[Thinking out loud] How (if possible) can I sell my currently under leased car to another private party? If I have an agreement with private buyer, can I hire auto dealer to handle the transaction for “fee” to broker the sale.
i.e. buyer and I agree at $40K sale price for leased car with $36K buyout. Can broker or dealer buy from me and turn it around and sell it to the agreed buyer for $40K. Dealer handles the transaction for fee so I (seller) don’t get hit with sales tax liability and buyer can avail dealer services (i.e. finance, help with TT&L etc).
I know PLT section & SwapaLease exist and Carvana/Vroom is also an option. I am curious if this route exist, has someone tried it before, pros & cons, what pitfalls to watch out for if I decide to move forward.
Why don’t you just call the captive and ask for the third party buy out price and have the buyer pay that and then just send them the title when you get it? In the meantime you can get the DMV paper work filled out and buyer can get temp tags.
If you wanted the dealer to sell it for you, then you’re looking to sell it on consignment.
Who’s the captive for your lease? Some captives and in some states force you to go to the dealer to sell your car.
Selling a car with a current lease payoff is in theory no different than selling a car with an outstanding loan payoff.
Have the buyer issue one check for $36k to your leasing company and another check for $4k to you. The leasing company will then release the title directly to the buyer (or the buyer’s bank, if they financed). The buyer pays applicable taxes and handles getting the car registered, etc.
It is completely different if the state in question requires that only institutions with a dealer license can sell a car to a private individual (ETA: other than the lessee) and the captive does not have a license.
In that scenario your suggestion will be a non-starter.
Hmm. In all my years of leasing I’ve never come across a scenario where the captive bank couldn’t sell the car to you (a private individual) at any given point in the lease.
If such a law exists in a state and a captive bank doesn’t hold a dealer license in that state, then I’m guessing said captive bank wouldn’t even offer leases in that state to begin with. Kinda defeats the purpose.
Only wrinkle I can think of is if there’s something buried in the T&C’s of the lease contract where the captive bank will only sell the car to the leasee and not a dealer or another individual. Worth a call to check but I’ve never run into this.
The idea of hiring of broker/dealer in private party transaction is to alleviate risk of sales tax hit and simplifying the process (or am I complicating it?). I think buyer/seller will feel added trustworthiness of 3rd party that (hopefully) know what they are doing.
In my case, captive is Lexus FS in Texas. 3rd party is stranger to me.
