I have a person from Austrialia interested in purchasing my car. I was wanting to know the safest way to conduct this business. He has asked for a Bill of sale signed and copy of the tiltle before hand to show to customs.

I've never dealt with this kind or transaction and want to as safe as possible for both parties involved.

If anyone can help I would appriecate it.

-Chuck

 

Ive heard it from a lot of others on this site....Cash in hand and he can take it away. Papers and all. Anything else would make me nervous. Just my opinion.

 

You are the seller and he is the buyer, so you are on the strong side and he is on the weak one. You will not release your car until you got the cash in you bank account, the car will be setting in YOUR garage all the time! While he will be sending money and just pray the transaction will be completed successfully!. I say that because I've noticed that some of the owners in US will panic if someone from overseas wanted to buy their car! just if anyone outside the US is a member of a mafia or something!

When I bought my car from US I paid a firm called The Vette Net (they are a supporting dealer here) to handle all the transactions including inspection, finance transfer, shipping and everything went very smooth. You could ask the australian guy to use them as an intermediate or local agent for both of you.

 

When I have bought vehicles from the States, my Corvette and am in the process of importing a VW Karmann Ghia right now, I have needed a copy of the bill of sale as well as the original title for customs. These were only released after the funds had cleared US end.

There are many ways to send money. A wire transfer is probably easiest. Paypal but the receiver has to take a hit for fees or moneygram. With moneygram the buyer walks into his local office ( post office here in UK ) with the cash and 15 mins later it is available, as cash in the sellers country! Costs the seller to do this but is almost instant. Did this with the KG.

Not all international buyers are scammers!

 

Chuck,

Australian buyers need to arrange an import permit which takes a few weeks and this is necessary before the car is shipped or there can be messy complications if a car arrives in Oz without a permit.

I've bought three corvettes from the USA and in each case I used wire transfer to the sellers bank account and the car stayed with the seller until funds cleared.

The buyer takes all the risk this way because you have his money and the car.

The usual approach is that you provide a bill of sale when you have all the money and the buyer arranges his carrier to come collect the car at that time. Occasionaly the seller has helped me out by "storing" the car for me until I got my import permit, however I paid for the car up front.

Hope that helps.

Joe

 

My corvette arrived from the states about 4 weeks ago. Like Joe says, Your car is in your garage till the money is in your bank. Send the buyer a copy of title to show that you have it ( remember he is the one taking all the risk ) and a copy of the bill of sale. This will give him the confordence to wire you the money. Chris

 

I've sent the paper work he has asked for but he wants me to sign the Bill of sales is this normal?

-Chuck

 

jotto I wouldn't release/sign any documents w/out cash in hand. I wouldn't do it here in the states, either. Using a third party, as has been suggested, such as Vette Net could be an option. Who is going to pick up the cost of the third party involvement?

 

when i sold my 69 coronet superbee 2 years ago it was to a guy
in Sweden that had approached me with an offer i couldn't refuse.

while we were talking of ways to make payment i was adamant that i wanted cash because of the horror stories i had heard of scammers
he on the other hand wanted to do a wire transfer and explained to me that if any one needed to trust it was him because once he did the wire transfer i not only had the car and the title but i also had his cash in my account.

i went to my bank and spoke with the branch manager and she said that
once the cash was transferred they verify that the funds are from an honest source and not a scammer and that once they are cleared there is no way anyone could take the money out but me.

just to be safe i gave him the routing and account number for the EBay account i have and once verified that the money was clear in my account i did a transfer to one of my other personal accounts.
he had the car picked up 2 weeks later and the rest is history.

also as a sidebar DO NOT TAKE PAYPAL FOR FULL PAYMENT a small deposit is fine but anything more you are asking for trouble.
I'm not sure where i read it and maybe it was on here but someone took a full payment via pay-pal the person picked up the car and a couple of days or so later pay-pal came back for the money because the CC used was stolen and it took them that long to figure it out.

so cash in hand or wire transfer anything else i would be leery

 

Thanks so much for the info.

-C

 

UHH.....ok, somehow my knowing first hand the laws in Florida, and i'ts ALL a civil matter down here, each party pays their own lawyer, and no matter the outcome, lawyers fees are out of pocket to each party individually....no recovery through judgement....

NOW, for ANY overseas purchaser of anything from this state could very well be in for a bad experience....

Feds be damned.....bet nothing ever get done on that end....

 

I don't know why he needs the title "to show his customers". To get the permit yes but customers????

As to the signing of the title, I wouldn't have a problem to signing it as long as I kept the origional until I had the money.

As far as international transactions. there are ways to get it done (see above posts) but remember the buyer is forced to take all the risks. It is quite uncomfortable!

Keep in mind we need to get our vettes from somewhere!

Good Luck!

Bud.

 

Australian Customs is a gov't department looking after imports and exports and collects duties on imported things like cars. They provide import permits to allow cars to be brought into Australia privately.

Regarding the Bill of Sale. If you are nervous about providing one, then arrange to have a separate agreement written up that says you have provided the Bill of Sale to help complete import documentation but it will not be effective and the car remains your property until it is paid for in full. Then you and the buyer sign this.

It will help in the unlikely event the buyer tries to use the Bill of Sale to claim ownership without paying in full.

I assume the buyer has already paid you a significant deposit and this is already in your bank account. Otherwise I would not be too helpful.


Joe

 

No deposit yet, I will ask for one though. I have not signed anything at all. I wasn't intending to until I recieved the funds, or at least a deposit down on the car. I did send a unsigned Bill of sale not filled out and black and white copy of the front of the title only.

thanks again for everything, been very helpful.

-C

 

You're welcome!

BTW I bought my first vette (69 L36 M21 Coupe) from a guy in Lufkin Texas in 1991 (Terry FairCloth) and I'd really like to get in contact with him again send him some photos of the vette downunder etc.

Is your buyer a forum member? It's possible someone in the Corvette community down here knows him. He can get in touch with any of us for help.


Joe

 

When I sold my '74 to a buyer from Aus. I was very nervous from the start. After hearing horror stories from other members i wanted nothing to do with an overseas buter. After dealing with wannabe owners and tire kickers I finally sold overseas. I caught a lot of flack for letting my car go, but it was the best thing to do.

 

I bought my '72 BB Vert from a little lady in Texas a couple of years ago and everything went quite well. I paid a deposit and then the balance (it was a hassle transferring funds), and then she sent the certificate of title so I could arrange and import certificate. This is required to be approved BEFORE the car lands in OZ.
Must admit I was nervous, she had all the money and I took her on trust. She helped take the car to the shipping agents.
I did not even personally look at the car prior to purchase, had a third party I had been communicating with about Corvettes look at it for me.
The car was not as good as I had hoped but the closest I had been to the States before was Hawaii when I was in the Military and I had no idea how to get around in the US.
I could have got burnt but you can't go around in life being sceptical of everything.

 

I endorse Joe's comments,and you can trust me,I'm a lawyer. john

 

...there is a transaction proceeding that is used for all items in export/import, the key iussue of course is the method of payment for the seller and the security for the buyer not to be fooled around...so you could ask for a letter of credit from his bank, this L/C (iussued by the buyer's bank) would request a few documentations about the transaction, for example the bill of lading of the car onto a ship (or conteiner), invoice, technical iussues and i'd say a special document that verifies the actual car order, signed by a major check co. (in other fields there are specialized co. for these surveys, like SGS, etc).

so, you get this l/c (which actually is a promise from the buyer's bank to pay if everything is in order) and then you have to comply with their requests, of course you can ask the buyer to instruct his bank to modify the l/c if you won't agree on something...this way you'll be guarantee for the payment and the buyer will be guarantee for his buy to be what he expected.

said this, i'd never sell a car abroad (of EU)...there must be thousands wanting to buy your car in usa, why sell it so far away?

 

you can only sell to party's interested in purchasing.

-Chuck