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Selling Your Car

Finance

English: Jalopy car in Joshua Tree National Pa...

English: Jalopy car in Joshua Tree National Park in Hidden Valley Campground (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When it’s time to replace your car, most people focus on the new car, instead of the old, but that is ignoring real money.  Your old car–unless it has disintegrated–still has value.  Sometimes, it’s just time to ask yourself, “When should I sell my car?”

When you’re looking to sell your car (like with We Will Buy Your Car), you generally have several options:

  1. Tow & crush. If your car has been wrecked, doesn’t run, or is just old and beat up, you may be stuck with calling a junkyard and accepting $50 for them to pick up your car and crush it for scrap.
  2. Trade it in. This is probably the least hassle, but–other than #1–doesn’t pay well.  Dealerships are willing to pay something under what they will get at a wholesale auction, which is quite a bit less than the blue book value.
  3. Sell it yourself. Now you’re thinking, “He’s going to buy my car! Oh, bother.”  It can be a pain, but it’s also the best way to get a decent price for your wheels.

When you sell your car, there are a few things to keep in mind, much like when you sell something on Craigslist.

  • Don’t be alone. There are bad people in the world, but they don’t like witnesses.  Bad things are much less likely to happen if you have company.
  • Know your price. Specifically, know three price: your dream price, the price that would make you happy, and the absolute lowest price you are willing to accept.  Make sure you figure these numbers out ahead of time.  Know what you are comfortable with before it comes time to close the deal.
  • Check IDs. The buyer is going to want to test-drive your car.  That’s fine, but you want to make sure you know who is driving off in your car.  “Officer, Sumdood took my car.  He was wearing jeans.”  That won’t get your car back.
  • Clean it up. Get the car detailed before you show it to a potential buyer.   A sparkling-clean car will almost always bring in a few hundred extra dollars.  It’s well worth the expense.

Following this plan should make the sale go as smoothly as possible and bring you the most possible money.

Readers, what have you done to dispose of an old car?

This is a sponsored post written to provide some insight into the world of used car retail.

 

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30 Day Project Summary – January

Misc

This month, I had two 30 Day Projects: Get up at 5am and read to my kids before bed every night.

Getting up at 5 wasn’t as hard as I had feared. I’ve never been a morning person, but this was nice.  I got a chance to wake up slowly, catch up on the world, make breakfast and get to work without feeling rushed.  Those are all good things.   I missed twice.  The first time, I rolled over to get out of bed and didn’t make it.  Somehow, I got stuck halfway through rolling over.    The second time, I was up until after 2AM talking with my wife.  I won’t give up that kind of quality time.  When the alarm went off at 5, I gave myself two more hours.

The really interesting part, at least to me, is that I didn’t go to bed earlier most nights.   This actually added an extra 90 minutes to my day. I’m going to keep this habit up.  I may not be as firm about it every day, but it’s going to be my regular habit.  No more snooze alarm, no more wasting half of my day in bed.

Reading to the kids was harder.  Wrestling season started this month, which means we spend a lot more time chasing around to get our 10 year old where he needs to be.  After the first week, the bedtime requirement went out the window.  I decided to read to the girls whenever there was time, which made it work better.  We chose practicality over strictly adhering to the letter of the goal.  Over the course of the month, I missed 5 nights which isn’t too bad.

“Get a book” has turned into one of my girls’ favorite things to hear.  They both run giggling for the bookshelf.  It’s quiet time.  It’s quality time.  It’s teaching them to enjoy one of my favorite activities.    Never turn down an opportunity to read to a child. It may be the only time they sit still all day and the experience will stick with both of your forever.   The little things matter. A girl’s head on each shoulder and a book in front of us is something is something I will treasure forever and something that I am going to work to continue.   I only have a few more years before they are reading on their own and won’t need Daddy for this anymore.

Becoming a Landlord

Business, Finance

For those of you just tuning in, my mother-in-law died in April.

Since then, we’ve spent nearly every available moment at our inherited house, digging out and cleaning up.

My mother-in-law was a compulsive hoarder.   I’m not going to get into the details of her compulsion, but we have–so far–filled a 30 yard dumpster.  For perspective, that’s big enough to fit our Ford F150.

Now that the house is approaching the point where we can begin updating and remodeling, I’ve been looking into the requirements to rent it out.

In my city, I need to get a business license that costs $95 per year.   This comes with a requirement to allow the city to inspect the property every two years.

Before they will issue the license, I have to take an 8 hour Minnesota Crime Free Multi-Housing Program class that covers tenant screening, lease addendum, evictions, and “etcetera”, followed by a physical audit of the property to ensure minimum security standards.

The lease addendum basically reads “If you are loud, obnoxious, threatening, criminal, intimidating, or doing/dealing drugs, you will be evicted.”

The actual costs to become a landlord are going to be:

  • Something under $100 for my wife and I to take the landlord class.  The price varies from free to $40, depending on the hosting city.
  • $95 per year for the privilege of using our private property to conduct a private transaction with a private individual.
  • The remodel.  I don’t know what this is going to cost, yet.   There’s an unfinished bathroom in the unfinished basement.  I’d like to finish both of those, though the basement will never hold a 3rd bedroom, due to code.  The entire house need to be painted and have the trim replaced.  The dining room and hallway have hardwood floors, hiding under linoleum that was never properly put down.   We may need new windows.

If possible, I’d like to keep the project under $20,000.   Since we’re not adding a 3rd bedroom, or tearing out the kitchen cabinets, it should be possible.

In the meantime, expect to see a bunch of remodeling and renting related posts coming up.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-07-03

Misc

A Perfectly Maid Home

Finance, Life, Relationships

Last night, I got home after a 13 hour day at the office and found a spotlessly clean house.  The laundry was folded.  The dishes were done, and everything was put away.

It was great.

I work 80 hours a week, 90 if you count commuting time.

That’s about 50 hours at my day job, 10-15 hours working on this site, and 20-30 hours working on my other side hustles.   Some weeks, my volunteer geek skills get put to use for a local non-profit, too.

My wife works at least 40 hours every week.

We chase our kids around, plan or birthday parties, visit family, take care of the yard, and do everything else that every other family does.

The difference is that, if I take work in all of its forms out of the equation and give myself permission to get a full night’s sleep every night, I have a total of 20-30 hours per week to eat, socialize, and spend time with my family.   That not a lot.

I hate cleaning.

Between my work schedule and my cleaning aversion, I’m not always a lot of help around the house.

Half of my work time is spent at home.  It’s hardly fair to expect my wife to clean up after me.

This has been a huge point of contention between us.   She sees me on the computer and gets frustrated when I’m not helping her clean up.  I get frustrated because I’m trying to make us some extra money, but she’s complaining that I’m not cleaning.

About a month ago, we hired a housekeeper.   She comes every other week for a few hours and does a phenomenal job cleaning our house.    We pay her about $150 per month for the work.

It’s been great.

My wife is happy because the house is clean.   I’m happy because the complaining has stopped.   Our housekeeper is happy because it’s more money.  It’s a win/win/win scenario.

Now, $150 is a decent amount to add to our debt snowball, but paying for the cleaning services facilitates my side hustles, which bring in quite a bit more than $150 per month, so it’s even a good idea financially.

Even if it’s not, the peace of mind of knowing that I didn’t have to fold all of the laundry that was waiting for me yesterday makes it worthwhile.

How about you?  Would you consider hiring a maid?  Why?

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Good Friday

Life, Parenting

We don’t have daycare on Good Friday.

We do, however, both have to work today.   Two rounds of little-girl tonsillitis have zapped our available vacation time.

On an entirely related note, we put our 12 year old son through Red Cross babysitter training a few weeks ago, just for something like this.

My wife gets nervous at the idea of leaving the girls with the boy for very long.  I think she thinks the world will explode if he takes care of them correctly.

Our solution for today is to have a slightly older friend come over and help.

She’s 13 and she brought her 10 year old brother with her.

That’s kids aged 3,5,10,12, and 13 in my house today.   Total Lord of the Flies.

Hold that thought.

My son, being 12, doesn’t feel it’s necessary to brush his hair for school, or change his clothes every day, and he needs to be reminded to brush his teeth.

This morning, he woke himself up and ran into the bathroom.  He emerged with clean teeth and combed hair.   I asked him if he was wearing the same shirt as yesterday, and he flew into his room to change.

Hmm.  Something is afoot.

While I was putting my shoes on, I reminded him to take care of the house and his sisters, and he made some smart-aleck joke in response.

She giggled.

Watson, I think I’ve found a clue.

Her father told me, just yesterday, the she thinks boys are gross.

The boy has never shown an interest in girls, until this morning.

Grr.   The next decade just got considerably more interesting.

Time to lock them both in their respective basements until college.

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