Tips on how to sell a car online

With a little attention to detail and some elbow grease, you can save thousands of pounds by selling your car online. The following tips from Desperateseller.co.uk the UK’s premier car selling and buying website will show you how.

Traditionally, trading in your old car on your new car has been the easiest way of disposing of it. However, with an array of internet sites taking online advertisements for cars, it is now one of the most successful and cost effective ways to sell your car.

Preparing Your Car For Sale
As a private car seller, it’s important to maximise the value of your old car before getting rid of it by ensuring everything works properly and the car looks good. Although this might be difficult if you have a shiny new one sitting in the driveway, hundreds or even thousands of pounds could be at stake.

Before you think about listing your car for sale, have it valeted or do it yourself. A professional valet may cost quite a bit, but it can add so much more to the value of the car, particularly if it has been kept outside. If you chose to do the clean yourself make sure you give extra attention to all the hard to reach places, such as door openings, boot openings, and the engine bay.

Never leave anything lying around the interior or boot as it looks untidy to a potential buyer, additionally loose items can rattle and bang around creating a poor impression on a test drive.

Wash and polish the exterior including the wheels, windows and all chrome or stainless trim. Make sure the residue of polish is cleaned off afterwards as you don’t want to give the impression that you’ve just cleaned it up to sell it.

It is also worth having the engine oil changed a week or two before selling your car as it will look clean if the buyer pulls the dip stick, and doing it a week or two before will mean it won't look too fresh on the day.

Make sure the windscreen washer fluid and radiator are topped up as well, as it will look like you have cared about your car.

You need to collate all documentation you have about your car, especially the car's service record to show the potential buyer that you have had the car serviced regularly.

If the car has any mechanical problems, have them fixed before the sale unless you are prepared to negotiate with a potential buyer. Also selling your car with a few months of tax is worth considering otherwise you’ll need to be prepared to negotiate on this as well.

Advertising
Once deciding to sell your car online, you need to research where you are going to list the car for sale. There are endless options for private sellers, but it’s worth taking the time to read the small print and understand the final costs. Some sites charge commissions, listing fees, formatting and photo charges, or run your advertisement for a limited period of time only.

Desperate Seller.co.uk is one of the UK’s premier car selling websites, where for a flat fee of £29.99 your car will be advertised for sale on over 101 different used car sales websites and will run until sold. Not only will you gain £800 worth of adverts for £29.99, but we attract over 7 million buyers making us one of the quickest ways to sell your car too.

Writing The Advertisement
If you want to attract a buyer quickly, you must write an advertisement that is clear, concise and correct. Keep the description of your car accurate and make sure you include the make and model, year of manufacture, engine and transmission details and its general condition. Include the odometer reading too if it is low for the age.

Photographs are also equally important when selling your car online. Include plenty of well-light photographs of your clean and shiny car inside and out.

Avoid Overpricing
Putting an unrealistically high price in your advert will almost certainly mean you’ll be missing out on a quick sale, but put too low a price and you’ll be inundated with time wasters. In the weeks prior to running your advert make sure you monitor the classifieds and websites to get an idea of the prices being asked for similar makes and models as yours.

You can also get current values for your car from Glass’s, visit glass.co.uk.

Closing the Sale
Once the enquiries start coming through, make sure you respond promptly to keep the potential buyers interested. Encourage them to come to you to view the car as this helps to develop confidence with the buyer. Always let the buyer test drive the car, but make sure you accompany them to continue discussing the car’s selling points.

Once you’ve agreed on a price, discuss method of payment. It’s best to request a cashier’s cheque drawn on the buyer’s local bank and go with them to confirm. For cash transactions, both seller & buyer should sign a cash receipt.

Visit desperateseller.co.uk for additional information, including examples of how to write your advertisement, how to avoid online scams and much more. To sell your car as quickly as possible, it needs to be advertised in as many places as possible – have it listed on 101 websites until sold – list it with Desperate Seller.