My name is John,
I live in NJ, close to Atlantic City. I am in the early
stages of going into business for myself. I have chosen to,
independently, buy and sell used cars for profit. I took
a class about two month ago to become a Car Salesman. Sorry
to say the job didn't work out, but I have learned some real
valuable information, that will come in handy in the months
ahead. One thing I would like to share with you that I
learned, and I did know this before hand, was the reality of
the demand for used automobiles in the market is tremendous.
I just didn’t know how tremendous. Dealers don't make money
selling new cars. A lot of shoppers that come into a
dealership are looking to buy pre-owned. The dealership I
was at carried six different makes of new vehicle inventory,
but they relied heavily on the trade-in market, and if they
didn't get enough trade-ins during the month, they would go
to the auctions to replenish their stock. Every used vehicle
on the lot was marked up $4000.00 above what they paid for
it. Customers would come in and just inhale the used cars
off the lot. I think working independently will give me the
advantage over a dealership. The public does not want to
deal with salesman because of the way they are. Potential
buyers would come into the dealership out of curiosity, but
they would keep their distance from the salesman. It was
like they didn't want to catch a germ, or something. The one
advantage dealerships have over the independent salesman is
financing, they can virtually make any buyer qualify to
purchase a vehicle. I do plan on offering a financing option
later on, but for now I just want to keep it simple. I also
plan to sell on “eBay” which will broaden my scope of
buyers. I am usually good at locating used cars at cheap
prices, my only concern is, can I repeat the process, 4 or
more times a month. In the beginning I plan to do most of my
buying from the public. I will keep my mark-up at $2500.00
for each vehicle. Wish me luck!!
- John in New
Jersey
I work full time
as a teacher and I buy and sell cars on my time off. I like
to buy Honda’s that are usually between the years1994-1998. I like buying Hondas because there are a lot out there for
sale and a lot of people like buying them because of their
reliability. My target profits are about $1,000 per car
after all expenses are paid.
I have bought and
sold many other types of cars and SUVs, but my niche is with
Hondas. I normally find the cars in the newspaper and sometimes
from word of mouth. I don’t normally buy cars that need a lot
of work unless I get a great deal. After cleaning them up and
getting ready to sell, I advertise in Autotrader and in the
newspaper. I also like parking the car with a for sale sign on
a sunny day. This seems to work especially well on the weekends
in busy areas.
I like buying and
selling because it gives me a substantial boost to my income,
it’s fun, and I like cars.
- Mike in Illinois
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