Guides
Guides for dealers who buy from private sellers.
Where the cars are, how to price them against auction and retail, what to check before you drive over, and how to tell an owner from a curbstoner. Written for independent dealers and buyers, not for someone buying their first car.
Auctions, trade-ins, wholesalers, service lanes and private sellers: where independent dealers buy used cars, what each source costs, and where the margin is.
MMR vs private-party priceWhat Manheim MMR measures, what a private-party ask is, why they differ, and how a dealer reads the gap between them before calling a seller.
Buying on Facebook Marketplace as a dealerHow independent dealers find, vet and buy private-party cars on Facebook Marketplace: searching, messaging sellers, spotting scams and closing the deal.
Craigslist car alerts for dealersHow to set up Craigslist email alerts for owner-listed cars, the search terms that help a dealer, what alerts miss, and how to keep up across a metro.
Spotting curbstonersHow to tell a curbstoner from a real owner in a private-party ad: shared phone numbers, copied text, financing offers and other signs, with measured LA counts.
Title problems on private-party carsSalvage, rebuilt, lien, lost and open titles: what each means when a dealer buys from a private seller, what it does to resale, and what to ask first.
What to pay for a private-party carWork back from what the car will sell for: retail comps, recon, fees, holding cost and your margin. A worked example for dealers buying from private sellers.
Private-party buying checklistA checklist for dealers buying from private sellers: before you call, on the phone, at the car, the paperwork and the payment.
Measured figures for Los Angeles are on the Los Angeles market page.
The private-party cars in your buy box, on one sheet.
Early dealers pay $299 a month and keep that price after launch, when it goes to $499. Month to month, one flat fee per market.