Metzler

When buying a new car, trading in your old one is a quick and easy solution. Of course, you won't get as much money compared to selling it yourself. If the vehicle isn't too old and banged up, the difference could be in the $1,000 to $3,000 range.

But selling it yourself also comes with a price. Many people don't relish the prospect of having to interact with complete strangers. What if someone "undesirable" comes to your home to look at the car? What if your ad leads to some weird phone calls in the middle of the night?

In addition to the security factors, there are con artists out there who'd love to relieve you of your car, but at no cost to themselves. So, while a private party sale will likely save you some significant cash, there are some important issues to bear in mind.

I'm not trying to discourage you from selling your car on your own. Literally thousands of such transactions occur every day without a hitch. But being aware of the rare pitfalls out there will help you avoid them.

First of all, don't have prospective buyers come to your home to look at the car. Meet them at a very public location such as the local supermarket or mall. There's just no reason people need to know your address until you trust them.

Second, whether you're a male or a female, bring someone with you ... a burly, rugged looking type would be ideal if you've got one of those around. They point is, someone with potential ulterior motives may have second thoughts when outnumbered.

Next, don't accept any personal checks. This probably seems obvious enough, but some people still get charmed into it by a gifted con man.

And related to this, don't take a certified check or a guaranteed check either until you contact the issuing bank to verify it. You see, they're not always as good as cash. Some banks actually allow these checks to be stopped. So, while your car buyer is driving away with your car, he's also on his cell phone putting a stop on the check. Before accepting the check, call the bank to make sure a stop order can not be placed on it. If so, tell the buyer to get one that cannot be stopped.

You'll need to watch out for counterfeit guaranteed checks as well. There's darn good ones out there ... so good that you may not find out until your bank tries to collect on it 1 to 3 days later.

This actually, happened to a friend of a friend two years ago. The check was so authentic that his bank deposited it without a question. Three days later his bank called him with the bad news. As an aside, luckily his vehicle was found by U.S. Customs waiting to be shipped overseas.

Again, the sad truth is that you must call the issuing bank and give them the check number so they can verify its authenticity.

Some con men may attempt to scam you out of even more money by giving you a guaranteed check for more than the price of the vehicle. They then ask you to refund the excess. This scam is particularly prevalent on the internet where there is an out-of-state buyer who says they've made a mistake so please just wire transfer the surplus back to them. Again, verify, verify, verify.

Another scam involves phony escrow accounts. A buyer may want his payment held in escrow until the transfer is complete. This is not too unusual a request from a buyer and is done all the time in real estate. It's just less common in cars. The important thing is that you should be the one who selects the escrow company.

What you don't want to have happen is to get a confirmation from an escrow company that the money is there, only to find out later that both the company and the confirmation were phony.

Now, I've probably made you paranoid. The fact is, however, that the odds are overwhelmingly in your favor for completing a problem-free, by-owner transaction, and saving a lot of money over trading it in to a Dealer. Just by being mindful that there are a few rotten apples out there, and what they may be up to, you're just about guaranteed a smooth transaction.

Joshua Rose is an Auto Broker at Auto-Broker-Magic.com and buys cars for people as their representive at Dealer-Only auctions. He also advises car buyers how they can do this themselves at Open-To-The-Public Car Auctions.