.

I love Meguiar's plastic and vinyl conditioner for dashes and plastic trim – plus it smells great. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is great for marks and stains, and really stubborn upholstery and carpet stains can be removed with brake cleaner most of the time.

Oh, and canoe ^^^

you just go really fast and crank the wheel really hard.. it will usually flip..

alex wrote: The van is pretty straight and really well maintained (she's basically the first owner, it only has 88k with regular (unnecessary) 3 mo. oil changes, and she's a nun)

Sounds like you've already got the lying-ass-used-car-salesman patter down!

novaderrik wrote: you just go really fast and crank the wheel really hard.. it will usually flip..

A ramp helps, too.

Or if that's not available, I've seen drivers use the concrete separator to be a ramp. Take it oblique enough, and your car will be flipped in no time.

Basil Exposition wrote:

alex wrote: The van is pretty straight and really well maintained (she's basically the first owner, it only has 88k with regular (unnecessary) 3 mo. oil changes, and she's a nun)

Sounds like you've already got the lying-ass-used-car-salesman patter down!

Only to church on Sundays, I swear!

calteg wrote: Sounds like you need car detailing secrets, not car flipping secrets.

Yeah, that's what I'm focusing on for the time being, I guess.

And I know the nun thing sounds like a line, but I swear its true! I should have got her picture in full penguin regalia with the thing...

alfadriver wrote:

novaderrik wrote: you just go really fast and crank the wheel really hard.. it will usually flip..

A ramp helps, too. Or if that's not available, I've seen drivers use the concrete separator to be a ramp. Take it oblique enough, and your car will be flipped in no time.

at 16, I found that a 190,000 mile 90 Grand AM with OE shocks - combined with heavy washboards on a gravel road will flip a car.

Check local laws: I found out that there are some pretty steep fines around here for "curbsiding". That said, I tend to own/drive the cars I 'flip' for some period of time.

Go out to the back forty in Columbia. I've seen plenty of things flip out there.

At a low price point, I would think that as close to a year left on the inspection as possible (so a fresh inspection would be good) and the newest tires possible will help sell.

njansenv wrote: Check local laws: I found out that there are some pretty steep fines around here for "curbsiding". That said, I tend to own/drive the cars I 'flip' for some period of time.

if you're referring specifically to buying a car and then selling it without ever titling it in your name, then yes that can get you into trouble.

but buying and selling without a dealer license is a different subject. i asked a secretary of state branch manager about whether or not i needed a dealer license (in MI, i think 4 personal car sales per year is the max for individuals), and was told that as long as i was registering each of them in my name and paying sales tax on them, they didn't really care how many cars i bought and sold without a license. so my method is:

1. buy low
2. register in my name and pay tax on the sale price written on the title
3. fix, detail, drive for a month or so to decide if anything else needs to be fixed
4. sell high
5. goto 1.

^ I follow your method, and it keeps me legal and I get to enjoy some neat cars that I wouldn't otherwise buy. Most people I've talked to who "flip" cars seem to bypass the whole title/tax thing... just posting a warning to make sure you don't inadvertently do something illegal.

AngryCorvair wrote: varies by state and is sometimes subjectively enforced. i asked a secretary of state branch manager about whether or not i needed a dealer license (in MI, i think 4 personal car sales per year is the max for individuals), and was told that as long as i was registering each of them in my name and paying sales tax on them, they didn't really care how many cars i bought and sold without a license. so my method is: 1. buy low 2. register in my name and pay tax on the listed sale price 3. fix, detail, drive for a month or so to decide if anything else needs to be fixed 4. sell high 5. goto 1.

AC, what price range do you typically play in?

If you're buying specifically to flip, I'd rarely pay much more than scrap value. Can't really go wrong there. Make sure all the safety stuff works (lights, signals, brakes, etc.) Even if they're the cheapest damned things you can find, a NEW set of tires will set your car apart from others in that price range. Average Joe doesn't want to have to sink another $500 into a car he just paid $2,000 for.

When advertising, never mention "negatives" unless they're a safety issue or the car is in poor running condition. In the interest of being honest, I used to do the "Good" and "Bad" thing. Dumb idea. It's the buyer's responsibility to ask questions regarding maintenance, look under the car for rust, etc. If the goal is to SELL THE CAR, highlight the positives. Take GOOD hi-res photos, and get the buyer thinking about how nice it is before they ever see it in person.

Personally, I take the "Soft sell" approach once someone actually comes to look at the car. After all, I'm not doing this for a living. I don't try to sell them the car. I just answer questions.

Have a sense of humor. Inevitably, someone will say "Well, KBB says it's worth 'x'." To which I'll say with a smile, "That's great! Hey, when's the last time KBB bought a car from you?"

My philosophy is DEFINITELY different when selling here or to other enthusiasts, but to strangers on craigslist? Buyer beware.

If you don't mind wrenching a little, a great strategy is to buy cars that have a typical mode of failure once that part has failed. A friend of a friend buys nothing but dodge caravans with dead transmissions, replaces the transmission, then sells it for no less than $1k more than what he's got into it in parts and labor. Do that once a month and you've got an extra $12k a year free and clear in your pocket - or to max out your retirement fund with.

I do much much higer dollar stuff but my one rule is you make money on the buy not the sell. A good sub market buy in proper condition trumps all the advertizing and effort that you could ever muster up.

Well I bought it right, since it was given to me. Done and done. It has very fresh tires, an oil change sticker from last month, a current inspection sticker in the window, and a temp tag right now. Not bad for transportation, and I think it will clean up and present well.

Good looking out on the curbsiding thing. I'll have to check with my legal team (father and girlfriend) about how concerned I should be on that.

Flippers - how much time & hassle is it for you to find a car to flip? How much time and hassle is usually involved in getting it sold?

nderwater wrote: Flippers - how much time & hassle is it for you to find a car to flip? How much time and hassle is usually involved in getting it sold?

If you are doing it right very little on either end.

Flipping is not my life just a hobby so the find comes when it comes. I found that BABE rally got me flipping even more as I'd buy up almost any sub $500 car with the excuse I could take it on the rally. Then I'd usually get it home figure out it wasn't really that bad, clean/fix/sell.

As previously mentioned, if you bought right the sale should be cake. Buying the aforementioned $500 cars I can usually get away with less than $100 in repairs and cleaning and almost any clean running car will net you $1500 without much effort, sometimes much more.

But if you are going to flip you want to go quick, if it's going to take me more than 2 weekends to have a car ready for sale its not a flip, its a project. I have a friend who has been working on a "flip" for 3 months now, he's damn near restoring the thing. That's not the point of flipping, flipping at its best is finding something that needs cleaning and some minor repairs, fixing what HAS to be fixed not what might go bad soon and get that thing down the road.

In reply to dyintorace:

my sales are typically challenge-ish money. my buys are typically around $500 - $800, rarely more than a grand unless there's something special about the car. like $1500 for the '86 944 with fuchs and sport seats that i drove home, or the $1200 miata with hardtop.

jthw8 really nailed my philosophy. buy for $500, clean, sell for $1500.

In reply to nderwater:

very little. i'm always on CL anyway, and there's never a shortage of people looking for a sub-$2000 car that's clean and runs good.

when a buyer asks about the car's history, i tell them what i know, what i've done to it, how long i've owned it.