“I want to sell my car for $10,000.00 but I am concerned about how to sell a used car that is somewhat expensive. I have looked through the newspaper and online with car sales web sites for private parties and dealerships that sell used cars. I determined that my used cars asking price should be around $10,000.00. Since most people buy cars with a loan if they are over a certain amount, what would be the best way to sell this used car? I really want to sell it to a private party because I think I would make a lot more money than if I tried to sell it to a used car dealer. I have a feeling people are going to test drive my car and then realize I can’t finance them. If that comes up how would I recommend they get a car loan? Would this sale work privately? Do people still buy cars for this much money privately without a loan, or would I be better off losing about a thousand more trying to go with a dealer? I am trying to sell it in about 2 weeks. I would prefer not to do sell a car on eBay because I do not know who the seller is and I would really like to provide people with a test drive before they buy and I have seen many instances where people don’t inspect the vehicle before bidding and then back out if they find a problem, even if it is small. I’d probably do this with a vehicle that I was selling for less money, but I really want to sell my car for quite a bit more money. Any other ideas?”

The above questions were submitted by a reader on Yahoo Answers and I’m going to answer some of their questions about selling a more expensive used car here…

• I understand your concern about selling a somewhat expensive used car because the reality is that cars that sell for up to $3500.00 are very easy to sell because most people can cash you out or borrow from a friend or relative, or even pull the cash out of a credit card. Okay, so in your case your car will sell for $10,000.00 which means they will probably have to finance it.

• Selling a used car yourself is always a better way because just as you suspected, you will make a lot more money on it. If you try to sell your car to a car dealer then you can expect them to give you a fraction of what the car is really worth. Its not necessarily that they are trying to rip you off either (although they could if you weren’t aware of what your car should sell for), but the fact is that they will have to make a decent profit in order to pay their expensive overhead. The same goes for trading in a car too in that you will make a lot more money if you just take a few hours to prepare your car for selling and then sell it yourself.

• I would be very surprised to hear of a private party that would expect that you would finance a used car for a complete stranger. I’ve sold countless used cars and have never had someone ask me to finance their car for them. You could direct them to some online sources that finance used cars though. Some of them have pretty quick turn-around too.

• Actually eBay can be a great place to sell a used because so many millions of people search eBay on a daily basis. You would be amazed at how far some buyers will travel to buy your car too. I sold a small sailboat once through eBay to a guy in Venezuela and a bunch of boxes of flooring to someone in Kentucky…and I was living in San Diego at the time! The key to effectively selling on eBay is to start the auction price low so it shows up higher in search results and put a reserve on it to protect yourself from selling it too low. Offer a ‘Buy It Now’ price that is higher than the price you expect or hope to sell your car for. Lastly, don’t sell the car to anyone that doesn’t have lots of previous positive feedback.

• Remember that a very important point when selling a used car is that the more the car sells for then the more that car should look like new. That is especially true for a more expensive used car like you are selling. You will need to go through the car from front to back and top to bottom both inside and out and make it look as new as possible.

That is really all there is to it and should address your concerns about “I want to sell my car for $10,000.00 to a private party.”