Buying car from private seller out of state - need advice

[rob.]

Hello,

I live in Florida, I’m buying my dream car from a private in New Jersey.

I have a purchase agreement between us. I’m in the middle of trying to obtain financing. Only had time to go to two credit unions today who explained they rarely do out of state and if they do, seller has to record lien on title before they release funds which will complicate things I don’t think anyone is going to do anything with their title except transfer at the DMV when they get their check.. I didn’t get a hard no but was advised to go buy the car in state..

Another one flat out told me they only do in state loans

What are my options here? Credit is good, down payment is good. Just worried about logistics here.

I’m considering these options:

Discuss this with a friend who’s a sales manager at a dealership to see if they’ll buy the car and resell to me.

Try more credit unions

Try the credit union the private seller used to finance through(might make it easier, might not..)

Fly to New Jersey and finalize this over there with the seller to facilitate the process…

Contacting a titling agency in New Jersey to ask for more guidance

[86Zed]

Have you tried any of the online credit unions? I financed cars through LightStream in the past including two purchased out of state. There were no requirements placed upon the seller or title.

[rob.]

Originally Posted by 86Zed

Have you tried any of the online credit unions? I financed cars through LightStream in the past including two purchased out of state. There were no requirements placed upon the seller or title.

Are those personal loans or secured auto loans? I’ve heard interest rates tend to be slightly higher there?

[MartinInKansas]

You might try to get the seller to list on Autotrader.com. They have a “Private Seller” process where Autotrader handles all of the details of the purchase and transfer process. There are some lenders available also.

For example, funds are wired to Autotrader and held in escrow until all conditions are met.

Autotrader Private Seller

[Gemini562]

Flying to New Jersey is the most practical. It’s direct, gives you full control, and allows you to get everything done quickly.

[BlkGS]

What's so special about this car that you're having to buy it out of NJ from FL?

Does the car have a loan on it still? If so, the easiest thing you can do is finance it first with a bank you can use in NJ to complete the deal, then refinance for a better rate afterwards. I usually do this with dealerships because they always try to add points to the rates.

[rob.]

Originally Posted by BlkGS

What's so special about this car that you're having to buy it out of NJ from FL?

Does the car have a loan on it still? If so, the easiest thing you can do is finance it first with a bank you can use in NJ to complete the deal, then refinance for a better rate afterwards. I usually do this with dealerships because they always try to add points to the rates.

Dream spec, committed myself to finally do this by sending some money in advance to reserve the car until I was back from travels.

No loan on it, private seller has had lien released on title and has paid off the vehicle.

So you’re saying call a bank or credit union based in NJ, sort it all out then meet seller there to close it out? Seems like this may be my best option.

Was looking at LightStream but seems that interest rates might be too high or just hard to get approved in general even with good credit and income.

[86Zed]

Originally Posted by rob.

Are those personal loans or secured auto loans? I’ve heard interest rates tend to be slightly higher there?

Auto loans. Rates aren’t what they used to be and not nearly as competitive, but approval was nearly instantaneous.

[IanH]

My local credit union just let's you finance the car, you get the check and then show up with it to buy the car.

I use DCU in MA but I would want to work with a local credit union...

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by rob.

Dream spec, committed myself to finally do this by sending some money in advance to reserve the car until I was back from travels.

No loan on it, private seller has had lien released on title and has paid off the vehicle.

So you’re saying call a bank or credit union based in NJ, sort it all out then meet seller there to close it out? Seems like this may be my best option.

Was looking at LightStream but seems that interest rates might be too high or just hard to get approved in general even with good credit and income.

Lightstream is super easy their rates aren't as good because they do unsecured lines of credit. That's probably a good thing in your case, since if this is your dream spec you don't want to worry about it not booking for as much as you think it's worth.

That said, the perk of a local bank would be you can do the deal there, they take possession of the title, you drove off with your new car, everyone stays happy.

[jkoral]

Originally Posted by MartinInKansas

You might try to get the seller to list on Autotrader.com. They have a “Private Seller” process where Autotrader handles all of the details of the purchase and transfer process. There are some lenders available also.

For example, funds are wired to Autotrader and held in escrow until all conditions are met.

Autotrader Private Seller

I didn't realize Autotrader had an escrow service. I've seen a few posts here on bimmerpost of folks having a good experience with
https://www.keysavvy.com/escrow as well. I would definitely use such a service if buying a car out of state with a loan on it.

[STi from DSM]

Never send money to a private party to hold a car.

[STi from DSM]

Please do let us know what happens though. Interested to hear if you end up getting it or not.

[LDT]

Try NFCU. Easy to join.

[David70]

Originally Posted by STi from DSM

Never send money to a private party to hold a car.

I've done it and glad I did. Sent a couple of hundred dollars before I booked a trip to Boston. As for the risk, from buying a used car to my flight to Boston, hotels, food, wasted weekend, etc. was all a risk. I could have skipped the couple of hundred dollars and the total risk difference would have been tiny. Buyer told me honestly the first person that came with money was getting the car (I don't blame him), a couple of hundred dollars and he said it was mine for a week. Following your advise I would have booked all of this and hoped the car was there when I got there.

I also recently sold a car to a private party and at some point they had to wire me the money and waited until the process went through to get their car. They also took some amount of risk as they weren't going to sit in my driveway for 4 hours with the car.

[David70]

One other thing I did that was probably a bad idea overall but I figured the risk was small. When I sold my car, I let them leave my tag on the car to make their 8 hour drive home less of a risk of being stopped. It's one of the hassles of buying a car out of state from a private party, legal system is to go to the DMV and get a temporary tag but seems like a lot of hassle compared to just driving home and going and getting a new, permanent tag. If plates are run the tag matches the car.

[LDT]

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Navy Federal? Only easy to join if you have a military affiliation or certain other government affiliation.

https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/eligibility.html

[dkmesa]

I purchased my car in Florida from Georgia. I paid cash, but when I was considering financing my credit union pre approved me and said they would issue the check and provide a two week grace period to turn over the title. Delta Community Credit Union for what it's worth.

[Westside Guy]

Originally Posted by David70

One other thing I did that was probably a bad idea overall but I figured the risk was small. When I sold my car, I let them leave my tag on the car to make their 8 hour drive home less of a risk of being stopped. It's one of the hassles of buying a car out of state from a private party, legal system is to go to the DMV and get a temporary tag but seems like a lot of hassle compared to just driving home and going and getting a new, permanent tag. If plates are run the tag matches the car.

At the end of the day, it is the buyer's responsiblity to obtain temporary plates and correct me if I am wrong but your insurance coverage will end when the car's ownership is transferred. If I sold my car privately I would never leave my license plates on the vehicle.

[BlkGS]

Originally Posted by David70

One other thing I did that was probably a bad idea overall but I figured the risk was small. When I sold my car, I let them leave my tag on the car to make their 8 hour drive home less of a risk of being stopped. It's one of the hassles of buying a car out of state from a private party, legal system is to go to the DMV and get a temporary tag but seems like a lot of hassle compared to just driving home and going and getting a new, permanent tag. If plates are run the tag matches the car.

You must be the luckiest guy around. You made like, all the mistakes you could make and walked away without issue lol.

[rob.]

Update:

We got the car!

Last week Tuesday I started applying for financing. Went to three credit union’s in person who all said they only do local if it was for private party. Went online that night and applied with Space Coast Credit Union which is also a Florida based CU without checking if they do out of state (excitement for the best of me here). Also couldn’t wait to hear back the next day so also applied to Lightstream that night who denied me.

674 credit score
Plenty of history
Multiple cars financed in the past

Woke up to space coast approval, 14% interest and max of 48 month term due to it being an 8 year old car. (I wish they went off of the market value but it is what it is) - found out they didn’t do out of state so kept looking at other options.

Private seller is asking for updates at this point, wants to know if we’re moving forward. My contract says if we don’t finalize by the 24th he keeps the $2,000 I had sent to reserve the car.

Let him know we had Florida only approval and we could do something with that (I’ll explain later) but that I looking for more options and needed time.

Wednesday of last week I apply for 4 more credit unions. I don’t remember all right now but there was MyAutoLoan, DCU, PenFed, and one more.

Went to sleep almost sure by Thursday we’d be in the clear to book a flight for the weekend.

Woke up to denials all around…

I tell private seller I have an approval on the Florida CU and at this point I was in talks with friends down in Miami where I used to live who are trying to find out if they can help me by buying the car as a dealer and reselling to me for $1-$2k profit but I would also have to cover transport, tag, dealer fee, all the bs putting me at an additional $5k out of pocket with them - Mind you I had a 2024 corolla I had to sell to Carmax when I got the M4 which was gonna cost me $3k that I was upside down. So between the $2k to the seller, $5k to dealer and $3k for the Rola I was at $10k. I’m blessed enough at this moment in my life to take care of that and at this point I was set on not losing my $2k, it was a great deal, perfect car, it was happening one way or another I just wasn’t sure how yet.

I tell seller to let me get more quotes from other dealers and I’d get back to him.

Thursday comes around, I decide I’m going to start calling all the BMW dealers in the private seller’s area to see if anyone would be willing to facilitate the deal for us. 5/6 told me to kick rocks. But I found one dealer, BMW of Bloomfield in New Jersey. I called in, explained myself to receptionist, got transferred to James Porozzo, sales manager- and explained everything including the fact that I had this car on my bathroom mirror since I was 16. I’m 25 now.

James and Gio from their finance team got to work and got us approved within a few hours on a 72mo term, $0 down, 14%.

I’m not happy with the interest rate but the term and no money down was a huge relief here. I don’t care to hear opinions on this please. The economy is shit right now but right now is when I can afford it. When the economy was amazing I was broke and couldn’t afford groceries.

They got us approved 5pm Friday, called me to tell me the great news and just like that, dealer closed at 6 and I didn’t hear back.

Am I getting the car? Do I book a flight? Is this real?

I told the private seller who is just skeptical of all of it at this point. Pro tip: don’t do any of this. For me, it was worth it because I’ve wanted this for so long and it played out better than I could’ve imagined but unless you’re obsessed it’s not worth it lol.

Saturday morning. Couldn’t sleep, too excited. Dealer opens at 9, I call at 8.

They answer.

I tell the sales rep who was there early that I was calling for James who told us we were approved and I needed to know if seller should take the car and I should book a flight. He says James will be there at 8:30 and he’ll reach out to me when he gets there.

Waiting…

8:35

Still waiting

8:47

Call comes in. He explains what our payments would be including Gap insurance and lets me know to send the seller in and I can go pickup same day as long as I have insurance sorted.

Booked a flight for my girlfriend and I for 11:30am. $670 Orlando to Newark, ouch.

Packed a backpack and a purse, jumped on the plane, got in an uber.

We’re driving to the dealer now.

Uber lady almost kills us 3 times but we make it.

Car is still undergoing inspection when we arrive so we can’t see it but who cares? It’s happening.

Mind you I did so much research before this, carfax, PPI, maintenance records, all of it. Car is mint for what I’m looking for.

Car eventually came out of inspection, we had the temp tag put on by the dealer, jumped in called family shared with loved ones who have known how long and hard I’ve worked for this, cried haha and we jumped in and headed to Washington DC

Stayed the night in DC, jumped in the car in the morning and drove all the way to Orlando, got home by 11pm.

Including some pictures here

You can also follow me on Instagram!
f82.rob


Thanks for checking out my Ted talk, and thank you all for your advice.


My advice to anyone reading this:
If you see everything I went through and you still want that car you’re looking at that a private seller has up on the forums, DO IT

I don’t regret a thing.

[tturedraider]

Wow!! Congrats!! I think?!?! Get your credit score up and try PenFed to refinance in a year. On used cars a lot of times they offer better rates for a refinance than they offer for a purchase. Might as well establish membership now and open a savings account with $5, so you won’t be starting completely from scratch next year. Currently PenFed and Navy Federal are in the 6% range on used cars, so you could save a butt load on interest.