Selling your car online, both for a good price and in a short space of time, is a fine balancing act. For people with little experience, it can seem like a total enigma. However, all it really takes is some basic IT and writing skills, and a small investment of time and money. To make the whole process easier for you, here are my best tips for selling a used car online…

Get the Price Right

From Flickr

If you can follow this tip well, pretty much everything else wall fall into place. Despite what many people think, the “right” price isn’t what you want to get for your car, but what the average buyer thinks is appropriate to pay. Of course, if you’ve got a hot rod or some kind of rare collector’s model, you won’t have to worry about market prices so much. However, in most cases, your car is going to be listed against hundreds of similar or identical vehicles. This means that competitive pricing is an absolute must. You need to do a lot of extensive research to find out not only what the average seller is asking for, but also what the average transactional amount is. Major selling sites such as Auto Trader are generally a good source for this kind of information.

Be Responsive in Communications

There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, just like you’re desperate to shift your vehicle, the people you’re dangling it in front of are going to be pretty desperate to get behind the wheel. This means that if they try to reach out to you about an offer, and you take too long to respond, they’ll be likely to move onto another, more responsive seller. Furthermore, once you agree on a sale, it’s important to keep the buyer updated on how the transaction is going to happen. There may be extra costs to cover, like a service from companies like Shiply. There may have been some kind of maintenance needs which you overlooked beforehand, or some other cause for a delay in getting the car to the buyer. To avoid any confusion, or getting a prospective buyer angry, make sure you’re on-call almost as much as possible, and keeping the buyer updated on anything that will affect them.

Write a Great Description

From Pexels

You may not be a best-selling author, but a compelling and attention-grabbing description is essential if you want to sell your car as quickly and easily as possible. Take a look at some listings on the site you’re planning to sell for, and soon enough you’ll be able to tell good stuff from bad stuff. Don’t waste your time and bore your buyers by listing features that are pretty much a given in 2017; electric windows, air conditioning, etc. Instead, flaunt all the features that you enjoyed most about the car, remembering to include specs and figures that a buyer may want to know. Follow it up with a short, conversational paragraph about your great experience with the car.