I'm preparing to unload the '03 Focus. Now, here's what confuses me. Say I set the reserve (ebay) to $14,000. If I owe $3,000 more than that, how do we go about this? I realize I am responsible for paying that $3,000 out of pocket, but what concerns me is how long until I have a free title I can transfer over o the new owner? If anyone has any advice to offer, I could sure use it. Thanks in advance.

don't know much about this but when i paid off my car, they handed me the title right then and there at Rusty Wallis Honda.

you have to get the money. then pay off the car. then wait around a month to get the title. then you hand the title to the new owner.
they don't like to wait but when i did it once they handed me the cashiers check i gave them the truck. took the insurance off of it and gave them the title once i recieved it.

You should be able to go to the Bank or Finance co. that is holding the title and pay the car off, and recieve the title right away, altho I did find out that alot of lending co. don't archive the titles because of storage space, but keep them in copy form, so you would have to wait untill they could print it, I went through this same thing, and had to wait about 3-4 days. It all depends on whether they have the phisical title or just the file, it still has to go through the state dmv records , to take off the lein holders

it took me a month to get mine but im sure that was too long. it shouldn't take more than 2 weeks.

Hmm, dunno if the previous advice is making sense... You'll have to sell the car with a "lean" title. Meaning that you're going to sell the car to somebody, but they don't really own it totally, because your bank is still into it for X amount of dollars. Its a slim market for somebody to buy a car like that.

K

I dont know about where you live, but here you would have to pay the car off. Then the lending institution would give you a lien release on the spot. This is nothing more than a paper saying that the loan has been paid in full. You give that and the title to the new owner. I never heard of lending institutions holding the title. New York state sends the owner the vehicle title in the mail a few weeks after you buy it. Here you could pay it off and sell the same day if it was financed at a local bank.

I dunno, this doesn't make sense, but maybe it's because things are different here in Canada. If we had a car loan the bank or loan company doesn't physically hold the title because there isn't one. In order to insure your car, you must have ownership of the car and they keep track of that through the VIN# and your bill of sale.
I'm not sure what they do if you buy a vehicle with liens against it. If the person selling the car is purchasing a new car, usually the bank or loan company will take what is owed on the old car loan and tack it onto the new one. I think that's why most people don't buy stuff that has a lien against it...up here, if something has a lien against it, it usually means that the seller has defaulted on the bill so the bank or whoever the seller owes the money to will put a lien on it. If the buyer is willing to pay off the money owed on the lien then the car is theirs, otherwise, no sale. It then becomes the buyer's job to try to get the money from the person that owes it (who was probably the one selling the car--thus BUYER BEWARE). And the person that buys it can have the insurance company do a search for any liens or holds before they even buy it, all they need is the VIN#.
That's not to say that that's your situation Carbed, that's just the way it is here.
But I still don't understand why you would sell the car for less than what you owe? Has it depreciated that much? If I were you, I'd try to refinance the $3000 as a personal loan, (call it a consolidation loan if you like) so that you can pay the car loan off, (once you get the buyer's money) and give a clear title to the buyer. Or if you have the money on hand, (which most of us don't) give a lump sum payment (which will bring your interest owed down a bit--in the long run) and it's a done deal. Besides, it's a lot better to owe $3000 on a personal loan that $17000 on a car loan because even with the interest being lower, you'll end up paying more over the long run.
Just my take on it....as I said, things are different here in the Great White North.
Hey, did I mention that spring is here? Snow is melting (mostly gone, here in the city), temps are getting up into the double digits....going to 13C today. YAHOOOO!!

Chickie.

Here in Ontario, when you are selling a car, you have to buy a $20 package from the Government (another tax grab), that states any liens against a car. It is mandetory. The one thing that is good for is that the buyer is aware of any liens. Then they can decide of its worth their while to take that risk.

Also, most banks won't let you sell a car that has a lien. If you do, the loan becomes due.

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Get with your finance people, they can give you a signature loan or go to your local bank/credit union and get a loan. Take what you receive from the person that buys the car and the loan check and pay the car off. Upside down payoffs are common in the states.
Once paid off, you should be able to get the title quickly. Check with Ohio DMV.
Dutch

Thanks for all the advice! I'm going to call the bank in the morning, to ask what the procedure there is. I'll keep everyone posted.