All About Craig's List FSBO (For Sale By Owner) Cars For Both Buyers And Sellers

By David Maillie

Most of us either know about Craig’s List or have used it to some degree – it’s only the world’s largest online classifieds for everything from jobs to cars.  It is also second only to Ebay in numbers of used cars sold (per Newsweek and Business Week).  I believe it is actually much larger than Ebay when you consider every state and city site plus overseas sites like Canada, etc… – that’s an awful lot of cars and trucks.  The best thing about Craig’s List is that so far its free to use and therefore a great avenue for selling your car FSBO (For Sale By Owner).

Craig’s List was originally designed by its founder Craig Newmark in 1995 for the San FranciscoBay area as a free classifieds and online flea market alternative to the expensive newspapers.  After it found instant success it was branched out in various cities over the next few years and is now in 450 cities in 50 countries and continuing to grow.  Much of Craig’s List’s success is due to its automotive listings.

This is a great opportunity for you if you are buying or selling a car, suv or truck.  The listings are still free (Ebay Motors charges at least $40 per car or truck listing and there is no guarantee it will sell) and you can include pictures and plenty of good, pertinent information describing everything from its year and mileage to condition and title history.  If you are a buyer you can select any state and then choose from many cities to start looking.  Craig’s List has good, widespread coverage from San Francisco and Dallas to Miami and even Maine (Maine, apparently has fewer users so far and so the brains at Craig’s List have, for the time being, decided to group all the cities together).

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Now, it is important for both buyers and sellers to understand one very important aspect of Craig’s List car sales – stick with local buyers and sellers.  There are scam artists out there and they go after both buyers and sellers (scam artists exist everywhere from your local newspaper to Ebay, so this is nothing new). Use your common sense here – for instance if someone offers to buy your car and you are in Idaho and they are in Nigeria it is most likely a scammer that will send you a check for far more than the amount and ask you to Western Union wire the difference back.  The check will be bad and you will be left out to dry the amount you send them (for some great additional information on selling your car be sure to read our article on how to sell your car quickly and for the most money possible).

If you are a buyer the car that they have listed and pictured there may not even exist.  The rule here is inspect what you expect – never bid on a car or truck that you can’t go and see for yourself.  Also, never deal with someone from far away that wants to send you a large payment and never see the vehicle.  Think of it as just like newspaper classified ads – you would not send anyone a large check based on what the ad says would you?  No, regardless what the ad says you would go and look at it, test drive it, pull a Carfax or other automotive background check, maybe take it to a local mechanic for a used car check over, etc…  Assume other real buyers will do the same due diligence and fully check out the car or truck first.

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Now, once you have decided on a car to purchase or if you are the selling party, you will need to get or give a money order, cashiers check or bank check for the full amount agreed to (Most sellers do not accept personal checks as they bounce all day long and take too long to check out, especially if the bank branches are not close or out of state).  A sales contract is required in most states.  If you are the seller make sure it states clearly that the buyer is purchasing the vehicle AS - IS, WHERE - IS. 

This means that there are no guarantees or promises and the transaction ends with the sale of the vehicle and there is no recourse to the consumer.  This is very important as without this a buyer can literally lie and say you promised you would help them (this is considered offering a warranty in many states) if something should go wrong - even if you did no such thing.  The law 99% of the time will favor the buyer in these circumstances - so make sure it reads clearly AS IS, WHERE IS on the purchase agreement or buyers order.

That's it in a nut shell for FSBO (For Sale By Owner) cars and trucks on Craig's List.  You can find some great deals and a whole lot of options out there but just as with anything else be wary, watch out for scammers and do your due dilligence (check everything out).  Follow the correct steps like checking out the car or truck, test driving it and it's always a great idea to get a opinion from an experienced mechanic - they can easily alert you to potential and very costly problems or make you more comfortable that you really do have a cream puff. 

Good luck and best success whether you are a seller, buyer or just a looker - Craig's List is a great resource that should not be overlooked.  As with all of our articles, if this article has helped you in some way, please provide a link back so we can continue to provide great tips, opinions, reports, etc... and so that others may benefit as you have.

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