Buying car tips

From my past experience, when responding to car ads, I always include that I have cash, a truck, and a trailer.  Seems to always put me to the front of the line.  Adding that I am a real car guy, and not some uninformed kid looking for a fun first car seems to help.  Anybody else have more tips to help us fellow car buyers save a buck and or score that coveted underpriced gem.  That 30 year old trailer has paid for itself so many times over that I couldn't begin to calculate its value.  Because of the trailer, I just got a free rusted out 1981 TR7 with fuel injection.  Parts are easily worth a quick $1000, plus the parts I get to keep for myself, plus the scrap value.

The biggest tip I have is being quick to pull the trigger. FB Marketplace has replaced Craigslist as the place to find cheap deals but you have to respond very quickly or you are in the back of the line. Most recently, I saw a 914 Porsche being sold for $2500 by a widow who said it was her husband's pride and joy. Listed for only hour when I responded and of course someone had already jumped on it. Few months later saw the same car for sale for 10K.

Since I started my little car business, have bought 7 cars and trucks this year including the MSM deal I got here on the forum. While that car was at market price, the upgrades done to it made it a real sweet deal. The rest were all quick sales where I saw the car was under priced. The TR8 I got on the Triumph Experience was a great example as it has been fully rebuilt and restored and just needs paint. Bought well under market, especially with what the most recent sales have been on BAT. I just bought a fully restored Spitfire for a song, we are converting it to chrome bumpers and rebuilding the brakes and suspension as the rebuild was done around 2007 and the brakes were leaking, but the car has beautiful paint, best interior I have ever seen on a Spitfire and low miles on the rebuilt drivetrain with overdrive, hardtop, etc. The seller said he had $16K in it, but these old Spitfires are not worth much, so he offered it for a song on a Friday night. We contacted him and had an appointment to see it first thing Saturday morning. He was getting calls the whole time we were looking at it. 

Speed is the key and have the cash in hand.  If you have to wait till the following day to get the money out, you've lost the car.  I've lost a lot of cars while at work simply cause I can't break free to go check them out.  By the time I'm off they are gone

 While it seems so obvious, I think the other key is being up front with what your plans are. Cars have an emotional attachment and people will often cut the price if it's going to a good home or being put to good use.

Some of the other things I've found is being able to buy the lot (spares and or multiple cars) and being able to take it away that instant. Often people just want the thing gone.

I've also gotten a couple of deals that took months and or years to cultivate a relationship with the seller.

I've also got deals because people I know sold a car to someone and that someone needed to sell their car. That's how I ended up with the smoking deal on my Formula 500.

Also, the emotional attachment can be a bad thing. Read the room and don't mention what you're doing if you're cutting something up.

We got a killer deal on the W116 because the AC went out and it was too expensive to fix. It was somebody's baby and they came out and hugged the car and said goodbye. They probably wouldn't have been too happy to find out it was becoming a racecar. Then again, it's probably gotten more love as a racecar than if some highschool kid had bought it for a cheap driver.

Bring along someone knowledgeable in cars but doesn't give 2 E36 M3s if you buy it or not. 

Nothing is more dangerous than bringing someone along who gets all of the thrills of you buying a hunk of crap, without all the BS of owning a hunk of crap.

Yup speed and cash are key. Lost an FB rx7 for $1200 last weekend where guy told me I could meet him Sat morning and look at it at 9:30 am as he needed to find the title. Wake up and it's marked as sold as someone insisted repeatedly that they'd come Friday night with cash and would wait while they dug the title up.

Don't start your communication with "what's the lowest you'll take?" then proceed to state that you "only have x amount of dollars" and that x amount is less than half your asking price. 

I have 2 cars for sale and 85% of people interested do this. I'd rather sell it for half price to a person with some sense than a person that comes at me like that.