Bye Lexi, it's been real...

Lexi.

She's been my car for the last 3 years. She's been perfect in every way except for all the way I need to use a vehicle...  :-(

Being the adventurous type as I am, I needed a truck AND a car and although and SUV is really a little of both, it's only a little of both and not really too much of either... if that makes sense. 

You can take her adventuring, but only a little. She doesn't do off road or too much snow. You can take her on long drives, she does really well, but doesn't get the greatest gas mileage. She's pretty, I've give her that, but I needed something that fit my needs a little more. 

So, I finally made the tough decision to sell my car. I detailed her all out and took some pics with my Nikon. They must have looked pretty good because Craigslist kept deleting my ads. I think they looked like a dealer. Although, had they looked at the horrible interior shots, they would have known better. I didn't completely stage those. I snapped those with my iPhone and the car wasn't totally clean when I took them, so they are a little more "realistic" of what most cars look like anyway. 

2013 Lexus RX 350

58k miles

Navigation, AWD, heated seats, power everything, 12 speaker sound system, leather seats, moonroof, backup camera, parking sensors, etc. This has the navigation package, luxury package and comfort package. 

Original MSRP was a little over $50k. 

I bought her from Lexus of Roseville with a little over $10k miles on it. She had been driven by the lot manager for a little while. It saved me a little depreciation. I purchased the car is 2014 for $43,500. 

I went onto TrueCar through USAA and found a price that sounded great to me. $32,500. Yippee. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to resonate with potential buyers as much since I didn't get as much as a nibble. So, every few days I would reduce the price again. I knew when I started getting closer to the actual market value when more and more potential buyers started contacting me. When I reached $28k they really started to come out to play. Then I reduced it to $27,500. I then had multiple calls all at once. They all wanted to come and see it. I worked with people first come, first served and met with the first buyers. They drove it, loved and said they wanted to buy it. However, I have a loan on the car and therefore don't have the pink slip. They were not comfortable with the transfer process without pink slip in hand, even though we would go to the bank and pay if off and hand them the receipt. I decided to clean out my savings and pay off my car. If this was a problem for this buyer, it would probably be a problem for the next buyer as well. I paid off the loan and got the pink slip on it's way to me. The buyers kept coming. Second person to drive the car also loved it. He said he'd take it and after showing him the paid in full receipts, he was comfortable with the transfer without the pink slip in hand. He agreed to purchase it for $26,500. We decided to meet up at the bank and doing everything there. I filled out the transfer forms and bill of sale and we met at a local branch near me. 

I was well informed about this process, but had never actually sold a car privately for this much money. It was a little more stressful. I had  been told that cashier's checks issued from a private party are more like checks than cash and are cancelable. The bank teller confirmed this so I asked to have a wire transfer. No bueno. The buyer did not want to do a wire transfer. If the wire gets lots after going through the federal reserve, it's not traceable. Well, cash works then. That was crazy. The bank counted all the cash on the machines, then by hand in front of us. I walked out of the bank without a car and a big wad of $26.5k in my hand. I couldn't wait to get to the bank. I would have taken it directly there, but they were already closed but the time the deal was done.  I then proceeded to take an Uber home while holding on to this cash. It was stressful indeed. 

I didn't let the cash get out of my sight. The next day I took it with me to work and was able to get to the bank at lunch. Whew! Who knew walking around with cash would make you feel so uneasy. What a world we live in. 

Anyway, it's all said and done. Lexi will be on her way to San Francisco to her new owners. 

I still have to finish up a few odds and ends with getting the pink slip forwarded to them once the DMV decides to send it to me, but other than that, they are super happy with their purchase. All in all, a pretty smooth transaction. 

Bye Lexi. It's been real...