Online House Hunting

What do I do if I bought a used car from the owner and never switched the title and want to sell it?

I bought an older car from a lady a couple months ago and haven't had the chance to get the title switched.. She wrote "Bill of sale" to me and everything. The transmission started slipping so I stopped driving it for a while. Someone is now interested in buying the car but I don't know what I'm supposed to do if I never put the car title under my name. Do I just write another bill of sale to the new guy? I'm in Washington STATE by the way.

Public Comments

1. umm get that title right away you cant proove who owns the car unless you have the title never buy a car without the owner having the title in hand signed
2. hahah well you can sell it to him and have him just change the title to his name and just skip yours. or you can just not give him a title. but your stupid for not getting the title in your name and she is stupid for not making sure it went into your name.
3. Depends on whats on the back of the title. If she wrote in your name, you will HAVE to get it put in your name in order to sell it. If she left it blank, explain to the person you are selling it to what happened, write her a bill of sale and FILL IN her name, the date and the mileage on the back of the title. If the seller signed it great, If not, you might want to consider either signing it for her or taking it back to her to get it signed before you sell it. Most buyers are not going to want to pay you untill you have a clear title. And if you register it tommorow, it could take weeks before you have that.
4. You should transfer the title first into your name. But if you never signed the title as buyer just have the new person sign it as buyer as if he is buying it from the lady. This might raise a red flag for the buyer since your name isn't the one on the title. All it takes is 30 minutes at the DMV, after a couple of months I think you could find the time. After all it is cash in your pocket.