I’m looking at lease transfers with (generally) less than 2/3 of original term remaining. Obviously, the market ultimately decides pricing/incentives, but does anybody have an opinion on whether the “1% Rule” that some use to evaluate new leases should also apply to the then-current value of the transfer.
For example, if somebody gets a 36 month lease on a 70,000 msrp car at $700 a month and then wants to transfer the lease after two years, whats a “fair” price? If identical versions of the (now used) car are selling in the market for $50,000, should the lease transfer be at an effective $500/month?
I understand that there are lots of factors cutting both ways – used vs new car; benefit of 12 month lease - but just trying to figure out some ground rules for my offer strategy.
generally speaking from my personal experience, cars under $450 have a much larger audience and people that want to assume a lease typically want to do so because they don’t want to put any money out of pocket. So that means if you’re looking for someone to give you MSDs and pay transfer fee etc you’re already cutting out the majority of people looking at cars. Look at the E300 on this forum from last week that was way under 1% but it would have required $6-$7k in upfront money which nobody is willing to lay out.
I think if you’re at 1% without large upfront cost and have enough miles/month then you have a fighting chance. With that being said, the person trying to get out of a lease is always at a disadvantage and the assuming party will always try to bargain.
I’ve found that people with a high MSRP car looking to get out of a lease are more inclined to “deal”. Meaning you can at the very least have them pay the transfer fee etc. For them it’s often just a “i want out” vs “i need to get out” situation. Generally speaking of course. There are others that think they sit on gold and will make 3 more payments thinking someone will take it when they could have just let go of it 3 months ago and saved those payments.
What does “cooling off period” mean in the context of car leasing? Sort of like being able to cancel a construction contract within a specified number of days, as some states have? Or something else?
