Buying leased car at term end to immediately sell it

[Anonymous]

Has anyone done this recently? My leased car has very low mileage and the buyout price in my lease is much lower than the Kelly Blue Book value online. Has anyone recently bought their car at the end of their lease (something I know is typically not a good deal) only to immediately sell it to a dealership or Carmax type place?

[Anonymous]

Not recently but you’ll probably come out ahead now since used car values are very high. Just get a quote from carmax and see how much you would make in the deal.

What are you going to drive after you sell or give back the car?

[Anonymous]

My parents are doing this right now (they're going from 2 to 1 car). It seems like the rare perfect storm where a lease pays off!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone done this recently? My leased car has very low mileage and the buyout price in my lease is much lower than the Kelly Blue Book value online. Has anyone recently bought their car at the end of their lease (something I know is typically not a good deal) only to immediately sell it to a dealership or Carmax type place?

I did this several years ago with my Hyundai Elantra coming off lease. I bought it out, then a few days later sold it to Carmax for a couple thousand over what I paid. I got lucky, doesn't typically work out that way. But with the current climate, you should be able to make a tidy profit. Your buy-out price was locked in years ago before the shortage. Definitely leverage that. You can also get competing offers from companies now - everyone is desperate for inventory.

[Anonymous]

Don’t make it so complicated - have the purchasing dealer make the buyout payment directly to your lender, and then they’ll cut you a check for the overage. No need to purchase it yourself and then sell. One transaction instead of two.

[Anonymous]

Some banks will not let you sell your leased car directly to CarMax. For sure Mercedes-Benz Financial will not allow it (new policy that started 12/2021). You'd have to buy the car yourself and then sell it to CarMax

[Anonymous]

why would you sell to carmax. sell to a person and make thousands more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why would you sell to carmax. sell to a person and make thousands more.

Before you do that you need to make sure that you’ve titled it in your name (instead of the financier) and paid the taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:why would you sell to carmax. sell to a person and make thousands more.

I'm not the OP, but for my MB CLA, Carmax offered 10k over KBB's private sale estimate

[Anonymous]

We are about to do this but I suppose we will get slapped with cap gains tax on the profit huh? Still worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are about to do this but I suppose we will get slapped with cap gains tax on the profit huh? Still worth it.

I don’t think they will be issuing you a 1099. I can buy out my lease and resell for about $15k more. I plan to do it. Why wouldn’t I??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are about to do this but I suppose we will get slapped with cap gains tax on the profit huh? Still worth it.

I don’t think they will be issuing you a 1099. I can buy out my lease and resell for about $15k more. I plan to do it. Why wouldn’t I??

They have to issue a 1099-NEC based on the transaction amount, so the IRS will know about it. Whether you report it is up to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are about to do this but I suppose we will get slapped with cap gains tax on the profit huh? Still worth it.

good point, I didn't even think about capital gains tax; I haven't filed my income taxes yet.

But for 10k, it's worth the hassle

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are about to do this but I suppose we will get slapped with cap gains tax on the profit huh? Still worth it.

I don’t think they will be issuing you a 1099. I can buy out my lease and resell for about $15k more. I plan to do it. Why wouldn’t I??

Uh well I don’t personally commit tax fraud but if you’re comfortable with it, evade away!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t make it so complicated - have the purchasing dealer make the buyout payment directly to your lender, and then they’ll cut you a check for the overage. No need to purchase it yourself and then sell. One transaction instead of two.

The leasing companies do not allow that at the moment. They figured out what people were doing.