What to say to buyers

What is your best price?

Usually the first message, often before a single question about the vehicle. Write it in the call logwe have this one and by day three you will still know who said what.

It is a test of whether the price moves, asked before anybody has invested anything.

Do not negotiate against yourself. Restate the asking price. Say you will consider offers from somebody who has seen it. Leave the number where it is.

A discount given by message is spent before the buyer arrives — and the haggling starts again from the lower figure.

The lowball

A long way under the asking price, from somebody who has not seen it.

That is a volume tactic, sent to many listings at once.

It is not an insult and it rarely deserves a long reply.

A short no with the price restated works. So does ignoring it.

What does not work is explaining at length why it is worth more. That reads as negotiating and invites a counter.

Can I come right now?

Sometimes genuine. Sometimes a way to get you to skip what you would normally do — meeting somewhere public, having somebody with you, having the paperwork ready.

A buyer who cannot meet at a time you chose is telling you something.

Comfortable? Go ahead. Not comfortable? Offer a different time and see what happens.

Will you hold it for me?

Holding it means taking it off the market for somebody who has paid nothing.

It costs you the newest, most visible days of the listing.

It is also the request most often followed by silence.

The version that carries weight is a deposit with the terms written down. How much, how long it holds, and what happens to the money if the sale does not go ahead.

Written down before the money moves. Not after.

The questions worth answering

Real buyers ask about service history, accidents, why you are selling, how long you have owned it, and whether there is a lien.

Answer those plainly, and in writing.

Say the same thing in the listing, in your messages and on the disclosure sheet.

The seller who is consistent across all three is the one whose price holds.

The sheets behind the conversations

The call log puts every inquiry in one place with the six questions printed on it, and the offer and deposit sheet turns will you hold it into something written down. Free, no account.