Overhaulin'

Question about Car Title.?

Hello Experts, I am planning to buy a used car. But the seller still has around $3000 to pay for his Car Loan. He wants me to takeover the loan and pay the balance amount to him. Will this create me any problem? When will I get the Title from the loan company? How should I proceed in this case? Please help. ---Thanks for the response. He actually wants me to visit the Loan company along with him and take over the loan. So I will pay the rest of the amount to the loan company by monthly payments. Once I complete the loan, the company will the return the title.

Public Comments

1. I would not do this. If you are paying him the 3000 to take over the loan, odds are this guy would stiff you out of the car title. I would ask for the information so you can pay the note off directly to the lender. Do not give this guy any money unless you have it in writing that by paying him the 3000 he will use this money to pay off the note and will send the title to you. Even if he does that, I still would not do it. IT sounds very fishy to me.
2. Is he a friend, if not watch out sounds like a scam. If you take over the loan you pay the loan company.
3. This is a bad plan all the way around. The seller can not transfer ownership of the car without paying off the loan and transferring the title. What are you going to do if you give him money and he doesn't pay off the loan. He needs to pay off the loan with the money you give him and then hand the title over to you.
4. If he is willing to go with you to the bank/company that is actually holding the title, then its easy. They will have all the paperwork to make it legit. Just don't give the money directly to the seller. They should also have the title transferred to your name once the car is paid off.
5. Bad idea. You cannot simply take over loan payments on a car and still have the title transferred to you properly. The first thing I would do is run a car-fax on the car at www.carfax.com. This will tell you a few things such as lien, mileage, salvage and flood info. With this knowledge in hand call your DMV office to see if there are any "stops" on the title. If everything comes up clean and you still want to go through with this do the following: 1. Have the seller contact his lender for a loan payoff on his car through the date you will be paying off the loan. 2. Find out where the lender holds the title. If the title is not held at the location where you will be paying off the loan, stop right here. If the title has to be sent from another location, they will only send it to the registered owner. 3. If the title is at the payoff location, go to his loan company with the owner with cash in the amount of the loan. Before you hand over your money ask the lender if they will release the title and give it to you immediately. If they can't do this don't procede thank your friend but you may never see a title if the bank doesn't release it immediately. 4. If everything is right with the world, you have paid off the loan, the lender releases the lien on the title and hands over the title you are almost home. Have the seller sign off the title as seller in the first assignment of title. Fill in your name and address in the purchasers area, date the title and it should be yours. 5. Take the title to the DMV office immediately to have the title transferred into your name. Buying a car privately can save you alot of money, but I could cost you a lot of money in the long run if you are unfamiliar with titling laws in your state. You may also want to log on to www.dmv.org and click on your state for further information.