Let's face it. Buying cars at auction may be necessary (at times), but doing so takes a huge chunk of your potential profit. When you consider how challenging it can be to earn a profit with used cars, you'd think that most dealers would be devoted to finding ways to acquire used vehicles as profitably as possible, but they aren't.
Based on our observations, no more than one in five dealers have a proactive strategy designed to source vehicles outside of auctions and vehicle trades.
Fortunately, there are alternatives to stocking used vehicles, and one of the best ones is acquiring used vehicles from private sellers. I'm not talking about vehicle trades. All dealers to that. I'm talking about proactively seeking out vehicles from private sellers who are out there trying to find a buyer.
There is no shortage in the the number of people that attempt to sell their vehicles on their own, often taking to the web to list their vehicles in free and paid classifieds, and of course the de facto "For Sale by Owner" sign on the windshield sitting at the edge of the yard by the street.
In any given area there are hundreds upon hundreds of such vehicles needing a buyer. Reality is, most won't be sold by the private seller, which gives dealers with the right tools and proper resources all the advantage for acquiring these vehicles for their own lots.
Doing so isn't easy, which is why the majority of dealers avoid these types of acquisitions, but for the savvy dealers committed to a competitive advantage, buying used vehicles from private sellers is the ideal path.