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Looking for a Car

published March 01, 2019

Something that most people do every 4 or 5 years is go looking for a car. It has only been a couple of years that my wife and I have purchased a car, but we are getting the itch, well really she is.

Let me tell you about the last car dealer experience. It was brutal. I hate going to a car dealer. I hate sales people, especially car sales people. They are the worst.

We all know they teach the sales people that when the buyer says they are not sure, that means, go harder. When people say they have to think about it, that means get in their face and tell them how great the car is and why they should do it NOW!!!

I hate the probing questions that they are always asking. We are not friends, I just met you and I am only talking to you because you walked all the way across the parking lot to talk to me. I really dont want to discuss my financing with some stranger. What do you want to pay? How much down payment are you thinking about putting?

Get off of me already. We are looking for a car. I like talking to people about real estate. I like to be the one asking the questions. Like what makes you think you want to be a real estate investor? How much did you pay for your house? Thats a nice car, did you buy it new? How much do you pay per month? Did you know that you could have bought a Honda Civic for about half that price and you would get twice the gas mileage?

Maybe I have a little bit of a control issue.

What else do I hate? I hate the idea of buying a new car. My wife, unfortunately does not share this hatred with me. She has purchased several new cars in the almost 9 years that we have been married. Let me say first of all that she pays for her new cars herself. I have no say in what she does with her money, so it should not bother me, right? Did I tell you I was a control freak??? It bothers the hell out of me.

When you purchase a new car, it goes down in value about 20% in its first year according to Carfax.  In fact, it will lose about 10% within the first month. If I bought real estate like that, I would be broke. So why make auto decisions that are so horrible?

So let me tell you about one of our latest car purchases.

My wife says that she wants to get a Honda. I say, WoW she is starting to think right. She had a Mercedes E350 which was a few years old that she wanted to trade in. (I hate trading to a car dealership almost as much as buying a new car). So we went to a local Honda Dealership. There are about 5 dealers here in San Antonio.

We are looking at the cars, they ask about trade in and ask for our keys to examine our car. There is discussion about prices. The salesman has to go back and talk with his “manager” to see if he can get us more for our trade in and what he can do on the car.

This goes on several times and we finally decide that they can not get us what we want for our trade in. I say that we are not going to purchase the car and I would like my keys to leave. Thats where it gets crazy. The salesman acted like he did not hear me and kept talking about why he could not give us more for our car. I said that it was no problem, I understand, just get me my keys so that we can leave. Again, he kept talking. After about the third time asking for my keys, I yelled, “Give me my keys, now!!!”.

WOW, the whole lobby of the car dealership got VERY quiet. After that, they scuttled off to go get the keys. They handed me my keys, AND they said they could get us our price for the trade in.

My question is WHY do you have to do business that way. Tell me you can or cant do the deal and move on.

I find wholesalers are the same way. They are trying to get to ultimate price for a wholesale deal. They cant get it, try to convince you that you should buy their ok deal and then after 3 months holding the property hostage from the seller, they sell and make a smaller wholesale fee.

I do a bunch of marketing to find distressed sellers. When there is a property that is too high dollar or too low, I wholesale it out. I market the property for a great price. Sometimes my wholesale fee is kinda high, sometimes $1,000. My buyer is always getting a great deal, though.

If by chance a buyer thinks the price is not right for them, no problem. I let them know that the price is great and they probably need to go look for another property. I hate the, “Lets go high and see if someone buys the property” attitude. Why not just price it so that everyone makes some money and get on to the next deal?

Some people like to squeeze the most out of every deal as hard as they can. I believe in being fair and getting a fair price for my wholesale deal.

Back to looking for a car.

My father in law is thinking about getting rid of his Lexus. Its a nice car and in great condition. We are thinking about purchasing it from him. He will probably finance us. Since he will be getting a loan, we will probably pay his loan until we pay him off. This way he will not have a payment for a couple of years. Talk about creative financing.

We get the car at a price that is not retail. It will not be wholesale price, but just a little more. This way my father in law will get a better price than what he would get at the dealer and we get a better than retail price. How is that for Win-Win.

Everyday people start looking for cars. If you know someone who might be getting the itch, let them know that you might want to purchase their car. Of course you want to make sure that it is a good quality car that does not have issues. You never want to purchase someone else’s problems.

This is just another way of thinking outside the box. You dont have to be like everyone else and go to a car dealer to purchase a car. And hopefully, you will not go looking for a horrible deal of buying a brand new car that will go down in value 20% in no time.

When looking for a house, you may have to get a little out of the box also. There are so many ways to purchase a home, rental property, commercial building or land.

Good luck and happy car or house hunting.