How to Get the Most for Your Car: 6 Top Pre-Sale Tips

Everyone thinks they’ll get the maximum amount of money from their car. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen.

Car buyers have their pick when it comes to used cars. The used car industry is at record highs with 39.5 million sales during 2018. If you don’t make your car appealing, then you won’t be able to get top dollar for it.

Luckily, there are several things you can do to make your car more appealing. If you don’t know how to get the most for your car, this post has you covered.

Keep reading to learn how.

1. Get Your Maintenance History

The last thing someone wants to do is buy a broken-down car. If you don’t have the maintenance history for your vehicle, a buyer isn’t going to know for sure that your car is in working order.

Get your records ready for any buyer to ease any hesitation about buying.

2. Clean Everything

Think about this for a minute. When you’re buying a car, do you want to buy something that looks run down or a car that looks like new?

This is how you want your car to appear to any buyers. Clean everything, so it looks good as new.

3. Take Detailed Photos

If you’re selling a car by advertising online, make sure you take plenty of high-quality photos.  Try to get as many angles of your car as possible so that potential buyers can see everything.

Don’t be afraid to take photos of any defects. You want your potential buyers to know exactly what they’re getting before they spend the time for a physical inspection.

4. Make Your Listing Detailed

Your listing should tell your potential buyer about anything they need to know about your car. Make sure to include your car’s model, year, make, odometer, and any defects. Your listing should answer any potential question about your car.

5. Ask for More Than Your Car Is Worth

Negotiation is part of the car buying process. If you only ask for the blue book value of your car, the only direction you can go is down.

Always start high to give yourself room to negotiate. Doing this will allow you to end up closer to the real worth of your car after you make the sale.

6. Sell Privately

It’s tempting to take your car to a dealership and sell to them. After all, this is a lot easier than selling a car privately.

But you’re not going to get a great deal from a dealership. A dealership isn’t going to give you a deal if they don’t make a profit.

While it’s more work, selling a car yourself will almost always make you more money.

How to Get the Most for Your Car: Final Thoughts

Car buyers have plenty of choices when buying used these days. Now that you know how to get the most for your car, you have the tools you need to appeal to these people. Do a little more work now for a better result in the future.

If your car needs a few repairs and you want to save some money, doing it yourself is an option. Check out our blog for auto-repair tips that can help.