Question from buyers perspective: (yup, I will be buying BajaFresh's boat!) How am I protected from the seller taking my money and NOT paying off the boat loan? I would end up with posession of the boat, but not have title in hand.

I have no reason to distrust the seller, but we must protect ourselves. Thanks for the info, it's all been great.

Get a Bank check made out to Citizens against smog horror (CASH) and send it to Bill Hionas in Florida. A smooth transaction will follow

Hey Dan,

I like Rainmn's post. Let's try to work that out tomorrow, pre-setup of wired funds transfer. Maybe full amount to G.E. and they can just send me a check for the difference. I'll call G.E. in the morning and see what they think.

Now we just have to find a meeting place. You sure you don't want to drive down here for the Havasu poker run?

-Al

I think that would be the best option, I just got a similar suggestion from a friend.

The poker run sounds like a blast, but I don't think I'd ever want to go back to the rain in the NW!

I went to the my bank with the buyer 'early afternoon' with boat in tow
made sure he had insurance coverage allready in effect for his benafit. My bank allowed him to call his and do a wire transfer, then my bank gave us the lean release and allowed us to finish the transaction right there. being well prepaired he had temp trailer tags too.

Sorry to hijack the thread, I have a question...If a wire transfer or certified funds goes into the sellers account. Does the seller need to pay tax on the amount deposited?

No, only sales tax needs to be paid and it will be paid by the buyer when he regesters the boat in his state. If his sate has sales tax.
I supose if the seller made a profit on the sale he should claim the profit on his income tax and then it would probubly be taxed as capital gain tax and not income tax. But I doubt the seller made $$ on the sale.

Does'nt the bank report deposits of more than $10K? I hate to sound dumb but how do you prove no profit was made on a sale when tax time comes?

Banks supposedly report anything over $5K. I have documents showing what I paid for the boat and will have bill of sale showing what I sold it for. The IRS can kiss my Azz!

I just recently sold a motorcycle. The buyer brought a certified bank check from a major bank. My bank still would not release the title because they said there is so much fraud and it still takes time for the check to clear.

The only way that they would release the title at that time is if the buyer payed with cash. We took the check to a local branch of his bank and they made a few phone calls and gave the guy the money. We returned to my bank and payed off the loan and got the lean released.

Cordell