Buying a car with a lein
 

Well, you can't have enough corvettes, right? I'm wanting to purchase a '96 grand sport (no flaming please). I will be paying cash. The problem is I am in Arkansas, seller is in OK (1.5 hr drive), title is being held at a bank in CA. The amount owed is less than the selling price. I've never bought a car with a lein let alone one with the title being held so far away. How do I do this without relying on trust? I would like to do the transaction this weekend, what are the chances that's going to happen?

I'm no lawyer but would think you would want to talk to a loan officer of the bank, maybe a three way with the seller. But for sure I would be calling my lawyer just to check on how to proceed and what to or not to do.
Good luck even though the car is, ah different :thumbs:
:cheers:

you ought to be able to contact the seller and the sellers bank and work out the logisitics of getting the title. I would think for your protection that you need to pay the bank and have the seller release the bank to send the title to you. You could deal with the bank via wire transfer.

The seller would get the balance of the cash, taking that with you. You would give the cash and leave with the car.

If I couldn't get the seller to work with me on something like this with the bank, I would probably pass.

Might take a little bit longer than this weekend to get it ironed out.

good luck....Herb

I would say slim to none. First the lein needs to be paid before the title is signed off on by the lein holder. That will take a couple of days unless they know about it in advance and have the title ready to sign as soon as they get there money. Then the holder of the title will have to send title to owner of the car and then they will need to sign off as the seller and send title to you. Will it all happen this weekend I don't think so. I have bought several cars with liens on titles. What I do is pay for the car. Get a signed Bill Of Sale saying that I have bought and payed for this car ( put in Vin #) and I take the car with me. Then it is up to the seller to pay off the lien and send me the title. But get that Bill Of Sale stating that you paid for the car in full and are waiting on title that has a lien. Make sure Vin# type of car, year of car etc is all written up in the Bill Of Sale. Then take your car home and wait. That is how I have done it in the past and have had no trouble. It is all about TRUST. Good Luck.

You can pay for the car with Two Cashiers checks and take possession of the car. One check is made out to the Lien holder, (Bank), and the other to the seller. Just be certain to prepare and have the Bill of Sale Notarized. The Lien holder will forward the Satisfaction of Lien to you or the Seller. You'll not be able to Register the car till you have the Sat. in hand. I'd call the Loan Dept. at the Bank prior and ask for their Guidance. The Seller should give you the Loan Number without hesitation. Good Luck and let us know how things work out. Al W.:flag:

in Florida the bank holds the title until the lien is paid off. IMO, i wouldn't pay the seller anything, pay it to the bank that holds the lien and let them dispurse the funds. if the seller doesn't pay the lien, you're stuck....
Bill

:iagree: :iagree:
I've done this a few times and this is exactly how I did it.

:iagree: That's how I've handled it when buying a car with a bank lien. People do this all the time...just talk to the bank and they'll tell you what to do.

My first Corvette was purchased in this manner... I physically went with the seller to his bank and gave them a check for his balance, and the remaining to him. I received the paperwork from the bank(right then), and a bill of sale. The lender doesnt have a physical title... the pink slip came after the car was registered...

The whole process was a little freaky, but all on the up'n'up

Great car too...

Cj

Calls for different forms also, here is the one for CA
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg227.pdf

it gets even funkier when the seller is upside down.

true story - my dad was buying one of his boats, a 4 year old Sea Ray. For the sake of this story assume he was paying $60k. As many of you know, boats depreciate heavily during the first years of ownership, and the seller's bank loan on the boat had a balance of lets say $70k.

Seller had to take my dad's check, add his own $10k check, in order to get the title from the bank and sell the boat. Like CJ up above, they went to the bank together (local transaction).

Now that would suck.

A release of lein statement wasn't good enough in Iowa. A few years ago, I paid off a loan on a truck I had. The loan had been sold to a bank in CA. They sent me a release of lein statement. The state wouldn't accept it. The bank, who lost my title, had to apply for a duplicate title, since they were the lein holder. Once they got the title, they had to sign it back over to me.

Point of the story, check to see if a release of lein statement is valid in your state, or do you need the actual title.

All this interstate commerce seems to be pretty complicated, but for the record, I think a '96 GS would be pretty slick. Like a premium optioned 67 except at a different point in the Vette's history. By then the car had climbed it's way out of the quagmire of emmission controls and low performance and ended up with a very respectable power and handling package. And, I think C4's look cool in an understated kind of way.

:cheers:

lien
 

Make cashiers check to him and the bank That way they cant beat one or the other. If in doubt call bank where title is being held

For the record, this is what we are doing:

I recieved a copy of the Oklahoma title and payoff amount from the CA lein holder.
The seller sent a letter of authorization to the lein holder giving concent for me (buyer) to pay off the lein.
After inspection, I will put a cashiers check in the amount of payoff amount along with a copy of the bill of sale (notarized) and authorization letter and an address (mine) to mail the title to, in an envelope and drop it off at the post office with the seller. I will give another check for the balance to the seller. The seller at that point gives me possession of the car.
The title will be mailed directly to me from the lein holder. It will be my responsibilty to take (or send) the title back to the seller to sign the back of the title.

This is great stuff.

Is there a way to come back to this thread in the future, even after a year or two?

Lien (sp). Started my career as a copy editor.

File it in your favorites list

Bookmark it in your browser.

Or read the "Search!" sticky in C3 Tech to learn how to retrieve old threads. :thumbs:

hey thanks,

I did a seach one time for my posts, but it seemed cut off and only go back a little ways.

Threads are only active for a few months after the last post. Then you have to get tricky to find them again.