Opening a car lot... Any advice...??

Partnerships suck!! protect yourself in as many ways as you can!Do not think that the other guy will be honest. protect yourself ! I am recovering now from a partnership gone south with a up till now great friend of 9 years. protect yourself

 

***** My favorite movie of all time, its got it all, and OH Yeah, NO RED Cars....H ***** Good Luck

 

Joe, I had a wholesale/retail used car business from 1980-'86. The very first thing that you need to do is to contact the Wisconsin BMV and have them send you a copy of your state's Auto Dealer Handbook. I have no clue as to how the laws work in WI, but here in Ohio there are a bunch of rules and conditions you must follow to obtain a dealer's license. Such regs include the size of your lot, it's surface...DMV inspectors don't like mud or potholes that may gather water, physical separation from other businesses such as your buddy's bar proposal, office size and condition, minimum posted hours of operation, sign size plus a bunch more. Insurance wasn't required here in the early '80s, but it's something you'll need to consider. I don't mean to be discouraging but there's more to it than just paying for a dealer's license and opening your lot.

On the upside, if WI's laws work like Ohio's, you can run dealer tags on ALL your personal rides,they're super cheap and look cool...

Good luck!

Jan

 

Keep your hobby your hobby, trust me : )

It won't be easy or cheap to do this legally. You and your partner will fight. You will get tired of the tire kickers and aggravated by the buyers.

I guess I am a little confused at your intentions...
are you going to sell just project cars or also sell cars that are fixed up or are you going to buy cars to fix up and sell?

I hope you know the costs of minor restorations and parts these days...

I think the best advice I could give you is to:

(A) talk to someone already LEGALLY in the classic car business in Wisconsin like this guy: http://www.colinsclassicauto.com/ or this guy: http://www.valenticlassics.com/ about your states laws and the costs involved in being legal

(B) take this year to sell your 5 cars you are legally allowed to sell as an individual before setting up a "lot". Run these five cars thru like you are operating your proposed business; keeping track of expenses, doing the paperwork, etc etc. After locating, fixing and selling those five you might decide it is not such a good idea afterall.

Good luck!

 

sounds like something that would be a major pain in the ass to me. i did the impound auction scene for a few years and found out that when your curbstoning cars their is always some asshole out their to mess with you. being licenced and wanting the legit exposure would make the bullshit ten fold. i'll pass on that adventure.

 

All of the above is really good advise. Also remember to record all time spent working on the cars and charge your normal hourly rate against them as this is a real cost.

Keep in mind also that the time spent on the lot is time away from your welding business so the lot needs to be making enough money to cover this.

Also if you go ahead with what you are proposing you will need a secure fence or other security otherwise you will find midnight auto spares kicking in real fast.

When you go from flicking on a few cars as a hobby to buying and selling as a business it requires a whole differant mindset. You no longer are buying because you like the car but because you can see enough profit in it to make it viable. This also means your prices are going to have to go up considerably to cover costs plus give a fair profit.

I'm certainly not trying to discourage you but car dealing is one of those things that looks easy from the outside but isn't half the fun when you are doing it. The upside is that you can if you work at it hard and skillfully enough you can make very good money.

Re partnerships.......most do end in tears but what I have done with a couple of propety partnerships I've been involved in was both partners held 49% of the voting rights and either the companies lawyer or accountant holds 2% of the voting rights so has final say in a dispute. Also it is good to have a buyout clause in writing detailing how one can buy the other out if needs be.

If you do go for it good luck.

 

Thanks everyone... I'll take every bit of this into consideration.

For now, I'm just going to put a few of the cars I have there and let nature take it's course. If Jerry and I decide to make it grow, now, I have some things to look at.

I love old cars and wouldn't mind having a place, or venue, to sell what I find laying around. I'm not looking at even high dollar rides as much as fixer-uppers and project cars, so I won't be putting much in them before the sale.

We'll see...


JOE

 

I'd take all the 'partnership' advice here to heart.

My pop was making jam; renting space from a guy who made donut mix here in Seattle.

Things were all cool until my dad started making money, and the guy he was subletting from got all pissy and jealous. Because his business sucked, (which is why he had empty space to rent in the first place) he couldn't handle seeing anyone come in and have any success.

I'm not saying that'll happen to you; I sure as hell I DON'T want it to happen to you... I'm just saying that it has happened; it's a possible outcome of success.

And I'd make sure I had insurance from day one. If you're set up as a business, and someone slips on a bananna peel in your parking lot... bingo! They won the insurance lottery! Unless you're not insured correctly; then they just have to settle for your house.

That's why I don't work on anyone else's car anymore. I own too much equity in my real estate.

Not trying to be a wet blanket; just want to say: "CYA baby!"

-bill

 

I'd probably rent a tractor and drill 4 foot holes for 6 foot x 4" pipes, cement them in, and then run chain between them. Get a couple shipping containers to hold the good stuff. Then put up a chain link fence outside those posts.