Checking the seller before you go

Is this a real private seller? Check before you drive out.

Avturo reads the listing for title language that means trouble, checks the price against live comparable listings, pulls up the model's documented problems, and gives you the questions to ask this seller about the car's upkeep. Paste the ad below. Then read what an unlicensed dealer looks like from the outside, and why it matters.

Paste the ad here

The link or the full ad text. We check the price against live comparable listings, flag title wording that means a lien or a salvage or rebuilt brand, and give you the questions to ask this seller about the car's upkeep before you agree to meet.

Free to start. We keep your listing while you create your account.

What curbstoning is

A curbstoner is an unlicensed dealer posing as a private seller. The San Diego City Attorney's consumer notice describes them as people who buy and sell vehicles without a dealer's license, proper permits or an established place of business, and warns that their customers often end up with damaged, dangerous or uninsurable vehicles. California's DMV has run enforcement operations against them; NBC San Diego reported that curbstoners buy low-end cars from dealers, salvage yards and auctions and sell them on the street.

Why the license matters to you: under the Federal Trade Commission's Used Car Rule, a dealer who sells more than five used vehicles in twelve months must display a Buyers Guide on each car stating whether it comes with a warranty and on what terms. A curbstoner is selling at dealer volume with none of a dealer's obligations, and none of the recourse.

The signs in the ad and the messages

  • 1.The same seller, many cars. Search the phone number and a distinctive phrase from the ad across the platform and across Craigslist. A stream of cars over months from one number is a business.
  • 2."Selling for a friend" or "for my uncle". The person you are dealing with will not be the person on the title. Sometimes true; always a reason to see the title before you go.
  • 3.Parking lots only, never a home. A private owner usually has a home address and a reason for the meeting place. A seller who will only meet in a lot, and who arrives in the car with a second car following, is running a car business without a car lot.
  • 4.The title is not in their name. A title signed by a previous owner with the buyer line left blank is what title services call an open title. Legal Tags explains that it leaves ownership legally incomplete and can mean registration delays, tax problems, rejected paperwork and fraud concerns; Surety Solutions calls the practice title jumping and says it is illegal in every state.
  • 5.Cash only, no bill of sale, no questions. A private owner who bought the car three years ago can tell you where it was serviced. A flipper who bought it at auction three weeks ago cannot, and would rather you did not ask.

Three checks before you go

  • Ask for a photo of the front of the title. You want the owner's name, any word like salvage or rebuilt printed on it, and any bank or lender listed. Then ask whose name is on the ID they will bring. If the answers differ, you have your answer.
  • Run the VIN (the car's 17-character ID number): two free checks and one cheap one. NHTSA's recall lookup for open safety recalls, NICB VINCheck for theft and salvage or flood records, and the federal NMVTIS title check for title brands such as salvage or rebuilt and the last recorded odometer reading, through an approved provider for a small fee.
  • Read the words, not just the photos. Auction and salvage-yard cars are cleaned up for photos; the words are where the seller slips. Avturo checks the title wording for liens and brands, the price against comparable listings, and the model against its documented problems.

At the meet

  • ID against title, before the test drive. Same name, or no sale. A seller who is "helping a relative" can bring the relative.
  • Compare the VIN on the title, the dashboard plate and the door sticker. All three must agree.
  • Bill of sale with both names, the VIN, the price, the date and the mileage. The platform guides for Marketplace, Craigslist and OfferUp cover the safe way to pay.
  • Inspection first. An independent inspection is the one step a curbstoner's stock cannot survive, which is why they resist it.

What to do if you find one

Walk away, and consider reporting the ad to the platform and the seller to the agency that licenses car dealers in your state (often, but not always, the motor vehicle department). If you have already bought and the title cannot be transferred into your name, the title-service explainers above describe the paperwork routes; they vary by state, so start with your own motor vehicle office.

Frequently asked questions

What is curbstoning?▼

Selling used cars without a dealer license while posing as a private seller. The San Diego City Attorney's office describes curbstoners as people who buy and sell vehicles without a license, permits or a place of business, and says their customers often end up with damaged, dangerous or uninsurable vehicles. DMV investigators quoted by NBC San Diego say they often buy low-end cars from dealers, salvage yards and auctions.

What does it mean if the title is not in the seller's name?▼

That the person selling the car never put it in their own name, which title services call title jumping or an open title: the previous owner signed the title over and the buyer line was left blank. The explainers linked on this page say it is illegal in every state and that it leaves the buyer with registration delays, tax problems and possible fraud. The name on the title and the ID in front of you must match.

Can a real private seller have more than one car for sale?▼

Occasionally, for a family clearing out two cars. The curbstoner pattern is different: a steady stream of cars over months under the same phone number, meetings in parking lots rather than at a home, and titles that are never in the seller's name. One extra car is a question; a pattern is an answer.

What protections do I lose by buying from a curbstoner?▼

The ones that come with a licensed dealer. Under the Federal Trade Commission's Used Car Rule, dealers who sell more than five used vehicles in a year must post a Buyers Guide on each car disclosing whether it comes with a warranty and on what terms. A curbstoner posts nothing, and once the cash has changed hands there is usually nobody to find.

Next: how much to offer a private seller and what an accident on the history report means when the title is clean.