I merged your post with another thread on the topic. Should give you the answers you need (which unfortunately, won’t make you happy)
Your options are unfortunately exactly that. Sell to a Nissan dealer, buy it out yourself, or just keep until turn in. You hopefully can maybe use a firm written offer from Carmax to get some leverage for a higher offer from a Nissan dealer.
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For a profit of $3.2K, research on how long it will take for you to receive the title should you pay it off and resell the car. In January, with less miles, my 2018 Nissan Rogue was worth $16.4K, and in April, with about 2000 more miles, came out to $18.8K.
That’s just one historical data point for you to consider when buying out the car. Even if the value reduces to $2.5K after you receive the title, you’re will still be ahead with the positive equity.
All of this should be considered as you see if a dealer will match the offer without any games.
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Actually this is pretty good advice as I just did the forward of Carmax offer (which i have in writting) and then also the inspection report form Nissan for lease return to the dealership from where I leased my car. They have agreed to go ahead and give me 2.7K more than the return cost and let me buy/sell the car to them. The hybrid is currently selling for 25K used at the dealership and they have non left to sell 
making mine a good fit for them.
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It takes about 3 weeks to get the title, but the fact that i have to pay sales tax on the payoff causes the profit margin to shrink to about 2K or less (on a private sale). Also I much rather not have to tie in equity in the car. Though the advice from @Walper is getting me the best bang for the least effort.
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Awesome to hear! Thanks for the shoutout haha.
Please pardon my ignorance, how does selling your lease to a dealer work?
I only have 1 payment left on my Rogue. Why would a dealer want to buy out my lease , especially if I’m not getting another Nissan and they know I’ll return the car to them in a month anyway?
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So basically, let’s say your Rogue payoff (cost for you purchase it at the end of the lease term) was 15,000, but due to the current crazy used car market, it is now worth 18,000. You sell the car to - dealer for $18000, they write a check to the finance company, get the title, and they give you the leftover positive equity of $3000. If you just turn the car back in at the bare minimum there is lease disposition fee unless you get another of the same brand. So instead of just paying to turn the car in (assuming it is completely in perfect condition and no nickel and dimes for dents, brakes, tires etc) you get the equity. Right now, they want you to just walk away and turn the car in, so instead of that equity going to you, it goes to the dealer or manufacturer when they sell it on their lot as a “certified pre-owned” car. If you sell to Carmax, Carvana, etc, there is less inventory for the dealers to take advantage of the hot used car market. It seems a lot of people also had no idea you can even sell a lease and now that cat is out of the bag too.
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Thanks!
So if I go to the Nissan dealer where I leased my car and ask them to buy the car , what’s preventing them from saying “No” and just waiting for me to turn it in?
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Nothing is preventing them from saying no, but with the shortage of used cars they may want a low mileage car to put on the lot. If they say no, try another Nissan dealership. Even if they take it off your hands for exactly what your buyout is- it’s a win/win as you don’t have to make any final payments or disposition fees. Hopefully you can make out with some equity though.
I would also approach it as first getting your payoff amount so you know exactly your break even point (it’s right on the NMAC website there’s a link or button that says current payoff amount and it generates a pdf letter) and just going to the dealer and tell them you are interested in selling your car to them and would like an appraisal. Don’t tell them it’s a lease or you got it there or anything like that. Once they come back with a number- then you can go from there.
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Awesome! Thanks again for all this useful info!
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Nothing is stopping them from saying no and nothing is stopping you from going elsewhere
Nothing is stopping you from buying it out yourself then selling to Carmax/Vroom/ALGO etc. who will then turn a profit from it.
Dealers are also looking to get in on that abs they are obviously not thrilled with what the Carmax and clones are doing because they are blocking it.
So most likely they’ll do it, but they might just say no (I’m actually kinda upset I didn’t try my local dealer before, but what’s done is done)
Nothing is stopping them from buying it. There’s a probability that they’ll try to low ball you.
Third party buyout ended today for NMAC so I am not sure how much power a deal match request would have. Some might discourage you with the less time to wait for the title etc etc.
Oh man. I literally went through the exact same thing last week. Carmax offered me $5,330 more than my residual value. I was all set to sell it to them last Monday, then Nissan told me I couldn’t. I spent all week going back and forth with Carmax about it to try and figure out a workaround, then I finally got a rep from Nissan tell me on Friday that they would honor the transaction it was before the 10th. I immediately relayed that to carmax and was told they just word from corporate that they aren’t able to do anymore Nissan lease buyouts. So heartbreaking to lose out on 5 GRAND! I’ve gotten a couple quotes from local dealerships but they’re only offering me like $500-800 more than the residual 
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How much would you lose if you just bought it out and resold it?
Yup. We had exactly the same experience. Part of me feels like the influx of inquiries Carmax received from people in our situation are what caused them to backpedal on NMAC buyouts. I’m glad to be done with it all. I’m half-heartedly looking for a new used car now and I’m sour on both Carmax and NMAC. I still like Nissan vehicles but I’ll be damned before I get another lease through them.
In a year, when my wife’s Mitsubishi lease is close to up, it will be interesting to see if Carmax will play ball with their leasing company which is Ally Bank, but that’s another thread for a future date…
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It’s hard to say, honestly. But it would take 3-4 weeks to get the title to be able to then be able to turn around and sell it, and the market could totally change in that time and carmax’s offer might not even be as good by the time I was able to sell it to them. I am fortunate that I live in a tax free state (NH) but would still have to pay title and registration (+ the equivalent of an excise tax that NH rolls into their registration cost (even though I wouldn’t even be using it) plus a dealership fee to buy the car, and I’d also have to take out a loan for it because I don’t just have 15k in cash to buy it out. It would probably cost me a total of $1-2k. If I was sure that I could sell it in a months time and still get the 5k in equity, it might be worth all that extra work and effort, but because carmax only honors their quotes for 7 days and says they change a lot based on market fluctuations, it’s just not worth the gamble and the hassle for me.
When you ended up selling it to the Nissan dealership that offered you 1k, did you still have to pay the disposition fee? One dealership told me I was still responsible for that and docked it from the amount they were willing to buy out the car from me but another said that Nissan wouldn’t charge a disposition fee if the dealership bought the vehicle.
