Anyone on here a broker for buying a car at auction?

[billh1963]

A guy who works on my team is looking to buy an off lease newer model Acura TL at auction. I know there are agents or brokers (not sure of the term) who do that for a fee. Anyone on here in that line of work or can recommend someone?

Thank you.

[porsche4life]

Email Kaisen... He does this for a living....

[Halm]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

Email Kaisen... He does this for a living....

Post here if you reach him. I tried a couple of times back in June and never got a reply.

[Zeke]

Eric is not interested in us anymore. Checking his website it seems he is into something else related, but more commercial. I had a hard time getting a hold of him as well back in June. I ended up taking care of business on my own as he never acted on my request.

[Christien]

I do this as well, though in Canada. I could facilitate a purchase at a US auction (I buy most of my own cars through US auctions) but I wouldn't be able to assist as far as transferring ownership and any other DMV stuff. pm me if you want to discuss.

[MRM]

I'm local to Eric and have purchased what I think is five vehicles through him and have referred him to several friends. It might be six but who's counting. However, I don't think he's in the brokerage business to individuals anymore. People always wanted to talk to him and get his advice, taking up his time, but they never wanted to buy. He does this for a living; to us cars are a hobby. It's a shame because I saved serious money buying through him and there is no one who has more general and practical car knowledge than Eric.

Speeder is also friends with Eric and does some business with him. He may have a wholesale license. If not, Denis knows everyone. He can put you in touch with someone who can broker a wholesale care for you.

[Steve Carlton]

I'd suggest your co-worker consider finding a car on his own through craigslist, cars.com, autotrader, or the local dealers. Some thoughts:

- a lot of lease returns have been rode hard and put away wet.
- he'll likely be buying a car without having seen it.
- deals at wholesale or close to it can be had from private parties. They may have been quoted a trade-in that's below wholesale by a local dealer.
- if one speaks with the original owner, they can get a good impression of how the car was cared for and get the actual service records. There might be a transferable extended warranty available, too.
- buying a car at auction and paying a fee to a middleman puts you close to a well-bought car, anyway.
- a car at a dealer has likely been safety-checked and reconditioned to some extent. A CPO from an Acura dealer is a much higher level of assurance and will have a solid, factory warranty. An Acura dealer can also sell an Acura extended warranty on a non-CPO, too.

Be sure he looks at a Carfax before he buys anything. It's not perfect, but it's pretty useful and will show stuff like rental cars, accidents (usually), and weird service operations. A car with bad Carfax history will likely come back to bite him when he goes to sell the car.

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by MRM

I don't think he's in the brokerage business to individuals anymore. People always wanted to talk to him and get his advice, taking up his time, but they never wanted to buy. He does this for a living; to us cars are a hobby.

That's a pretty accurate assessment. He's a great guy, though!

[LeeH]

When I had a wholesale license, I made most of my money by buying off of Craigslist and selling at the auction.

[McLovin]

Originally Posted by LeeH

When I had a wholesale license, I made most of my money by buying off of Craigslist and selling at the auction.

I agree. Unless you live in a very remote area and are looking for something unusual, or need to buy a large volume of cars, it's easy to meet or beat auction prices by just looking through Clist, etc. And you get to see the car, do a real inspection, meet the owner, etc.

Particularly Manheim auction prices. Those are very close to "private party" used car prices, which dealers pay and then mark up to "used car dealer" prices.

For many years now, there's been a huge demand for used cars by dealers at auctions. It's driven the auction prices up.

[Cajundaddy]

We leased some offices and property to an auction house for 5 years. After seeing what goes on behind the curtain, it is unlikely I would ever buy a car that way. YMMV

[speeder]

Originally Posted by McLovin

I agree. Unless you live in a very remote area and are looking for something unusual, or need to buy a large volume of cars, it's easy to meet or beat auction prices by just looking through Clist, etc. And you get to see the car, do a real inspection, meet the owner, etc.

Particularly Manheim auction prices. Those are very close to "private party" used car prices, which dealers pay and then mark up to "used car dealer" prices.

For many years now, there's been a huge demand for used cars by dealers at auctions. It's driven the auction prices up.

I agree with this, he would be generally better off dealing with private parties on CL, etc. I do not have a dealer's license nor am I involved in that part of the car business at all, I buy/fix/sell a very small number of cars but I both buy from and sell to private parties. I think that's the best way. I considered buying some auction cars at one time but dropped the idea.

[kaisen]

It's been a few months since I've been on PPOT
NotaBRG (Joel) got in touch with me directly and pointed me to this thread. Thank you Sid, Mike, and Jeremy for the kind endorsements.

The auctions are simply marketplaces. Supply and demand. If it's in large supply, the prices will be attractive. So lease returns and rental returns represent a large supply of "captive" sales...meaning that the lease/rental companies don't have retail outlets to dispose of these cars so they must funnel them through the auctions. How many 3 year old private party Acura TLs will you find on Craigslist? Nearly zero, at least in most markets. Yet there are many at auction. So that's a good example of the right fit.

Want a 1998 Porsche 993? Want a 2006 Acura TL? Not the best candidates for an auction purchase. Rental returns are typically current-model-year or one year old. Lease returns are usually 2-4 years old. Much older than that and there are very few good reasons that those cars are at auction. They are either bank repos, or dealer/broker owned. Why would a dealer be selling a good car at auction? You're better off scouring the classifieds and hoping you'll find a private party that desperately needs to sell.

It might be different in California, or other states where you aren't credited sales tax on a trade-in, but most privately owned (non-leased) 2-5 year old cars get traded in to a dealer. Very few are sold via private party.

Prices? Well, it's like anything else. You need to work hard to get lucky. MRM can tell you that one day a car might bring retail through the auction, and the next week in a different city you can snag ONE car, the right car, for several thousand less. It's worked this way forever. It's true on Craigslist and classifieds as well....all it takes is one good deal to fall in place, but you'll likely have to sift through hundreds of idiots thinking their junk is treasure before you "get lucky". It's even harder work at the auctions. Buying cars isn't easy unless you're willing to buy the wrong cars at high prices.

A broker cannot sell a car to the public. Brokers are middle-men and can only sell cars wholesale to other dealers and brokers. A licensed dealer is the only one that can sell a car to a retail buyer.

Most of my clients over the past few years have been professionals who really don't have time for all the dealer BS. I find them exactly what they want, rather than settling for what their local dealer has on the lot. No negotiating, they see exactly what I paid and pay a flat mark-up. It's a transparent process, they are in control, they don't feel taken advantage of, and they typically save some money.

From a dealer's perspective, a special order car can be more work than it is worth. While buyers love the idea of getting exactly what they want, it can pose a challenge. For example, three years ago a Pelican asked me for help finding a 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser: had to be a Trail Team, had to have a 6 speed manual, had to be white, had to be stock (no mods), had to be flawless, had to have service records, had to have low miles for the year, had to be under retail $$, etc. He still doesn't own that FJ Cruiser.

Another referral told me exactly what he wanted, then ended up stumbling across "the perfect car" at a local dealer's lot and ended up with the color he told me he didn't want, with miles higher than he said he'd accept. He sent the link to the dealer's website and it was a car that had run at a local auction a month earlier when we were looking for potential candidates. I remembered the car because it had existing minor damage to the RH side bumper cover and fender. So here was the same car, now fixed by the dealer, and you could even see in photos how the RH fender was a slightly different shade and texture than the adjacent panels. It happens. Even the most rational people pull the trigger based solely on emotion.

As always, YMMV. Good luck