How to buy a used car from someone who is leasing it?

[Chupa Chupa]

[quote pinkoos][quote Chupa Chupa]It's not all that complicated, just the usual lease paperwork. If you want the car and the lease terms are OK for you it's worth persuing.
So, basically our only option *is* to take over the lease? We can't just buy it outright (ie, terminate the lease and pay off the car)?

Or, I guess the seller can use the money we give her to pay off the lease in full and then transfer the title from Honda to us?

This is all speculation until we get a chance to find out from the seller what exactly she was planning on doing.
It would depend on what the lease says, but usually you can only buy it at the end of the lease, not during. The finance co wants to make there $$ on the lease first.

[M A V I C]

A friend of mine just did this. You pretty much don't deal with the person who is leasing the car (the lessee.) Call up the leasing company and talk to them. They will tell you all of the hoops they want you to jump through to buy the car.

There is a purchase price for the car as described in the lease. Then there's any early lease termination fees, if applicable. You want the price from them.

I don't see what the problem is with you in Houston and the car in Austin. My friend just did this with a car in LA and he lives in Toronto.

Btw, I really hope you're taking out a loan for this.

[Mac1337]

The leases I have seen no one, including the leasee, can just "payoff" the car before its time. Someone has to either assume the lease(in itself a question mark) or wait for the end of the lease. I assume you have looked at lease trading sites.

[threeprong]

Purely speculating/ postulating here....

Ummm, the thing is, the leasing company has not yet made their money... and the price it would take for them to sell you the car would seem to be roughly the balance of the lease. ( maybe more for hassle?)

Why let a leased vehicle be sold when they can just let it remain leased and make the money they had planned on.

I'll be very interested to hear if you pull this off and it was a good deal.

Good luck with it,

3P

[Buzz]

the current lessee can get the payoff amount. depending on when the lease originated, and current market conditions, the leasing company may well be willing to take a discounted payoff to not be burdened w/ the hassle of remarketing the car. typically w/in major leasing companies their are separate departments/divisions for originating the lease, servicing and maintaining the lease, and reacquiring and remarketing vehicles at the end of the lease. the last phase usually kicks in about sixty days before the scheduled end of lease, sometimes a bit more, maybe the first of the month that the sixty days would start to run from. So, the best time to contact the leasing company is three to five or six months before the end of the lease, because you want to deal with the servicing and maintaining folks to buy the car. that's where you're going to get the best deal. As leases end, the remarketing guys want the books to be in there favor; if it's a rough market for your particular model, you will find a huge fix up bill comes your way after their inspection. You can always fix the things they require yourself, but then the car will be reinspected, and you'll find stuff still owing. A popular car w/ high resale may catch you a bit of break, but if you're dealing with remarketing, the odds of getting a sweetheart deal are slim, unless you know, or are related to someone in the company. Deal w/ the middle guys a few months before the termination date, they have their payoff figures, and their book value of the car in front of them. Their book value is gonna be the lower figure. Your goal is to get them to sell you the car as close to that figure as possible, and waive all the bulls*!t fees associated with leases. Also, you want them to cooperate with your sale, so the car is transferred directly to the new buyer to avoid having to pay double title transfer fees, which are only avoidable if you are a registered car dealer (or exempt entity; government, municipal transit, etc). If the sale value of car is in excess of the negotiated payoff, the difference ("extra") should go to the lessee, and that's between you and them. The flip side, as you've seen is to take over the lease, and then buy the car from the leasing company. Paying "extra" to the current lessee may be warranted. Good luck...

[pinkoos]

Thanks for the additional replies. I think we're probably going to stay away from this one, even if it is legit. Just seems like a bit too much effort. We may, though, try to find out more info from the seller just to see how she was planning on doing the transaction. If I find out any more info, I'll post an update here.

Thanks again!

[pinkoos]

We passed on this offer. We had some add'l questions for the seller, but she said she had already sold it.