I'm looking at buying a car from another state, New Jersey.   I plan to have a professional look over the car and then look at it myself.    





Do I negotiate price before or after I go look at the car?  I should have a good idea on the cost from the appraisal I get.





How do you deal with the lien and any possible extra payment to the owner?  (Probably the biggest hassle.)



When driving it back, what license tags?  Can you get temporary tags from VA DMV before you purchase the vehicle?  





Anyone have any experience doing this?

 

The Price Negotiation is on you, I hope you score a Good Deal.

As far as the lien goes, if you decide on a price, and ready to buy.  Then you both Go to the Bank Branch that holds the lien.
Let say you are buying a car for $10K, he still owes $8k.  In this case You can write 2 Checks, one to the bank, and one to Him $8k and $2k Respectively.  Then he will have to send you the title once received.
Or
You Write him a Check for $10k, He Deals with Bank, then Sends you the Title when he gets it.
Regardless, you will not be able to get the title Directly from bank.
To Protect yourself, have the bill of sale notarized at his bank.

As far as Transporting, You can go online to DMV website, and purchase a "Trip plate" I think cost is about $8, you buy online, and print it.
It will allow you to drive a vehicle from one location to your home.  Good For one Trip (just tape it to the back window)

Then after you get the title, you can register it.  (If you were buying from a Dealer in NJ, they could issue you temp tags)

Good luck with your purchase!

Without specifics, we'll just assume it's a lime green Gremlin.

Serious?

If you negotiate before, and then go look at the car and find out it is missing the engine/tranny, then what? Same price?

In other words, if you negotiate price before you see car, seller is going to expect you to hold to it regardless of what you see later.

The one time I bought a car with a lien we did the entire transaction at the bank that held the lien and they signed off on the title right there. So I walked way with a clean title.

Make sure you have them check for rust/corrosion under the car.  Being a ex-yankee, I can tell you that cars from that area are subjected to quite a bit more salt/sand than down here.

Professional appraisal should come close.  The owner purchased it a year ago and send me the professional appraisal he received.  





Thanks all.  Good information.





 

Does the storm Sandy mean anything? I hope you know a whole lot more about this car and its something special, otherwise I would not event think about it due to possibility you are buying a car that's been flooded during the storm.

Car is outside of Philly. Pretty sure it was safe from Sandy.

 

This is what you do. I bought my last car in VA from a guy with a lien. The state really doesn't matter, you need to show the VA DMV that the lien has been paid or they won't give you  a full title - wherever the car came from. In my case, I had to wait a few days because his bank did not hold the title at that branch. And they sent it to him. Now I trusted the guy, but it was a bit scary - I had the car, he had the title, if he wanted to it could get messy, if he was a shady character. So I drafted a bill of sale which we both signed and had that notarized. Which is a fairly strong legal document, if it came down to you two going to court, and you had his notarized signature saying he would sell the car to you for X price, that'd stand up pretty well in court.

Just a heads up in case you see a lot of "They better have the title in hand at the bank" comments, New Jersey is an electronic title state.

The bank does not have the title at all. They'll release the lien once it is paid off, and then the title is generated by the DMV and sent out to the owner.

It is possible for the bank to order a paper title to have on hand to sign off to you on the spot, but it ain't happening fast.

I would go up and see the car and negotiate a price before the professional evaluate.  do a contingincy with the owner.

I've done it couple of times, but it was from a dealer.

If you buy a vehicle from out of state then unless things have changed, a VA temporary tag won't work.  You need temp tags from the state where you buy the car.

A few years ago I did this in Pa.  Pa DMV issued temp tags and I used those to drive to VA.

The OP should make sure that the title certificate is actually held by a bank in the state where he's buying the car.  The problem I ran into was that the seller was in Pa but he financed it with a bank that held the title certificate in Co.  The bank wanted the payment (from me) with a promise to send me the title a few days later.  That's nuts! Whatever you do, don't buy the car without obtaining the title!  The title is the car.  

You should make it clear that clearing the lien is the seller's responsibility.  

Finally, you need a bill of sale.  VA DMV has a simple one you can download.