Selling car with loan balance

[Anonymous]

We are going to be moving and need to sell our car. We are still making payments on it. How does this work?

[Anonymous]

Sell the car, pay off the payments remaining.

[Anonymous]

I think you can sell it back to a place like CarMax and they'll give you the balance of the loan--or something close to it.

[Anonymous]

If your bank has the title like mine did, they expect payment in full before they will release it. If you can't get at least what you owe for the car when you sell it, you will need to cover the difference to pay off the bank loan.

[Anonymous]

Much easier to sell to car max and then they will pay off the loan and give you the difference.

[Anonymous]

Can you pay it off and then sell it?

[Anonymous]

I think you'll want to have a bill of sale document for the buyer. You then pay off the loan and sign the title over to the buyer.

http://www.autotrader.com/car-tips/how-to-sell-a-car-if-the-bank-has-the-title-215870

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much easier to sell to car max and then they will pay off the loan and give you the difference.

But if you owe more than car's worth, you will have to make up the difference.

[Anonymous]

We don't owe more than the car is worth. Have about one year of payments left on a five year loan. Car is in good shape. are we throwing away a lot of money if we go with the convenience of carmax? I assume we'd be able to use the car right up until our move and then hand it off to be sold if we go that route.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't owe more than the car is worth. Have about one year of payments left on a five year loan. Car is in good shape. are we throwing away a lot of money if we go with the convenience of carmax? I assume we'd be able to use the car right up until our move and then hand it off to be sold if we go that route.

Yes, you would be throwing away money. But you have to ask yourself if your time and hassle of dealing with tire kickers is worth the amount of money you'll lose. I sold my car the day before I moved abroad to Carmax. It was a super easy process. I could have made at least 3k more selling to a private party but I needed my car up until the last minute and already had enough stress dealing with everything I needed to do before moving out of the country. It was worth it to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't owe more than the car is worth. Have about one year of payments left on a five year loan. Car is in good shape. are we throwing away a lot of money if we go with the convenience of carmax? I assume we'd be able to use the car right up until our move and then hand it off to be sold if we go that route.

Yes, you would be throwing away money. But you have to ask yourself if your time and hassle of dealing with tire kickers is worth the amount of money you'll lose. I sold my car the day before I moved abroad to Carmax. It was a super easy process. I could have made at least 3k more selling to a private party but I needed my car up until the last minute and already had enough stress dealing with everything I needed to do before moving out of the country. It was worth it to me.

Also just fyi. you can always take your car there and get a quote for what they'll offer you to buy it. Then you can compare to private market prices and make a decision. You will also know the lowest you can go in a private party sale before it would be better to take to Carmax.

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, when I used to shop for used vehicles, I'd only consider ones where the owners had title in hand.

There was one really good deal where I decided to take the plunge and scoop it up. But after a month or two, the seller still couldn't come up with the money to pay off the loan and get a lien release. So ended up returning it.

So if you're able to, I would try to pay off the loan so you can get the lien release sooner and it will allow a faster and smoother transaction. Especially if you'll be moving soon, it would be better to have that part taken care of. Is the financing company local, where you can just walk in and get the paperwork or do you have to wait for things by mail?

[Anonymous]

Thanks all. I've never bought or sold a used car before. My parents bought me my first car new. I drove it for sixteen years and then drove it to the dealership and traded it in for a new car. Drove that one until it became too small for our family and drove it to the dealership to trade it in for our current car. We are moving abroad and it would be great to have it up until we move. I think we may just go the Carmax route.

[Anonymous]

One other question. If we can easily pay off the loan balance, is there a benefit to doing that before hand if we are going the easy Carmax route?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One other question. If we can easily pay off the loan balance, is there a benefit to doing that before hand if we are going the easy Carmax route?

I would imagine that it would be faster if you have the title in hand.