Selling a car in the UAE is not an easy job. You need to be sharp, careful and ready to make decisions very quickly. Although the used car market of the UAE is very impressive, but it is very challenging as well. The interested sellers always hear other people say that selling a car is very easy in the UAE. However in reality, this process is long, tedious, and very risky.
People tend to make some mistakes when they sell their car for the first time and these mistakes result in a monetary loss or a lack of buyers’ attention. Believe it or not, there are many common mistakes that you can easily avoid and increase the chances of a sale rapidly. Finding an interested buyer becomes much easier if you carefully plan everything and not make these common mistakes.
Here are 5 common mistakes that you can avoid while you are selling a car in the UAE.
Neglecting To Wash Your Car
There is a reason why you need to wash your car and make it look good. It is human psychology to buy things that look nice and clean. When you apply this to used cars, interested buyers will want to buy cars that look good, regardless of how old the car is. A clean car is a sign that the owner takes care of the car and is mindful of its appearance, while an unclean car depicts the opposite.
Before you take your car to an interested buyer, you should always make sure that the interior of the car is clean. You should take out every personal item from the car. You should check the storage compartments and take out everything kept there. A clean interior will smell better than stale chips and will definitely attract the buyer more.
You should also clean the exterior of the car. Wash it and make sure that you wax it to hide any imperfections. If you can’t wax your car on your own, you can always ask a professional to do it for you.
If you are pricing your car for a good amount of money, you should always consider detailing your car. This will make sure that you get the right attention for your car. A car that looks good and polished gets better attention than a car that looks run-down.
Approaching a Dealer Directly
One common mistake that almost everyone makes is going to a dealer directly. Although, you do get the choice to trade-in your car in for another one, this is not the ideal way to sell your car, especially if you want to make a profit on the sale of your car.
Also read: How SellAnyCar.com is the Smart Alternative to Trade-ins
This method will generally get you the least amount of money for your car. The dealers always try to convince you to trade-in your car for one of their own cars. The main reason why dealers prefer this method is that they try to maximise their profit by gaining the upper hand in one of the two transactions.
Simply put, they will either offer you a higher price for your used car and a little discount on the new car, or they will offer you a bigger discount on the new car and a lower price for your used car, thus making it “One Big Transaction” in which they maintain the upper hand.
You should always make sure that you separate the purchase of a car from the sale of your used car. Doing so will enable you to sell your used car at the best possible price while still being able to ask for a better discount on the purchase of your new car.
Also read: Lookout for Car Dealers While Buying a Used Car in Dubai
Selling Your Car via Online Classifieds
Another common mistake that people make is by selling their car via classified websites. Although, classified websites have many advantages, i.e. free advertisement, free website registration etc., it is still not advisable to sell your car via the classifieds. The risks associated with selling a car through online classifieds outweighs its benefits very easily.
To sell your car via an online classified, you will have to write an attractive ad, take high quality pictures of your car, leave your private number in the ad and be available 24/7 for the interested buyer. You get no guarantee that you will be able to find the right buyer. The classified websites don’t take any responsibility for the sale of the car as well. These websites facilitate seller and buyer in finding each other, but there is no check and balance in place to screen out a fraudulent buyer or seller.
They often have warnings for the sellers to be careful about where they meet the buyer, how they meet them and when they meet them. You will have to make sure that you don’t meet with the interested buyer alone, never meet them at night, never meet them at an isolated place and never invite them over to your residence.
Most important of all, online classifieds do not offer a secure way of payment and transfer of goods sold through their websites. These websites neither facilitate nor do they offer a secure method of payment to their users, hence they do not take any responsibility at all.
Also read: How to Sell Any Car Online in the UAE
Setting the Wrong Price
Setting the wrong price is one of the most frequently made mistakes when it comes to selling a car in the UAE. Usually people take the asking prices of the similar cars on the classified websites as a guide to set an asking price. Either that, or they go from dealership to dealership to set a price for their car.
Both of these methods are wrong. There are many factors that play a crucial role in setting a price for your car. You need to look at the make, model, year, condition, engine type and mileage to set a correct price of your car.
You can do that manually or you can take help from an online car value calculator. This is an interesting tool that makes setting a price of the car much easier. All you need to do is fill a small form that typically takes 30 seconds and it will give you a close to perfect estimate price of your car.
You don’t have to register, pay any fee or waste your time to be able to get a price for your car. It will literally take you no more than 30 seconds and you will have the right value for your car.
Also read: 20 Reasons why you save Real Money with SellAnyCar.com
Ignoring the Paperwork
This is yet another mistake that many people make. When you are selling your car, you need to make sure that you have the complete paperwork for your car. This means that you need to have the registration papers, warranty papers, insurance papers and maintenance record of your car with you (even though it’s not exactly paper work, but you will even have to take the extra keys of the car with you).
If you are selling your car privately, you need to have all of these papers with you before you actually meet with an interested party. Most commonly, people don’t have the maintenance record of their cars with them. They either lose it or they simply don’t keep up with the service schedule of their car.
If you don’t have the maintenance record, you can always get it from your mechanic who handled all the maintenance of your car. If you don’t have the maintenance record, the value of your car can go down drastically because you have no proof that you serviced your car on schedule.
Also read: All-Important Laws to Sell your Car in Dubai
Selecting Risky Payment Options
This is one of the most dangerous mistakes that people often make. When you are selling your car in the UAE, you need to make sure that you only take bank transfer. Taking cheques, cash or agreeing to receive payments in instalments is very risky.
We all have heard of horror stories linked with taking cheques. Taking cash or instalments is very risky and you should avoid them at all costs. You should only take bank transfer as a payment option because it is reliable and immediate.
Avoid These Hassles and Sell Your Car to Experts
If you want to avoid the above-mentioned mistakes and want to sell your car at a fair price, you should sell your car to a car buying expert like SellAnyCar.com. We will buy any car, in any condition and we will buy it in 30 minutes. We will even handle all the post-sale paperwork for you and transfer the payment of your car through a bank transfer.
To sell your car to us, you just have to use our free online car value calculator to get an estimate price of your car. If you like the estimated value, you can book an appointment with our car experts present at any of our nationwide branches who will physically examine your car and give you a final offer.
If you like our offer, we will buy your car and take care of the paperwork to make the process 100% hassle-free for you, and if you do not accept the offer, you do not pay us anything at all.
Planning to change your car? Don’t forget that with us you can sell your used car in just 30 minutes while all the post-sale paperwork is handled by SellAnyCar.com’s team.
