When you’re ready to market your vehicle for sale, you have three options.
You can market it online, offline or both.
Some offline methods are newspapers, the PennySavers, classified ads and also posting a For Sale sign on the car itself.
I don’t usually put for sale signs on cars because of the fact that I usually don’t drive them a lot when they’re for sale.
I keep them clean as possible and in my garage so I don’t need to waste my time cleaning them up again before each viewing.
Most cars that I have for sale don’t have insurance on them. So I wait until I get a call then I’ll show the car.
I have the buyers come to me or I meet them around the block at a local shopping center.
The main method I use for marketing is online classifieds such as Craigslist. In many cities, it’s free to post a vehicle for sale – if not free then it might be a buck or five at the most.
Craigslist has a top posting rule when posting ads for automobiles. This means that, if you post a car for sale on one specific day, you can’t post the same ad with the same pictures on the next day. You must wait 3 full days before you post your ad for that specific car again.
The reason that you want to post every day is that you want to get on top of the listings every day.
For example, let’s say you post your car – a 07 Honda Civic for sale on Craigslist on Monday morning around 8:30AM. By 12:00PM, there will be about 50–200 cars that were posted after your post, depending on the city you live in and how many people are selling cars.
This will make your car drop down in the rankings with every passing hour. People are constantly posting ads and your ad exposure will get lower by the day. To offset this problem, I’ll show you how to post your ad everyday on any online classified that does not allow you to post the same ad daily to get more views.
For Craigslist, you’ll want to open at least three separate accounts in total. You’ll need one dedicated email address per account.
In the video course, I show you how to open a free email and Craigslist account.
You’ll want to open two more so you have three in total.
Now, when you have your three accounts open, you can use all accounts and switch them in rotation using the same ad and pictures.
By posting your ad daily, your chances for maximum exposure really kicks in.
After creating your first car ad and post it in your account, on Day 2, you’ll want to log in to your Craigslist account and click
Accounts, then you’ll see your recent post that you just created a day ago.
Click
Edit and copy your whole ad by highlighting it with your pointer – it will become blue when highlighted. Just left-click over the text while holding the click down. Just drag your pointer over the whole text area until it’s all highlighted.
Then you want to right-click on the highlighted area and click on
Copy. You may want to open a notepad or MS Word and right-click and Paste it there to see if you copied it correctly.
Once you have correctly copied the ad, simply delete the old posting and log out of your account.
Log in to your new Craigslist account or any other online classified that you’re using and click
Post Ad in your specific state and city.
Click For Sale and click on Cars and Trucks By Owner.
You always want to sell your cars
By Owner. People like to buy from private party sellers. We all tend to think we get better deals buying from private party sellers.
No taxes, no hidden fees, etc.
Just simply select your city and in the section where you post your ad, just right-click and paste your copied ad that you got from your other account.
Select the same pictures that you took of the car by retrieving them from your Documents, Pictures folder or wherever you save your photos. This method will allow you to post your same ad every day. It only takes 5 minutes to do this.
Make sure you do this and post your cars every day.
Sometimes I’ll be lazy and forget to post the car every day and still get calls two or three days later, but by posting your ad daily, it gives you a better chance of being seen to get more prospects for your car.
This is how you overcome the Craigslist “SLAP”.
Here are some killer ad samples that that you can use to attract prospects like white on rice.
If you can keep the basic outline in this order, you have a good headline.
Always make sure to add the Features & Benefits in the headline as much as possible, without running out of space.
List the pluses such as, Low Miles – what is the Low Mileage?
If your car has really low miles write an ad like this:
2007 Honda Civic 2-door 5-speed. 1.8L Cold AC, New Tires, Only 35k Miles!
2006 Toyota Camry Runs Excellent, Cold AC, All Power, ONLY 65k Miles – Must GO!
Another tip is to create a sense of urgency in your ad like you need to sell it soon – Must go by (a specific date) or Moving Must Sell!
Even if you’re not really moving, or if the title is in a family member’s name or a friend’s name, you can still put
Moving Must Sell!
Just say that your friend had already moved and you’re doing him a favor by selling his car.
You have the title and it is signed, ready to hand over.
Most of the time people won’t even question you.
They’re just concerned about getting the car for a good deal.
When putting extra bonuses in your ad like New Timing Belt, New Tune- Up, New Tires, New Brakes, etc., I’m not saying flat out lie in your ad just to make it look good.
I’m saying, when buying the car from previous owners, ask them if they have had any recent mechanical fixes done or new tires installed.
Most times, sellers won’t think about putting these Hot Points in their ads.
So, if an owner said the tires were put on 6 months ago and did a timing belt 8,000 miles ago, I think that it’s still fairly pretty new. Make sure to ask for receipts.
If they have no receipts or misplaced them, just look at the engine to see if any work had been done.
If a timing belt job was done, mechanics usually write the mileage somewhere under the hood with a paint pen.
As for the tires, you can easily see if the tires look good or not.
Now, when taking this information and writing your own ad, you can simply put
New Tires! as long as the tires look good. This will pull your buyer in and 99% of the time.
They will only glance at the tires when looking at your vehicle.
As for the new timing belt, you can put
New Timing Belt in your ad but when the buyer asks for receipts, you can say that you might have misplaced it but it was done about 8,000 miles ago.
Or you can say your friend had lost the receipts. Whatever the story is, be honest.
The same thing goes for a recent tune-up. You might even do your own oil change and simple tune-ups yourself.
If you do it this way, you’ll have the receipts and can show proof to the buyers if they wish to see any receipts.
By asking for all documents when you purchase a vehicle, only adds to your own marketing when it’s time to write your ad and sell the car.
You can say that you have “All Maintenance Records”.
When writing ads and incorporating these selling points, here is how you do it.
Example Ad:
Headline:
2004 Toyota Tacoma X-Cab. Automatic 4-Cyl Excellent On Gas! New Timing Belt, Great Tires, Cold AC, Keyless Entry*
Body of Ad:
-2004 Toyota Tacoma X-Cab -Automatic 4-Cylinder
-New Timing Belt
-Excellent Tires
-Cold AC
-AM, FM, CD Stereo
-Keyless Entry
-Excellent on Gas!
-New Tires Paid $550.00 (3 months ago)
-New Timing Belt Paid $887.45
-Alarm, Keyless Entry Paid $215.00
**Total Extras Paid $1,652.45
Blue Book Retail $7,550
Asking ONLY $4,850 obo
Call 888-888-8888
Now, you can clearly see that this truck is a DEAL!
If you write ads like this you will show the buyer how much they are saving and how much was invested in the vehicle.
People like to see that money was put into the car.
Mostly that the vehicle was taken care of.
You can make up these prices in a ball park way. Just find out how much a set of tires are or how much a timing belt job is for the specific vehicle that you’re selling, if you don’t have any receipts for it.
If you do have receipts, then even better.
Ads like this will get your phone ringing off the hook. Please don’t flat out lie about it. Try to get the history of the car and weave it into your ad.
Try to show dollars, what was invested, and savings – how much of a deal they’re actually getting.
Look at the way people place ads and you’ll clearly see that many people are losing money because of plain, old, bad ad-writing.
Using this tactic will make your car appear more attractive and more valuable than a plain ad of the same car.
Remember, if you decide to make mechanical fixes to your car, keep all receipts and records so you have exact numbers to add up in your ad and always show the value to the buyers.
Make sure to always list the Blue Book Retail Price first. Then, your asking price.
****(ONLY) $X,XXX OBO
If Blue Book prices are irrelevant in your city, you must do research and see what the deals are, what’s selling and what’s sitting.
Calling for cars daily will help you see what’s working.
You might want to call up on advertised cars that you are thinking of selling, just to see how long they’ve been on the market and get some information that way.
Keep track of listings.
Sometimes you’ll start to see the same car for sale get cheaper and cheaper as the weeks go on and when it finally sells, you can get an idea of how much it went for.
Call the seller and act like you were really interested and ask how much it sold for.
That’s how you’ll find out.
Here is an example ad of a Honda Accord that I recently sold.
Take notice of the layout of the ad.
The Headline is very important as well as the body layout.
==========start==========
Headline on Craigslist:
2011 Honda Accord 2.4l V-Tech -Manual Transmission Only 58k Miles!
Body – Inside of the Ad:
-Only 58k Miles w/ New Timing Belt and a New Tune-Up!
-New Tires – Paid $700
-Runs Excellent
-Ice Cold AC
-CD player XM Radio
Retail Blue Book (the current Retail)
Asking Only (your best price) obo
Moving.
Call 555-666-7777
==============end==============
2011 Honda Accord. 2.4l V-Tech, Manual, Cold AC, All
Power, Runs Excellent! New Tires, Great On Gas! Moving Must Sell
I bought the car for $8,400. I sold it a few days later for $10,500 cash.
Of course, I could have made more but I don’t like to sit on cars very long.
I also enjoy giving people a great deal. I’ve had times where I listed a car for sale, a day later, I get an offer for $3,800 which was already a $1,000 profit for me, turned it down and got no calls for 2 weeks.
Then, finally sell it for $3,500 with a loss of $300.
If I had sold it to the first buyer, I would have made an extra $300. That flat out stinks! But, you’ll learn not to get too greedy.
If you get a serious buyer right away and you’re making decent amount of money on it, get rid of it and move on to the next one. As soon as I started to move out of the make-more-out-of-each-car mindset, I started to flip more cars quicker, which led to more profits.
Closing Ad-Writing Tips
Have an Eye-Catching Headline.
List Hot Points like I did in the example ads:
2005 Toyota Tacoma X-Cab -Automatic 4 Cyl, 4WD, Runs
Great, Cold Ac, Bed Cover and Many Extras!
-New Timing Belt
-Excellent Tires (plenty of tread)
-Ice Cold AC
-AM, FM, CD Stereo
-Keyless Entry
-Excellent On Gas!
-Original Shiny Paint
The more benefits, the better!
Make the first letter capital for all words in your ad headline except when comparing prices and adding values.
You can also write a compelling story if you have one to get the buyer excited about your vehicle.
Don’t make your story longer than a couple paragraphs.
End with the Retail Blue Book value price, then, your asking price and OBO at the end.
It makes you look more negotiable and will get you more calls. Never put the word FIRM in your ad.
You’ll cut out many potential buyers.
Finally, create a sense of urgency in your ad like
Moving Must Sell or Must Sell or Must Go!, etc.
You can test your ad on a daily basis to see what pulls in more calls. Lower prices a little, create a better headline, you get the idea. Take these tips to heart and skip the trial and error. The Formula works!
MAKE THE SALE! Take Action!
Buy your first car and just get started. Once you have a car to work on, it’s MONEY waiting to be put in YOUR BANK!