In Frankston the weekend gear is part of what you are selling.
A car that gets loaded up at the end of the working week collects things, and almost none of it is written down anywhere.
So we go through it with you before an offer is made, object by object, and whatever is staying gets paid for.
- Or bring it to Thomastown
- Australia wide
- Finance settled directly
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The Friday load
Every one of those things is a decision somebody has to make
This is not a list of faults. It is a list of objects, and a straight answer about each one, which is a conversation most sellers never get offered.
Frankston is a commuter town, the end of the train line, and the last big centre before the road south. A car here can be doing both of those jobs at once. The station and the school through the week, then on Friday the bars go on the roof, the rack goes on the back, the boot gets filled and the whole lot goes away until Sunday. Do that for a few years and a car quietly collects a list of objects. A tow bar fitted for a boat. A bike rack from a phase the kids have grown out of. A second set of mats, a cover that has not been in the boot since the first camping trip, and a spare key that ended up on somebody else's keyring.
None of that is on the registration papers and none of it is in a price worked out from the kerb. Every piece of it is in one of three states. It is coming with the car. It is staying with you. Or it belongs to somebody else and nobody has said so out loud yet, which is more common than people expect in a house where two people drive the same car. If yours happens to be a Model Y, those same objects come up on the page for that car, where they sit beside the other half of the story, which is what a family actually does to the back of one.
So we ask, and we ask on the phone rather than in your driveway. What is staying with the car is priced as part of the car. What is coming off comes off while there is still a conversation to have, instead of on handover day with everybody standing around waiting for somebody to raise it. Nobody minds a rack going onto your next car. The thing that costs you is nobody asking at all.
Object by object
What we ask about a car that gets loaded
Five questions, and not one of them is about the state of anything. Each is a decision, and somebody in the house has usually half made it already.
- Is the tow bar staying on the car, and where is the ball?
- The bar stays bolted on, and the ball usually lives in a drawer in the house with the lock and its key. Tell us whether all of it is in the sale. A bar with nothing to put in it is worth less than the set, and the set is easy to price once somebody has actually gone and looked.
- Are the roof bars and the rack yours to sell?
- Plenty of them were borrowed off a neighbour, handed down, or bought for a car that has been gone for years. If they are yours and they are staying, they go in. If they belong to somebody else, say so early and take them off, because a set of bars that has to be handed back later is a set that was priced as part of the car.
- Where is the second key, and whose keyring is it on?
- In a house where two people drive one car, one key does the commute and the other lives in a work bag, a kitchen drawer or somebody's glovebox. Both of them are part of what we are buying. If one is genuinely gone, that is fine, and it is far better said now than discovered at handover.
- What came out of the car to make room, and did it go back in?
- The cargo cover, the boot floor divider, the headrests from the back row, the good mats that were swapped for a cheap set one summer. All of it belongs to the car and most of it is in the garage. Gather it before the visit and it is counted. Left on a shelf, it is simply not in the sale.
- Is any of it going onto whatever replaces this car?
- The rack, the bars, the ball, the charging lead that lives in the other car. Keeping any of it is completely normal and nobody is going to argue. The only thing that matters is that we hear it before the number is agreed rather than after, because a car that turns up missing something it was priced with has to be priced again.
The appointment
Three things that hold once the list is settled
- What stays with the car is paid for. Anything you tell us is staying is priced as part of the car rather than assumed to be thrown in with it. That is the whole reason for the questions above.
- It fits around the working week. The inspector comes to your home or your work, takes the battery reading in front of you, and goes through the list with you while they are standing there.
- Money still owing is our paperwork. Say it on the first call. The payout goes straight to your financier, a novated lease included, and if the car is worth less than the balance you see that shortfall written down before you sign anything.
We work out of 374 Settlement Rd, Thomastown VIC 3074. The inspector comes to you, and if you would rather bring the car to us instead, you are welcome to.
Before the visit
Three that come up at this point
Half of what is on the car was bought by somebody else in the house. Does that matter?
Only in the sense that we would rather know who is deciding. Say what is coming with it and what is going back to whoever bought it, and the offer will describe what is actually leaving with the car. A rack coming off is not a problem. A rack coming off after the number was agreed is a new conversation.
Is a tow bar worth anything to you, or does it put you off?
It is worth something, and it is priced as part of the car the same way a set of bars or a decent liner is. What we ask alongside it is whether the wiring went in at the same time, because that is the part people forget is there and it is the part that is fiddly to add later.
The second key has been missing for years. What does that cost me?
There is a cost, because replacing one is a real bill for whoever owns the car next, and it is a smaller cost known in advance than discovered on handover day. Before you write it off, have a proper look. Keys turn up in a coat nobody has worn for a while.
Settle the list before the number, and none of it goes for free.
Or call us on 03 9000 0075 and talk it through first.