Be Careful with Cars for Sale by Owners
You need to be cautious of the advertisement on the community bulletin board that reads, “cars for sale by owners”. It would be wise to read the whole ad so that you can determine if it is indeed legitimate. People who are offering used cars for sale by dealers and those listings that purport to being cars for sale by owners often turn out to be unreliable.
About eight months ago, I was shopping for a used car. I came upon a most useful and effective category, “cars for sale by owners,” on Craiglist, the most wonderful of no-charge community bulletin boards online. However, all I found were appealing deals I couldn’t afford, affordable deals that included cars with no engines, and no pink slips. There were also no responses after I went out of my way to visit the owners, test-drive and check the vehicle, and call back as requested with an offer.
I also found advertisements that were clearly for automobiles and trucks offered by a dealer and confirmed by the dealer’s business information. However, I was suspicious because an ad for a 1970’s Chevy Truck had contact information that includes four phone numbers, and a distinctively misspelled detail. To make it worst, I found separate ads for a Ford F-250, a Chevy Nova, and a listing for two commuter cars that had the same contact information, those same four phone numbers, and that same distinctively misspelled detail, after I did a search of over 1,000 cars for sale by owners.
I’m sure that the guy behind those ads was fraudulent. The cars and trucks existed, and they were presented with photographs. However, the background in every one of the photos was the same and the contact info and details were also the same. This means that the supposed cars for sale by owners were really listed in the wrong place intentionally, by a guy who wanted the benefits of a used car salesman but did not want to pay taxes.
This person was obviously not very smart because he used the same identifiable info and just smashed it all into cars for sale by owners. He wasted serious buyers’ time and energy because of his acts. He also gave the already dubious characters of the used car business a more negative identity.