title? / what payment options for USED travel trailer are YOU comfortable with?

[Losangeles]

Hello gang

Happy 4th of July to all the Americans.

So I'm about to sell our Casita Travel Trailer, and I'll show the Casita at an LAPD police station visitor parking lot - at a 2 hour open house, so to speak.

I anticipate quite a few people will want to see it.

(I already have permission from the LAPD station - they were very nice and smiled and said "GOOD IDEA! You don't want to invite anyone to your home. Some crazy people out there!!!")

then if anyone wants to buy it, then we'll go 1 block north to my bank, hand me the payment, and I'll deposit it into my account, unhitch the Casita from my vehicle... do paperwork.... and they hook up and drive away.

Questions.

one) I'm in California - does anyone happen to know if a 2011 Casita would have a paper title or a paperless title? I bought it new in TX and registered here in CA.

I'll call the DMV tomorrow and be on hold for an hour + but figured some of you might know.

and

two) given i'm depositing the payment into my account.... i assume cash is ok, of course.

what else is NON STOP PAYMENT -able? IE what can't they put a stop payment on , and effectively have stolen the Casita.... a cashiers cheque?

what else is safe and smart?

never done this before.



thanks.

Looking forward to our 2017 21' - hatching in about 5-6 months.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Losangeles

... I'll show the Casita at an LAPD police station visitor parking lot - at a 2 hour open house, so to speak.

I anticipate quite a few people will want to see it.

(I already have permission from the LAPD station - they were very nice and smiled and said "GOOD IDEA! You don't want to invite anyone to your home. Some crazy people out there!!!")

then if anyone wants to buy it, then we'll go 1 block north to my bank, hand me the payment, and I'll deposit it into my account, unhitch the Casita from my vehicle... do paperwork.... and they hook up and drive away.

The local police here (RCMP in Strathcona County) are actively promoting the use of their visitor parking lot for transactions with strangers, such as sales arranged through Craigslist. They don't assign someone to watch it, but it is covered by cameras and they're right there if an urgent situation arises. It would be nice to close the whole transaction there; can you deposit with an app on your smartphone which uses a photo of the cheque? I suppose the apps can't confirm a certified cheque or draft. If it's cash you don't need to go to the bank until after the buyer has left.

[Losangeles]

Originally Posted by Brian B-P

The local police here (RCMP in Strathcona County) are actively promoting the use of their visitor parking lot for transactions with strangers, such as sales arranged through Craigslist. They don't assign someone to watch it, but it is covered by cameras and they're right there if an urgent situation arises. It would be nice to close the whole transaction there; can you deposit with an app on your smartphone which uses a photo of the cheque? I suppose the apps can't confirm a certified cheque or draft. If it's cash you don't need to go to the bank until after the buyer has left.

Hey Brian

thanks for the app idea..... interesting idea.... but i think i'd feel better if we went to my bank. Literally 1 block away.

and even cash scares me... there is a little counterfeit cash floating around LA. I don't want to take that chance. (plus I'm the wrong person to know what the heck a $100 bill looks like..... I'm only allowed to handle a few 20's ever)

[float5]

We opened another account at our bank and obtained information for wiring money into it.

We had the buyer wire the money from his account. We did not need to do that for this buyer but had planned in advance to do it that way. The bank will tell you when the money is there and our transaction did not take long, a few hours I think.
They say it can take days though.

[cpaharley2008]

Make sure you prepare a "bill of sale" where you have all the seller and buyers information as well as the terms of sale. I always prepare 2 copies and have each signed. I'll take a personal check and merely withhold title until the check clears and then mail it, or a certified or a bank check drawn on the same bank for instant release. You can always take a picture of their license.

[KarenH]

I think the easiest thing to do is to meet at the police parking lot, make your deal and then both you and the buyer walk over to your bank to deposit the money. The bank would recognize a certified check (although a little dicier), a cashier's check, or cash; a personal check would not work in this case as it would take time to clear.

[Iowa Dave]

Karen's advice is certainly solid. The only other thing we always do in Iowa is to make sure the title gets transferred to the buyer. In our case we go to the courthouse with them and do that. This way, if the trailer were to come off the hitch and damage somebody else on their way home for example, you want to make sure it's not still in your name. Additionally, banks get a little quirky If you walk in with over 5 large in cash regardless of the bill denominations so beware of that. Read that "drug money" and a call to the FBI. Maybe it's different in California, here a lot of us wear a belt and suspenders. Best of luck.
Dave

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Karen's advice is certainly solid. The only other thing we always do in Iowa is to make sure the title gets transferred to the buyer. In our case we go to the courthouse with them and do that. This way, if the trailer were to come off the hitch and damage somebody else on their way home for example, you want to make sure it's not still in your name. Additionally, banks get a little quirky If you walk in with over 5 large in cash regardless of the bill denominations so beware of that. Read that "drug money" and a call to the FBI. Maybe it's different in California, here a lot of us wear a belt and suspenders. Best of luck.
Dave

Anything over $10,000 is reported . Pat

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Additionally, banks get a little quirky If you walk in with over 5 large in cash regardless of the bill denominations so beware of that. Read that "drug money" and a call to the FBI.

That made me laugh. On a television show the other night, a suspect used a Tracfone, i.e, a "burner phone," and the cop said that only drug dealers and thugs use those.

I use a Tracfone.

[Iowa Dave]

I started at ten but then thought about what my banker told me when I was dealing on my house about 10 years ago and seemed to remember something about 5K so that's what I typed. At any rate, the Casita may well sell for more than 10K which, if cash, might be a problem if the OP walked into the bank with that wad. Course I really don't have worry about it, I'm still trying to pay my grandson a quarter for spotting a fiberglass camper.
Thanks,
Dave

[float5]

Lots of people have been cheated with cashier's checks that banks cleared and said later were no good. Some people will not take them because of that. That is why we used a wire.

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by float5

Lots of people have been cheated with cashier's checks that banks cleared and said later were no good. Some people will not take them because of that. That is why we used a wire.

Never heard that one. It seems to me that if a bank clears a cashier's check, it's their loss if it's no good.

[cpaharley2008]

A certified check is where the bank certifies that the funds are available, so unless the bank itself is part of the fraud, if it is from any nationally recognized bank and stamped it should be good. A cashiers check or bank check is from the bank itself where it's funds are being used after they take the money from the customer's account, similar to a certified check. Wire transfers have also been falsified. By holding the title until funds clear and not canceling the insurance, your trailer is still covered for theft if the checks are false.

[Iowa Dave]

That from a man who certainly knows how to buy and sell travel trailers.
Dave

[jamman]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashier%27s_check

[KarenH]

Well, I for one am not going to sell anything to anybody anymore what with all the counterfeit money, fraudulent cashier's checks, and phony certified checks floating around. It's a wonder the economy is still afloat.

[Rossue]

Cathyy is right- there are fraudulent cashiers checks. People falsely think they are bullet proof. If I were selling to a stranger in the big city I would want cash or better yet a wire.

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by KarenH

Well, I for one am not going to sell anything to anybody anymore what with all the counterfeit money, fraudulent cashier's checks, and phony certified checks floating around. It's a wonder the economy is still afloat.

Yep, that's it, fear of being scammed has made
me a hoarder. Get stuff but never let it go. Thanks for a new excuse
Dave

[float5]

Originally Posted by KarenH

Never heard that one. It seems to me that if a bank clears a cashier's check, it's their loss if it's no good.

That is what I would think but many people have found out differently. Some individuals do not take cashier's checks any more because of such losses.

[Brian B-P]

It seems to me that any payment depending on a paper document is potentially subject to failure due to a counterfeit document, which won't be discovered until long after the trailer is gone to the buyer/thief. Despite this, sales continue and almost everyone gets their money as intended. Since most people are not crooks, this doesn't surprise me; the surprising part is that so many people still use paper for financial transactions, decades after better tools became available.

I have purchased very few vehicles (I tend to drive them until they have at least a quarter million kilometres on them), and all have been by cheque. For our van it was just a non-certified personal cheque - I guess they figured that if the cheque bounced, they knew how to find me (given that they had the VIN and knew that I had registered it)... but that doesn't work so well for a private individual selling a trailer.

Some form of electronic transaction (and not the scanning by a mobile app of a written cheque) would be the only way around this.

In Canada, an Interac etransfer is a simple and inexpensive way to transfer money to a stranger without exchanging any banking information. It works without anyone going to a bank, as long as they're willing to use a mobile banking app or website. Perhaps there is a U.S. equivalent. There have been extensive discussions in this forum about sending money to Escape Trailer Industries, but none of the methods sounded simple or quick, and the discussions are usually made more complex by cross-border and cross-currency issues, which are not relevant to the used trailer sale.