To people go for this paid inspection report thing, the seller would better of saying that the inspection report is available for review at such and such location for such and such fee. The prospective buyer will probably feel very uneasy if the dealer shows them the documents themself and or if they collect the money themself. If I hand the seller money the first thing I would think is that they’re just trying to make money on inspection reports and not trying to actually sell the car.
But you do have a valid logical idea. If the seller can charge less money for the report than it would otherwise cost the buyer, and the seller can ensure the same level of trust that the buyer would otherwise get, then there is no logical reason to not get the report from the seller.
The dealer versus private seller honesty thing is interesting. With a dealer I think you get more consistent small lying and not revealing faults unless asked. With a private seller, it can vary widely from extra honest to a total liar.
When buying from a private seller, I think it’s best to determine why the person is selling the car. If there was a death, or the person is moving and it wouldn’t be cost effective to take the car with them, or it broke down and you know why but they don’t or can’t afford to fix it, or it was damaged from an accident, then this is a good deal.
It’s best to avoid buying a car form a private seller who was planning to sell it. They have no incentive to maintain and they may only do the minimum necessary repairs just to make it seem to be in good shape. If it’s a Ford Fusion, there could be water in the parking brake cables that will make the brake freeze on when the temperature drops below freezing. So they decide to sell it rather than fix it. Stuff like this. They know the most about their car, and they are the best at knowing how to hide its faults and knowing when the fault will reappear.
But keep in mind that a private seller can sell a piece of junk to a dealer just as easily as they can to you. So if you buy from a dealer, you may end up getting the exact same car that you didn’t want to buy from the private seller.
+1
In 1959, my father and I went to look at a '57 Ford Fairlane 500 4-door hardtop sedan that a private seller had advertised. He told us that the car was owned by his son–who was a Priest–and that the son no longer needed the car.
I don’t recall the color combination at this point, but it was extremely flashy, and the car was loaded with every option that Ford offered for that model year. Something just didn’t seem “right” about both the seller and the car, so we asked a few people about the seller, and we found out that he didn’t have a son, and that he sold re-built wrecks.
Absolutely. It’s not that I actually trust the used car dealer but they have far more to lose by lying than a private seller. They are also held to a higher standard in court.
I had this paid report thing go the other way once. I was the interested buyer of real estate. They had some home inspection report they wanted to provide, hoping I would just use that. Obviously not. Once I had my inspection done and had the summary, I started listing out issues and my expected recourse for each.
They wanted a copy of my inspection report. Sure, here’s 50% of the bill, how would you like to pay? They figured I’d already paid, so why not just give them a copy? Not going to happen.
Later, things had progressed but we’re not over the hump yet. They are refuting some of the findings. So now I actually give them a copy of the relevant page(s) but tell them if they accept, they are now aware of defects in the home and those are subject to disclosure with any future buyers…we wrapped it up pretty quickly after they considered the ramifications of that tidbit.
No way in h@ll would I place any weight on a seller provided inspection report…for a car or anything else.
This does not seem right, and I say this as an HVAC technician, who frequently does home inspections (of the HVAC equipment, ductwork, water heaters, etc.) for both buyers and sellers. I have NEVER seen a prospective home buyer refuse to provide a home inspection report, in its entirety, to the seller, and they certainly don’t expect to be paid anything for it. I frequently get to see the report, in its entirety, and I don’t pay anything for it, either.
It is correct, however, that once a seller has been provided with an inspection report documenting issue(s) with the property, they are now legally obligated to disclose those issue(s) to any other prospective buyer, going forward.
I remember when I was looking to buy a house, and was under contract to buy a house which I liked. I had a general home inspection done, roof inspection, sewer inspection, and a termite inspection. When I did the walkthrough of this house, I noticed that all of the doors were difficult to open/close, and rubbed on the door frames. The termite inspection showed ongoing active infestation, significant damage to joists, studs, and door frames, and revealed that the doors were sagging because termites ate up the door frames.
I provided the full inspection reports to the seller, and had a restoration company give an estimate of what would be involved to repair all this damage. Their estimator told me very bluntly that the costs would exceed what the seller of a $130k house is going to spend, and that I should run fast and far from that deal, which I did. I ended up buying a much better house, in a much better neighborhood, for only $5k more.
We don’t have much of a termite problem around here but still would not use foam blocks or spray foam if a termite abatement policy is required. What I have heard anyway for folks down south. House across the street is foam blocks but still standing, but we don’t have many termites.
Well, the level of experience and business sense does vary. What possible reason would I have to provide such valuable information to the seller in the middle of a price negotiation? Unless I am using it in the way I described above.
I’m not talking about one of those $300 inspections that I could do better myself. These are expensive to begin with. So why should I give them the benefit of the information for free?
Do you walk into a car dealer and tell them how much money you have in the bank?
Would you provide your inspection report for a used car to the seller before the pricing negotiations have been finalized? Especially if there are many good things listed in the report?
I fail to see how anyone could view this in a good light and think it was good business sense to give such information to the other party.
Before the deal is finalized, I could walk away or the sellers may decide not to counter. Now they have a $1500 to $2000 report of mine they can use in future negotiations. How does that benefit me?
So unless it is in the example I provided, it is detrimental to me to give away something I paid a lot of money for and potentially affects my ability to negotiate. All sales are about leverage. In the beginning, the buyer usually has the most leverage and it gradually shifts to the seller as the buyer invests more time and money in the deal. Giving away leverage prematurely is not a smart move IMHO.
I’d been doing mechanical inspections for nearly 20 years. Including for private buyers. One stealer said to me: I’ll take the buyer for lunch, and they won’t need the inspection.
Hope it answers your question.
I agree - proving the entire report [you paid for] is a bad idea. But outlining discovered deficiencies as a negotiating tool is perfectly appropriate. After all, the seller is not going to fix anything especially if he was not aware of the issue(s) in the first place.
Us guys will understand this. We don’t like to owe anyone anything, so when someone does us a favor, we like to pay them back. In one of my studies on customs, the story was told about a car salesman who would go over to a coke machine, put his money in and buy the prospect a coke. This was enough to endear the prospect to the salesman to at least listen to them. Buy a guy dinner and see how hard he tries to pay you back. This doesn’t work for the female gender though, or at least didnt who are used to having doors opened for them.
One thing I used to try to do when visiting a prospect was pick the paper or even mail for them and bring it to the door. For my record sale, I rescued the prospects daughter when she ran out of gas and gave her my card. Just for the record I would have done it anyway.
Keep it in mind though next visit to the showroom.
All this is nice but by no means will get you a decent vehicle with no major defects.
Many years ago, I read an article written by a retired sales manager. He described one of the psychological tricks: a customer walks into the showroom, john the salesman runs over, says hi and runs the standard routine. Then asks the customer to take a seat. There are numerous empty desks, and the customer sits at one of them. A few minutes later, john comes over and says "why don’t we seat over there? And points to another desk. This simple trick creates the atmosphere of sublimation - the customer is willing to follow virtually any order no matter how meaningless and/or potentially expensive it may be…
That’s why I only concentrate on numbers. My numbers, not theirs.
