I am suggesting we crowdsource the purchase of a failing dealership, funded and owned by the leasehackr community.
We can raise $1.07m per year with a crowdfund and an unlimited amount from our more well endowed visitors who are accredited investors that make over $200k ($300k if you’re married) or have $1m in assets not including your home.
I suggest a mainstream Manufacturer that has a wide assortment of deals and vehicles (Chevy). We can do it differently. We will flip from a failing dealer to the highest volume dealer in the country. No more tricks, games, baits, wrong info or otherwise. On the closing of every deal we could even have an optional donation to this site. It would be owned by the community that buys into it.
so what you’re saying is … you want to have a dealership that provides a constant stream of unicorn deals to its members, thereby making no profit after operating expenses and the only way to keep the doors open is via donations?
Maybe an “employee” owned type of company such as a Federal Credit Union? Or most unions?
Gotta pay a fee to be a member of it to reap the rewards. Make it an online store to eliminate as much over head as possible. Limit the store front to only pick-ups and delivery and have a minimum staff of a few people to actually sit and handle customer service. Everything else can be handled by computer from the comfort of someone’s home. All you really need is a space for lifts and tools to check out cars and a lot to store cars.
Location is of course hugely important since some states, such as NJ, make being a dealer quite difficult, including requiring you to have a storefront.
The biggest problem? Hackers are after new-car leases. Being a new car dealer is very expensive and most manufacturers won’t let you be a dealer for them AND a competing brand in the same physical space. Does everyone here really want a Chevy?
Location is important, so is finding a failing dealership which limits purchase options. Doesn’t need to be Chevy. Any lease friendly brand will do that’s Main stream.
The only reason we get Leasehackr worthy deals is because someone is paying crazy prices to those dealers we get our deals from.
I am pretty sure the deals that the dealers give out to us is less than 15% of their total sales. Also having a dealership means you have lots of fixed expenses and there is lot of working capital involved.
Ever wondered how the dealer pays for that 100-200 odd cars in the inventory? Its through floor plan which looks for a business creditworthiness just like a bank or credit card company sees your credit before giving you any credit. There is personal guarantee of the owners involved as well. How would that be done on a crowdfunded dealership?
There are lots of other challenges but you get the idea. The best option is to let the dealerships keep the risk with them, sell bunch of cars close to MSRP and keep funding Leasehackr worthy deals for us on that 10-15% of the inventory that they have to move in a time sensitive manner.
