More Cash Buyer ??

[dewilso]

I have another cash buyer question.

Now I’m the seller, the buyer wants to buy, based on FaceTime visits only. The RV is in SE Texas, the buyer is in Oregon. The finance transfer will not be the problem, but how can the title transfer take place, mail ? They want to store the MH (in their Name) in SE Texas till mid November.

[DanZemke]

Where they choose to store it is irrelevant to you.

IMO, the full-purchase price money and title transfer should occur simultaneously.  That can be done via an escrow service, or through the use of agents to do the swap.  Anything else requires significant trust from both of you. 

Establishing the trust (and how much risk you are willing to take) varies widely, based on the transaction and your trust that you will actually get paid.  I purchased my Volvo Truck from a seller on ebay for a bit over $20K, and my trailer for a bit over $100K and a recent SUV for $4K.  I took substantial risk in all cases, because I was confident that the sellers were straight shooters.   But in each case the final transaction was consummated with a face-to-face meeting.

P.S. Standard, or Cashier's checks posted to your account aren't necessarily valid deposits.  You need to call your bank to find out if they have "cleared" before you can count on them.

Best wishes on you transaction.

[DJohns]

Dan

I understand the concept but after the money is in your account what keeps you from not signing over the title. I like the escrow service better.

[DanZemke]

6 minutes ago, DJohns said:

I understand the concept but after the money is in your account what keeps you from not signing over the title. I like the escrow service better.

For my truck and trailer, trust and extensive conversations about who they were.  Also in those two cases I was able to arrange a face-to-face transfer that reduced the risk for the buyer (me) and the seller. 

For the truck, the retired driver drove the truck to LAG airport in NY.  I met he and his wife there and paid for their return airplane fares back to West Virginia. 

For the trailer, I contacted with a commercial towing service to tow it from TX to a storage lot in NY.  The commercial tower called 2 days before the scheduled time and said they had underbid couldn't find a trucker to do it at the price they quoted me.  And they currently didn't have anyone to tow it at any price.  I dropped them and negotiated with the trailer owner to come up with an acceptable price for both of us, for him to personally deliver it, and drive his truck back.

For the $4K SUV, I took a cab to Brooklyn from CT and met her (a recent college grad who had driven the SUV from KS to NY and decided she didn't need a car in NYC) at a gas station parking lot.  I briefly inspected the car.  We went to a local Bank of America branch, exchanged paperwork, and BofA cut her a cashiers check using money in my account while we stood there.

If the escrow cost is cheaper than the potential expected loss,  I'd go with escrow too.

Good luck

[Kirk W]

14 hours ago, dewilso said:

Now I’m the seller, the buyer wants to buy, based on FaceTime visits only.

The first thing that I would do is to be very careful that this is genuine as scams are very common. A great deal depends upon what the buyer is willing to do and how much he trusts you. If the RV is currently financed and you need to pay off that loan, that complicates things as no lender will release the title until they have their money. If the buyer is willing to trust you to send the title, then I would ask him to deposit the purchase price into your bank account before proceeding and that would greatly simplify things. If he is not, then you probably should go through an escrow agent just to protect both buyer and seller. 

To me the storage of the RV is a separate issue. If you are willing to do so, you could just keep it where it presently is located and have the buyer take over the storage cost, if it is in a storage lot. If it isn't in your way, you could also offer to store it for them. I think that the first thing you need to do is to have a discussion of these issues with the seller and find out how much trust he has in you. That is the key to the entire issue since you presently hold both the title and the RV.