This topic keeps coming up and I just threaded the needle on a purchase, beating other buyers to the punch. Thought I'd retract personal information and post the message chain that led to my success.
The ad was an hour old when I replied. It potentially spends some of that time in some queue so it could have been visible for less than an hour. Anyway, promptness in interest is the first key. You can always fink out later, but be at the top of the guy's message pile:
Note I'm also hinting that a prompt response due to impending weather would be helpful to both parties. Some sellers are flakes.
Don't be intimidating, but do be interested. Always Be Closing.
The listing came up with the wrong town-- I was acting like him being the next down over, a 15 minute drive, would be no big deal. But he was actually 45 minutes away, but still willing to see me. This page of messages also shows my stupid "competition" starting to drive the guy nuts. My self-marketing is already paying off.
"Here in the morning" on a weekend means different things to different people, so I'm still closing and presenting myself as flexible/ not an idiot: Also the guy hates people from Massachusetts, LOL, so my initial feeler mentioning my home town paid off.
Now I'm not bringing my tow dolly in a snowstorm but I know the seller would understand that. I brought a jack, jump box, and OBD scanner. I used all three to check the car out. The car had a bad battery from sitting so maybe I impressed the seller by getting it going. At least if I wasn't going to buy it I'd help the guy out so he could show it to the next interested party.
I'm still closing, need the address. I don't like scaring the address out of people before committing to a time; a lot of people are skittish about strangers showing up at their house unannounced. I offered the dude could give me the address just before I headed out as a compromise, but he responded right away.
As you can see, it's mine. I paid full asking price, which was a fair offer, in cash, and didn't jerk the guy around. Some situations call for haggling, like something that's been sitting advertised for a month, or not in the condition advertised. This car was neither, and it's a seller's market right now. So I've got a sweet car for my other kid to learn to drive in, and this one has about twenty airbags which makes me feel better as a parent. It's a loaded XLE but with the preferred (to me) 4 cyl 2AZ-FE and 5-speed automatic.
The ad was an hour old when I replied. It potentially spends some of that time in some queue so it could have been visible for less than an hour. Anyway, promptness in interest is the first key. You can always fink out later, but be at the top of the guy's message pile:
Note I'm also hinting that a prompt response due to impending weather would be helpful to both parties. Some sellers are flakes.
Don't be intimidating, but do be interested. Always Be Closing.
The listing came up with the wrong town-- I was acting like him being the next down over, a 15 minute drive, would be no big deal. But he was actually 45 minutes away, but still willing to see me. This page of messages also shows my stupid "competition" starting to drive the guy nuts. My self-marketing is already paying off.
"Here in the morning" on a weekend means different things to different people, so I'm still closing and presenting myself as flexible/ not an idiot: Also the guy hates people from Massachusetts, LOL, so my initial feeler mentioning my home town paid off.
Now I'm not bringing my tow dolly in a snowstorm but I know the seller would understand that. I brought a jack, jump box, and OBD scanner. I used all three to check the car out. The car had a bad battery from sitting so maybe I impressed the seller by getting it going. At least if I wasn't going to buy it I'd help the guy out so he could show it to the next interested party.
I'm still closing, need the address. I don't like scaring the address out of people before committing to a time; a lot of people are skittish about strangers showing up at their house unannounced. I offered the dude could give me the address just before I headed out as a compromise, but he responded right away.
As you can see, it's mine. I paid full asking price, which was a fair offer, in cash, and didn't jerk the guy around. Some situations call for haggling, like something that's been sitting advertised for a month, or not in the condition advertised. This car was neither, and it's a seller's market right now. So I've got a sweet car for my other kid to learn to drive in, and this one has about twenty airbags which makes me feel better as a parent. It's a loaded XLE but with the preferred (to me) 4 cyl 2AZ-FE and 5-speed automatic.