To make this short, i have been given an offer. I know someone who just opened up a body shop and the owner has asked me if i wanted to make some money, all i have to do is buy any vehicle that is somewhat damage, salvage title, or whatever, bring it to him and he'll fix up all the body work, then i re-sell and we split the profit. I would like to know how hard would it be to re-sell cars that have been damaged or has a salvage title. How much of the value of the car is affected because it was previosly in an accident or has a salvage title.

I have found an s2k 03 on ebay that is in need of repair and it is selling for roughly 7.5k. Lets say auction ends at 10k how much would i be able to sell the car for knowing that it has been in an accident before? Its an 03, suzuka, with 22k. lets say kbb values it at 20k, how much is it worth now after the fix.

I just want to know if this will be something difficult for me to handle or if its even worth the money. I'm not looking to make millions out of this, just looking for maybe a few grand a month.

Thanks for all your input and opinions.

John

 

In the situation above a lot will depend on what/cost needs to be repaired. I'm going to guess that a restored salvaged car might be worth about 2/3 of Kelly Blue book, possibly a little more depending what needed to be fixed.

 

2/3 cost might not be too bad, now remember, i will not be recurring any cost to fix the car. no matter how much the damage is i will not be charged any cost to fix it up. All i do is find the car then bring to him to fix then sell the car and split profit. Also where would be a good start for looking for vehicles that have fender beners, accidents or salvage titles? I'm probably going to only buying high end sports cars like s2k, supra, evo, sti's, civics... probably wont be dealing wiht any domestic cars.

 

You *might* be able to make some money with your current plan, but I wouldn't recommend it. First off, buyers of higher end cars see a salvage title as a huge black mark. Most people with the available funds will be very wary about investing their money in a car with a stigma like that, as such you'll take a big hit on your selling price. Where you might be able to make some money or those cars would be selling to kids. If you could do that, you might be more successful since you'd be enabling them to get into cars they otherwise wouldn't have access to.

Now... back to the making money part of it. E-bay is a really bad place to pick up salvaged cars. If you are serious about going through with that plan, you really want to have auction access. Unless the buyer decides to buy back their wreck from the insurance company, those cars go to an auction. From there, people buy them then decide whether to fix them or pass them on. Lots of these cars end up on E-bay *after* someone had decided that the particular car isn't worth fixing. Even then, you will be paying a premium for the auction buyer's time and effort in acquiring the car in the first place.

So... my thought is, making money the way you described is possible, just not the best way to do it. Without auction access, you're always going to be dealing with lesser quality cars with less profit potential.

 

i wouldn't say it would be worth it. I don't think you will get your money back out of a S2K.

You need to go to salvage auctions that are for dealers only. Tell him to get a dealers license to buy from the salvage auctions.

That is the only way to make money on this. Most people want top dollar for their wrecks.

 

I think the most money will be made on cheep cars ie. civics, accords, things that young people want to fix up. I could be wrong, but I don;t forsee much money in it. As stated above people see a salvaged title and they stay away.

 

Two problems,
one, you will be doing all the hard legwork in terms of locating and selling, two you will be taking on more of the financial risk.

say you have a break even case, you put up 7500 to buy a car, it takes him three weeks to do 2500 (retail) in work, you make a break even sale of 10000 three weeks after that , you make nothing, he make "no profit" but he only invested 2000 in parts and payroll, he actually makes 500 with a small investment.
say you go higher end with little damage, 15k and 1k in work, and end up selling for 2k over purchase (not likely) 1000 in profit split you made 500 but it tied up 15k of your money for 2 months. he only paid out 750 in payroll and parts and doubles his investment.
so the only way for you to both invest the same and get the same return is to buy a vehicle with alot of damage (salvage) and put alot of work into it. problem is if it is already deemed a total loss than you will end up pitting more money into it than you can get back at sale. plus you have the "salvage" stigma.

 

I'd like this deal alot









......................if I was the body man!

 

very good points in deed, gives me a better understanding and ideas of where i would sit if i were to go ahead and do this. Thanks for your opinions once again as it has been very helpful.

 

The cost of rebuilding a S2k are to high . Mine estimate for repair was over $17000 all it needed was a front clip , from the firewall back was perfect.

If you can find a S2k you would make more $ parting it . I put a feel out to see what would sell on mine and I was up to $10k and I would of still owned the motor and tranny.