M3 CSL... Etiquette when selling?

[tomvcarter]

Hello PHers,

I just need some advice, very sadly i am having to sell my dream car due to the expense of an expanding family... I have been advertising my M3 CSL for sale or a month or two now, but I only had 1 viewing during that time. I therefore decided to drop the price. A week later I have 5 interested parties, two of which have offered the asking price having not yet seen the car... which makes me feel that I underpriced it...

This leaves me in the lucky position of having a number of buyers to choose from, but im not quite sure how to proceed.
Do i let them all see the car, then take further offers in the hope that i get more than the asking price? (kind of like when it goes to sealed bids on a house).
Or do i just accept the first offer that was made?

I don't want to jeopardise the sale, nor do i want to come across as underhand; so would like some advice on what the best practice is in this situation.

Anyone?

Thanks
Tom

[Crusoe]

Depends, if you want the best price sealed bids with a closing date might work. You might find one of them that you would rather the car went to if it was someone who would use it and look after it rather which might sway your choice too. I'd let them all know there is a lot of interest and the best price by the end of the week would secure it, you can still offer it to the person you want to have it even if they aren't the top bidder anyway.

[chibbard]

They could be 5 time wasters. Let them all see the car and see who comes up with the money first.

Oh, and as a buyer, if you imposed a seal bid on the car, I'd probably walk away. Hope you don't scare all the buyers off !!

Edited by chibbard on Thursday 29th January 12:16

[TwistingMyMelon]

Its a car, don't over think it, you are not tendering out building the Shard

People who offer money before seeing are usually bullstters or time wasters

Tell them to come and view the car with a view to purchase it

First one who turns up with the money and an offer you are happy with sell it.

I bet none of them show, or they do and offer much less

[supertouring]

How much did you drop it by? Are they all private buyers or people looking to re-sell?

First one with cash in the hand gets it. That is how I would work it.

[xxChrisxx]

Depends how desperate you are to sell. Etiquette is all well and good, but your job is to sell your asset for as much as you can. You are under no obligation to sell to anyone.

Yes it's slightly rude to piss people about, but money talks. If it was a fiver I'd lose out on I wouldn't bother. If we are talking the order of thousands, then I'd just live with being rude.

[Hainey]

chibbard said:

They could be 5 time wasters. Let them all see the car and see who comes up with the money first.

This, all the way. Been there with an E46 M3 (sadly not the CSL though) and it was first to show up with money wins.

I think there is still one bloke on the way from Carlisle, and one from Tyneside, years later. They had made offers before seeing it as well

[hornetrider]

Sounds a bit like seller's remorse I'm afraid.

First one to turn up with the cash wins - you don't have to take any offers.

[CallorFold]

Presumably you advertised it at a price that you were prepared to sell it for, so personally, the first one that turns up to hand over some cash (at the listed price), get it sold.

As someone above said, the rest could be time wasters.

[jcelee]

Agree with the others, money talks, never assume anything about selling a car until you've got full payment in genuine notes or bank confirmed cleared electronic transfer.

If you sit with the individual while they complete the "Faster Payments" type transfer from a UK bank account and find those funds in your account as cleared funds then you should have little to worry about. Just be aware that some banks will reject payments to new payees over £10k so it may need to be transferred in smaller clips.

[anonymous-user]

TwistingMyMelon said:

First one who turns up with the money and an offer you are happy with sell it.

This

[J4CKO]

hornetrider said:

Sounds a bit like seller's remorse I'm afraid.

First one to turn up with the cash wins - you don't have to take any offers.

yes, would agree, with selling any car, all you need is someone to turn up with an appropriate amount of money that wants to buy the car, do the deal if you are happy, give them a little bit off but make it clear other people are interested.

Everyone will want a little bit off, if it is too much, don't sell it, they know how much these are worth.

[Claudia Skies]

TwistingMyMelon said:

Tell them to come and view the car with a view to purchase it

First one who turns up with the money and an offer you are happy with sell it.

Yup, no point trying to get fancy. If anyone tried to pull that trick on me I'd tell them to "do one". And then you're pretty much forced to sell to the remaining buyer whatever he offers you. As TwistingMyMelon said, it's amazing how easily buyer enthusiasm can evaporate when faced with paying hard cash.

[KFC]

chibbard said:

Oh, and as a buyer, if you imposed a seal bid on the car, I'd probably walk away. Hope you don't scare all the buyers off !!

Same here, I'd immediately lose interest. An M3 isn't anywhere near unique enough to warrant that sort of approach to selling it.

[jamieduff1981]

KFC said:

chibbard said:

Oh, and as a buyer, if you imposed a seal bid on the car, I'd probably walk away. Hope you don't scare all the buyers off !!

Same here, I'd immediately lose interest. An M3 isn't anywhere near unique enough to warrant that sort of approach to selling it.

I'm inclined to agree. If it were the sort of car that would genuinely have people fighting to buy it, it should go to a big auction house.

[tomvcarter]

OK thank you all for the advice, thats is clearer now.
I will accept the first offer, and not bother trying squeeze any more out of it.

Unless any of you want to make an advance on the asking price

[zed4]

This one?

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

[Dannbodge]

1st come fist served imo.

If party number 1 views on monday but can't pay till friday then explain he needs to put down deposit.
If they don't and part 2 views with cash on tuesday, then sell it.

[mackay45]

Get some more miles on it before you sell it!

Based on this:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

And the link posted above, that is your CSL - so you've done less than 1k miles in it?

Shame to have to sell but you should try and enjoy a few more drives in it before you part company with it I reckon!

[Welshbeef]

zed4 said:

This one?

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...

Very very nice example.