dandelos

Hi guys, in the process of buying a used MB from a private party and I could use some advice/opinions. Here are the facts thus far --

-we've agreed on the purchase price
-car is still in her hands
-there is/was a lien on the car that the seller claimed to have paid off (MB Financial) after she received my good-faith deposit
-she told me that it will take a week for the California DMV to send her the title
-it's been a little over a week and apparently she hasn't received it yet
-I've started running AutoCheck on the car everyday for the last 3 days to see if there has been any change on the car's lien status, but no change yet

So here are my questions --
-Do you guys see any red flags so far, and is there anything for me to be worried about?
-Re AutoCheck, would the seller paying off MB Financial be reflected there, and if so how long does it take?
-How long does Cali DMV take to send out titles in these cases? Does length vary depending on the lien holder (e.g. would it make a difference if MB Financial were notifying DMV, vs BMW Financial?)?
-Assuming the title does eventually comes in, it's already been 1.5 weeks since we agreed on the purchase, and even longer since I saw the car and had a mechanic inspect it -- during the handover should I have a mechanic inspect it again? I'm thinking a lot can happen to a car in 1.5 weeks....

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

wally AMG

That's happend... Title take about 15 to 20 days after DMV receive the info... Nothing the seller can do... also depend how fast MB financial make this process.... if they took 10 days for this process + 15 to 20 days DMV = around 30 days... one week was very unrealistic!! ask her for a copy of loan status from MB financial, should say "pay off" then she can fax this info to you...

RichardM98

DMV does not send a title just because a lien has been paid off. Owner needs to request the title and pay a small fee (used to be about $8). You can do that at the DMV or AAA. Once that's done the paper title arrives in about 5-7 business days. At least that was my personal experience a while back. I'm guessing the fee has gone up but what hasn't.

No I don't see any red flags. Just a little extra hassle. If you feel it's a good deal then hang in there.

Good luck.

NY C32

As others stated, nothing appears to be out of the ordinary. There are a couple things she can do: 1) request a copy of the lien release from MB financial or 2) she can print out her payment history to show that she has a zero balance. If she does that, at least you can have some relief that she used the funds as pormised. The only bad this is that after 5 days of a zero balance, the account is closed and online access is gone.

I hope you got a receipt or a written agreement as proof of the transfer of funds.

dandelos

Well to update everyone, the owner finally received her title (apparently it was a paper title being held out of state), and we completed the transfer over the weekend. The car is just awesome!

Thanks for all your inputs!