Long story short… I need to improve my DTI ratio for a mortgage by getting rid of my car ASAP. I just got the car 5 months ago and this was not planned at the time so I have 34 months left of a 39 month lease.
Let’s say the lease payoff is $50k. Can I take the car back to an Infiniti dealership and if they pay $40k for it can I cut them a check for the remaining $10k and be done?
Or do I have to pay off all remaining payments x # of months remaining (which is much more expensive)?
Yup I got a call from a 3rd party one that gave me a quote to say they don’t even bother once they saw it was Infiniti.
I’ll have to sell it back to Infiniti as you said but I’m wondering if option (1) they’ll make me pay all the remaining monthly payments or option (2) if they can reduce the payoff by the value of the car and I cut a check for the balance. There’s a massive difference in how much I would owe between these 2. Second option wayyyy more preferred.
Approach a few Infiniti dealers about buying out your lease. You at find one that will buy it out for close to your pay off and/or with some positive equity.
Your actual dealer buyout will most likely be the residual value plus the depreciation component of the remaining payments, plus any administrative and/or bank fees. If you buy it out yourself, then you will have to pay tax, but you can ask your buyer, usually in exchange for possession of the vehicle, to give you full payment upfront, thus no new debt would be reported.
NMAC is the one bank that there has been posted evidence, on NMAC letterhead, that they will not allow 3rd party buy outs. Expect the other shoe to drop.
Ok will head to Infiniti dealership asap. I wish I had positive equity but I am definitely in the red since I rolled over some negative from prior car over mileage.
A good place to start would be to get some purchase quotes from carvana, carmax, etc. You may be able to leverage their offers to get the dealer to up their price (they don’t need to know you can’t buy out the lease and resell). At bare minimum it gives you a good comparison point of the current value.
I’ve heard of some people having luck using the autonation purchase quote too, as they have Infiniti dealers and should be able to actually buy it.
While working with local Infiniti dealership, try as much as possible to not sound too desperate. Once they know you’re at their mercy, they’ll enjoy lowballing you even more. If you have time, check ti dealerships.
At the same time, know the timing of your mortgage loan since selling the car, paying off the loan might impact your credit score. However since it’s a house your purchasing, there’s a possibility that this will be a positive for your overall report:
