What's the best way to handle this? Have done it in the past but this time its a little more complicated as the buyer is out of state and the bank he has the loan through isn't local.

I'm assuming writing 2 checks -- one for the balance of the loan, one for the remainder, and having him sign a power of attorney for the title transfer, and having the bank send me the title thereafter?

 

Are you paying cash for it? If not your lender should handle it for you.

 

Contact the bank, bud.

You should be able to set up a concrete process to give the bank the loan amount and the remainder to the buyer, while having a notarized legal contract that you have many copies of.

 

not so sure about the bank sending you the title even though your paying it off. they might request the registered owner to pick up the title. thats a little scary because thins might go wrong and you'll just have a lot of headache. is it really that good of a deal? do you trust the registered owner? too complicated for me if both are not local. have the registered owner pay it off. theres a lot of cars for sale out there. for me its just too risky. good luck

 

If you're paying cash then you have to make sure that you arrange it so YOU pay off the bank lien. If the seller says hand him the check/cash and he'll pay it off, don't do it. The seller should contact the lien holder and they will call you and arrange the pay off. The difference is what you pay him/her. If you're taking out a loan then the auto loan lender will take care of the issue.

 

I agree with cfdfireman1. The two banks will send you the forms you need to fill out and sign. Send them back and let the banks handle it. When everything is good to go they'll give you a check and the two of you meet up and make the swap.

 

not always true...my CU had the title put under the buyer's name the minute i paid it off on the spot. It was sorta like a "temp reg" thing so the buyer would feel more secure about the whole deal.

 

My bank is telling me they can write me 2 checks but there is no real security there since for all I know the seller could be lying about the payoff amount or whatnot. In the past I have done transactions like this and it has been simple because I just drive to the bank but in this case, the seller doesn't live anywhere near his bank.

 

Your bank,or if they are lazy as it seems they are - you, will need to get a payoff statement form the seller's bank. And there will be 3 checks - 1 to the seller's bank, one to seller for the difference and one to the dmv for tax. Unless you got that in cash.
Seller signes off on the title, you give him the first 2 checks and take the title and wait till the seller pays off his bank and sends you a lien release card. You take the title, the lien release card and the tax check and go to dmv. Done.

 

I talked to the DMV today and it doesn't actually sound like there is an easy way to do this. Here anyway, you can't legally drive or register the car until the title is signed over to you. It must differ in other states but here, the bank holds the title -- not the owner so you are blindly relying on the seller being honest. So the only way to do this legally would be to give the seller the money, he pays the car off and gets the title back from the bank, then I can pick the car up with the title.

 

Your lender will write you a check that has your name, the sellers name and lien holder's name. This check will payoff the loan.

You will write another check to pay the balance of what the car cost.

The Lien holder then gives you the title (and then you need to apply to have your name put on the title (your new lender will do this). The new title will go to you lender.

Once you payoff your lender - you get the title.

 

Ah, i see. In that case try calling the bank where the title is held and see what they suggest, they should be able to give it to the seller.
Also even if the bank does have the title, the seller should be able to get a duplicate from DMV, that he can sign off on. I mean the bank does not really need to be in posession of a piece of paper. They have a lien hold recorded with DMV anyway.

Long story longer - have the seller get a duplicate title.

 

Yes, I understand all of that.

The part I don't understand is how you mitigate risk. Because you can't legally drive the car in IL until you have the title and with the bank not being local, that means there will be a delay before the title arrives.

So in other words, the best case scenario would be I drive all the way down to meet the seller and hand him the 2 checks. He mails the one check, cashes the other and I drive home with no car. Then once the title arrives in my mailbox, I go back down to pickup the car and then register the car in my name.

Call me paranoid but that is alot of faith to have in some random person off the internet.

 

Buy a different and paid of car. It is going to be your only real sense of security. Plenty of Evo's for sale that are paid off. That was how I bought mine and it was the only way I was handing over that kind of $$$$$$$$$

 

Dude, i'm serial, have him get a duplicate title. That's how it's done. You don't just pay off his loan and hope he'll give you the car!!! Hell no!