10 Car Flipping Rules To Follow
Your Instructor
George Dean
Second… If you are a beginner, one way to lower your risk is to invest in cheaper “cash cars”. This puts less capital at risk. This is a great place to start. Start with cash cars unless you have a larger bank roll (then we should “talk about it” during one of the Q&A calls included with your membership).
Third…Each car should be inspected by a certified mechanic. Pay for the “Pre Purchase Inspection.”. It is ALWAYS a good idea to have a second set of educated, non emotional eyes look over a car purchase. A pre-purchase inspection is a great insurance policy against making a bad buy, mechanically speaking – thus lowering your risk. PLUS, if any repairs are needed, get an estimate and deduct it from your offer price. Show the seller the estimated repair bill and negotiate a better deal for yourself – even if you don’t do the repairs!
| TIP:Now truthfully, a mechanic can only give you a mechanical inspection. This is important to realize! “Mechanical” inspection. A mechanic can NOT give you a structural inspection (accidents, frame damage, …) You MUST learn the structural inspection skills in the Master Course to avoid cars that have been in accidents, have frame or flood damage. A mechanic couldn’t see ‘paintwork’ if it was dripping on their foot! And, don’t be lazy and take “every car” you look at to a mechanic, that would be silly. Each car MUST FIRST pass OUR INSPECTION that I teach in the Master Course… then take it to a mechanic. |
Fourth… This is NOT gambling. This IS investing through educated bets. Using the pricing strategies in the Master Course, you will know exactly what the wholesale price should be (your buy price) and the retail price. The difference is your profit. You see… we mitigate risk through education. So make sure you get trained. You could waste you time watching 1000 questionable YouTube videos and maybe… just maybe, but probably not… learn what you need. Or, you can shortcut the entire training process by finding a mentor or consider joining the Auto Dealer Academy. I am here to help.
| TIP:Do NOT worry about getting a dealer’s license right off-the-bat. You aren’t ready yet. First, flip 2-5 cars FIRST. Prove you CAN do this business. Prove you LOVE it. Prove to yourself (and others) you can make this happen! This process will build your experience, education, and bankroll. THEN… get your used car dealer’s license. And… when you get to that point, do not waste your life, time, nor energy trying to figure out how to AVOID getting dealers license. There is PLENTY of profit to pay for a dealer’s license! They make it seem hard to get a license because we want to keep you OUT of the car business! There is too much profit. They want to keep you OUT! They don’t want you in it! So, they have created a hurdle you MUST overcome – and it’s called “getting a dealer’s license” but it’s NOT as hard as you are lead to believe. AND… there are tricks and tips no one else will tell you. That’s why I wrote this book AND it comes with the extra training videos too! I made it cheaper than lunch at McDonalds too! Trust me, when the time comes… get your OWN dealer’s license in your OWN state. If you want to know more about how to get a used car dealer’s license… get the book! Learn More.   $9.99 |
Fifth… Read the rest of the tips! These will help reduce your risk and put the odds of success in your corner.
| TIP:I recommend strongly taking the car to a dealer for the inspection- not an independent car mechanic. If it’s a Dodge, take it to the Dodge dealer. If it’s a Toyota, take it to a Toyota dealer. Why? Well, think about it. When a customer comes to view the car, there are really two questions in their mind. What is the QUALITY the car and the PRICE. If you have an inspection report FROM THE DEALER, the question of quality vanishes from their mind AND they can’t use it as leverage when they try to negotiate a lower price. So, having a clean inspection report from the dealer commands a HIGHER PRICE! Plus, if you follow Advice #3 you are in a powerful negotiating position to get “all the money”! |
2Invest with a margin of safety. Do not overpay. Refuse to overpay. Be cheap. Be greedy. There are MORE deals–you don’t “need” this deal. Go to the next car if you can’t get it for YOUR price. Learn the pricing techniques in the Master Course and you can’t go wrong! Also, learn the negotiating game as I teach in my Master Course.
| TIP:I recommend the book Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss. Check It out |
3Be selective: Be picky. Don’t buy marginal cars. Buy cars you’d let your mother drive. Or your sister. Or wife. I am not in the junk business. I recommend the “nice car” business. So… buy nice cars. Now, I DO like DIRTY cars that can CLEAN UP. I do NOT mind dirt. In fact, I LOVE dirt. Turn dirt to gold! Use the detailing training in the Master Course to turn a turd into a diamond!
| TIP:I recommend Adam’s Polishes, by the way. You can make good money by taking a structural & mechanically sound car and detailing the heck of out it! The consumer thinks… “If it shines, it must have been a well-taken care of car.” And well taken care of cars are worth more! This is where youtube shines! Learn how to “correct paint”. Adams Polishes has many videos on making a car look amazing! Trust me, you can take an ugly car, detail the heck out of it, improve the pictures, and make $750+_a car rather easily! A few of my favorite products: Get these products and start practicing on your own car! |
| TIP:I can not stress this enough. At the beginning, detail every car yourself! This will force you to become a better car inspector because you WILL discover things you MISSED during your initial inspection. So, detail them yourselves. Another tip, pay your kids to help you! Get them in on the action. Teach them to be entrepreneurs! |
4Don’t be overconfident: Keep the cockiness in check. The biggest danger to most car flipper is overconfidence. Never buy a car with money you can’t afford to lose. The GREAT THING about the car business is…. the car IS worth something! You won’t lose ALL your money on a car deal! You honestly can’t screw up too bad if you follow my steps (See #1 Above!). Advice: Still do your homework on every car. Don’t “think” you know until you KNOW YOU KNOW – then double check again as a margin of safety.
5 Be emotionless: This is huge. This is a big one. The best car guys are often the most unemotional. Here’s a hint: After I make a huge profit, I take a chill pill for the next couple days – especially in the beginning of your career. If you feel giddy or too eager to buy a car, that’s a clue to stop for a little while. Bring the emotions back in line. Emotions will get you into more trouble than you realize. Recognize when you are emotional and back off!
6Keep a diary: If you want to be an educated car guy, keep a trading diary. In this diary, you will write all of your mistakes and what you learned. This is also a great place to store to your car knowledge as you specialize.
7 Trade only one or two cars: You do not need to flip dozens of different cars – one day you can but for now, focus only on a couple cars you like and enjoy. Learn them inside and out. The trim lines, what colors they made in certain years, the options available, the pricing of each year, the model year changes, … become an EXPERT in THAT car. Then expand your knowledge and add more and more cars to your repertoire. Edmunds dot com is a great resource for product knowledge.
8 Never put all your eggs into one basket: This is real – do not put ALL your money into ONE car. Trust me on this one. I have been training car guys since 1997. I have tons of experience under this beard (in fact, that’s what you are mainly paying for when you join the Auto Dealer Academy). I have seen ALL the mistakes; multiple times. Some of my students will not follow all my advice/rules/recommendations because ‘they know better’ until they screw up by not following my rules. Then they call me to ask how to get themselves out of the mess! One mistake is putting all your money into ONE car. Now, that might be ALL the money you have – well, then be TWICE as thorough in your inspection like I teach here at the Auto Dealer Academy, be SURE to use a mechanic as a second set of eyes (worth every penny!), and get the car at a GREAT price with a margin of safety in case you have extra unexpected repairs or need to drop the price to sell it.
9 Walk: Your ultimate power is walking away from a deal. You can’t screw up if you walk. But, you can never make a profit if you aren’t willing to take a risk. If you feel your emotions building up within you, walk! You can always come back.
10You can do this: This business is learnable. It’s not “astro physics”. Plus… inventory is readily available & pricing is easy. Repair costs are well established. There is a ready market to buy and sell. You need an outstanding personality and good eyesight (I have made people go to the optometrist and get glasses while conducting training at dealer auctions! I am not even kidding you. They could NOT see what I was pointing out to them! They were blind and didn’t know it!). And, you need a bankroll to invest in your education and inventory. Plus… the willingness to lay that cash on the line with an educated ‘gamble’ on a car. When you make that first $1500 profit and you discover how easy that $1500 was to get, you will want to do it again and again. Rinse & repeat.
11 Let’s do a BONUS TIP. Be greedy when you BUY but DON’T be greedy when you sell! Take the profit and flip another car. You make more by flipping more cars, not by trying to squeeze every penny out of each deal. The “opportunity cost” is too great! Take the profit and flip another car. PLUS, you made a happy customer who can refer others!
| LAST:Since I began helping people get into the car business the past three decades, I have received hundreds of emails and phone calls from people telling me how my training has helped them create a brand-new career, afforded them the ability to finally invest for their retirement, saved their health (and, sometimes, literally saved their lives), kept their marriages intact (money tends to do that)… and… in various other ways… improved their lives immensely. So, maybe, just maybe, it will do the same for you as it has others. I am cheering for you! I want you to be a success.” |