Flipping High End Cars

[Desdinova]

I have been doing some of this on the side. I've never flipped any real high end cars, mostly just rare & high demand things I find online that I know I can turn for a decent profit.

I do this as well. If I can grab something for free that I can resell for even $20, I'll do it. I recently bought an old gramophone for $15 at a garage sale. It needed a crank, so I made one up, spending a total of $2 in parts. It sold for $100.

North America is one of the most wasteful places in the world. People will throw away stuff, give it away, or sell it for next-to-nothing. People like me pick it up and make money on their stupidity and wastefulness.

 

[BeTheChange]

I think people need to be very wary of any strategy that involves buying, holding/modifying, and then selling for a profit because a lot of people don't factor in the time value of money.

If you buy a car for $10,000 and sell for $12,000 but spend 100 hours on it in terms of research, fixing it up, finding another seller, etc, then that's only $20 an hour you're being "paid".

A good proxy for what your time is worth is to take what you make a year, half it and then divide it by a thousand.

So if you make $50,000 a year your time is essentially worth $25 an hour.

 

[PrettyBoyAJ]

What type of Porsches did you flip HeadLights?

It would be nice if I could get a nice 120-130k Ferrari, drive it for a couple months then sell it for a profit. But I'm guessing thats unrealistic because not too many people can afford a Ferrari. I'd even go lower and get a nice 70-80k Maserati. But then again I travel so much for work that it wouldn't even make too much sense to have such an expensive car.

This is strictly a side hustle just to get a little bit more coins in my pocket and just to drive around with a plethora of different vehicles I like. I'm not even concerned on making too much money. I have my own business popping and have work lined up for several years. I just don't want to LOSE money.

 

[HeadLightsOn]

What type of Porsches did you flip HeadLights?

Always 911 models. Non turbo. Net profit around 30%. Just factor in that you may get stuck with one for a while. Apart from that it's a good little side earner. Obviously buy right and make sure they are clean, non damaged models. I usually do a cut and polish, tyres, full groom incl interior etc. I only spend apx 5% on do up costs.

 

[Desdinova]

I would love to get into flipping cars, but the problem is with the province I live in. There's way too many hoops you need to jump through in order to get the car up to the regulations here for re-selling. It's just not worth the minimal profit you *may* make from it. That's why a lot of guys here are either into restoring or modding their vehicles. That's where all the decent but not passable cars go. The guy who bought my old truck had an identical one to mine that he pimped the 5hit out of. It was really nice, but I can't help wondering how much money he poured into it. I knew he was going to do the same thing with the one I sold him.

For me, the money is in re-selling vintage items, band equipment, or higher-end furniture. I can get that 5hit for nothing or next-to-nothing, do minimum work on it, and make a good $50-$100 at a time. If I sell 10 items, that's $1000 of easy money in my pocket. Vehicles (at least in my province) eat too much money and time to get them road-worthy due to all the regulations.

 

[PrettyBoyAJ]

Bump. Now I'm not traveling as much and looking into this seriously. Any tips or experiences?

Looking at Corvettes, Maserati etc. what I want to do is buy the car for a great deal. Drive it for a little bit (couple months) and then sell it for a little profit.

Also I'm in Georgia

 

[Chev.Chelios]

Subaru is my bread and butter, made 5k last August by turning over just 3 of them with little work involved.

 

[PrettyBoyAJ]

That's wasup. Anyone have experience with corvettes? Thinking about buying one. Riding it sparringly for a couple months to a year then selling it.

I like the Stingrays a lot.

 

[PrettyBoyAJ]

Bump. I'm still in the price of looking.

 

[synergy1]

Subaru is my bread and butter, made 5k last August by turning over just 3 of them with little work involved.

I love my suby. Have owned it for 10+ years now.

What models do you flip? Do you do some simple mods to the wrx and make it closer to an sti? I don't know the first thing about flipping cars!

 

[shesabranchswinger]

I'm aware of that. If I plan on selling a lot and like it I will just get a dealer license. No big deal.

It is a big deal because it cuts into your profit margins and your taxed on it so then you would have to sell x amount of cars just to make a profit.

I use to buy classic cars and fix them up and flip them but it was only 4 or so a year. More of a passion but good returns. As far as newer higher end cars unless you know them well it could be a money trap you get stuck in. For example you might drop 80k on a used lamborghini that you think you could flip for 90k. But there could be unseen by you mechanical issues that cost 15k now you have two options fix it and sell it for a 5k loss or keep it and get your 5k worth of stupid plates who want to drive around in a lamborghini. Keep in mind an oil change for a lamborghini can cost $650

 

[shesabranchswinger]

I've done a few luxury flips (Porsche) and have done well out of them. Lower mileage, full service history, non import. Those have been the best for me. Smaller market as a lot of people don't have 120-150k to drop on a car. I do one at a time so that if I don't sell it straight away, I drive it as my main ride (shorter mileage driving).

Houses is where I've had real success. But that's a different gig altogether.

Yup I miss my rs gt3 was a good flip.

 

[PrettyBoyAJ]

It is a big deal because it cuts into your profit margins and your taxed on it so then you would have to sell x amount of cars just to make a profit.

I use to buy classic cars and fix them up and flip them but it was only 4 or so a year. More of a passion but good returns. As far as newer higher end cars unless you know them well it could be a money trap you get stuck in. For example you might drop 80k on a used lamborghini that you think you could flip for 90k. But there could be unseen by you mechanical issues that cost 15k now you have two options fix it and sell it for a 5k loss or keep it and get your 5k worth of stupid plates who want to drive around in a lamborghini. Keep in mind an oil change for a lamborghini can cost $650

Thanks for your advice. It's very helpful. When I created this topic I was thinking of high end cars like that. Now I'm thinking of the lines of 30-60k car. Corvette, Ghibli, Hellcat, etc.

I'd probably only do it a couple times a year so I can drive a nice car basically without paying too much for it. I do know cars are depreciating expenses and don't want to throw too much money into it but at the same time I love cars. I'm a car guy.

 

[TheSplat]

Question for you guys about flipping cars.

I'm stationed overseas and can get import cars tax free. Tax in Germany is 19%. But the cost for high end cars is significantly cheaper than in the US.

Is it possible to custom build a new car over here (Porsche 911?), drive it from dealer to my house, ship it to the US, and sell it to a dealership/person for KBB value? That math works, right? The state would be FL. Thanks guys!

 

[PrettyBoyAJ]

^ if that works out I'll buy some cars of you bro.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Do your research on whatever you import. Ideally there would be a waiting list here, or your car would have features not available here, making it easy to sell.

 

[TheSplat]

^ if that works out I'll buy some cars of you bro.

OK, let's price it out. What are you looking for?