Teach me the art of flipping cars.

Buy low - Sell high

Don't get anything without a title.

Geography is your friend. I grew up in Carlisle (big car shows) then lived in LA for 6 years. My buddy and I often took cross-country road trips ( with adequate stops at Scores and Cheetahs in Vegas) back to Carlisle and always had a 2-car trailer in tow. Out there in NV, AZ, NM, UT, southern CO, KS, NE, OK, TX there are tons of fields with abandoned 30s to 70s cars with nothing but surface rust. Give the guy $50, bill of sale, hit the road. Our best score was a 49 Merc. It was complete except the windows had all been broken. Scored it for $800, spend $1000 on fuel to Carlisle, sold it for $8500 in the first day.

But geography is not my friend here in PA. I can take a nice, rust-free car from PA to TX and no one will buy it because it might have rust. So you show them there is no rust, but they talk like "can rust just wait and then happen? Or does the car store it somewhere and release it later? I can't explain to them how rust is either there or it isn't.

Seriously, though: Part of the art is finding a rabid following for Yugos, or Civics, or "exploit" it. (I put that in quotes because you aren't doing anything malicious or deceptive) But a craigslist Scirocco that needs tires for $299, then place an add on VWVortex and let the $4000 offers come in.

Find the seller who doesn't know what he/she has (the bargain) then spend some time primping it up and double your money. I have used this technique to buy daily drivers, keep them for a few years, then sell them for the same amount... sometimes back to the same original seller.

87 e30 Cabrio. Pristine. Bought it for $5000, drove it for three years putting 36k on the clock. When I wanted to sell it I went back to the seller to get documentation on everything he did. He asked if I was selling. He offered to give me back my money because he never should have left it go. Long story short, 5 minutes later I'm standing on the sidewalk with $5000 and a stack of CDs from the glove box calling my wife to come pick me up.

Tom_Spangler wrote:

car39 wrote: Be careful about state laws. In some states, if you sell over a certain amount of cars a year, you have to get a dealer's license.

Yeah, they call it "Curbstoning" in Michigan. That said, I've known several folks who do it fairly regularly and have never heard from the state about it. There's also the option of hanging on to the signed title from the person you bought it from and then passing that along to your buyer. I'm pretty sure that's not legal, but I've seen it happen quite a bit.

This has been my question. In GA, it often takes up to a month for the title to be transferred to your name - you just sit on it the whole time even if it's ready to go otherwise?

In reply to classicJackets:

You're supposed to. In Connecticut, a month would be like light speed, more like 3 months. Also, be careful about titles that don't have the seller's name on them, it could screw up the legal chain. I worked with a guy who sold a 67 Vette. Several years later, he gets sued because he unknowingly bought and sold a stolen car. It took a bunch of owners to track him down. His seller gave him bad info, and he (and his insurance) was left holding the bag for damages. The damages increased with every purchaser, so they were substantial by the time it got to him.

High c.o.g

Sideways into a curb or soft dirt.

Buy in rural, sell in major metro area, and move volume. The prices people get around here for something that just runs and passes inspection are nuts.

Don't forget those cars that have notorious issues that are easily fixed. Like late 80's early nineties hondas with fuel pump relay solder joints that crack. Or cars that "overheat. Bad head gasket" and it's actually a plugged thermostat.

I used to do this on the side, but too busy anymore to attempt it (or even work on my own stuff...).

My advice? Stick to what you know. Whatever make is your knowledge/friend base, you can spot the deals and repairs more easily (and know the known faults of common models).

I know VW's. I found the sweet spot to be the cars that are still worth a decent chunk (say ~$5K), but worth just enough less that owners are unwilling to pay full shop/dealer rates on a major repair for the vehicle (trans failure, timing belt failure, etc.).

Say a car with 100K on it that's worth ~$5K in good shape, but the timing belt let go, and the shop wants $4K+ to put a new engine in, or a full tear down and rebuild. Scoop the car for ~$1K. I could get the head rebuilt with new valves for ~$1K. Bottom end was fine 9/10 times, and slap it together with new parts. But I knew the repair costs, I knew where to get parts, I knew where parts cars were, and I knew people who could get the pieces I couldn't fix.

I broke even or made good money on 10+ VW's over the years. Anything that's a fairly labor intensive repair, but relatively low cost parts is usually a good bet. Also be willing to find/buy parts cars if you have room/space. I could usually net a free engine buying a smashed car or one with a bad trans, parting it out quickly, and scrapping it near break even, then using the engine or other major component for repairing my main flip. More work, but more profit. This is where having your niche comes in.

Then I stepped out of my element and bought a '95 Jimmy 4x4 that "worst case needed a motor". I didn't diagnose it right, it needed LOTS more, and I put in waaaaaay too many hours trying to save it before finally barely breaking even (and putting in two transmissions, swapping the engine, rebuilding rear brakes, building exhaust, etc. etc.). Know when to cut and run. If it's not what you expected when you tear it apart, button it up and ship it.