Selling out of state

[pdedse]

January 2024, I sold my 2023 Moto Guzzi V7-850 to a fellow member of the Wild Guzzi forum, on which we both had longevity.  If I recall correctly he was in Washington State.  He mailed me a check, which I deposited, then sent him a scan of the title signed over to him and a bill of sale.  He contacted a shipping company to pick up the bike and signed papers.  That was my only out of state M/C sale. 

Normally I traded bikes, to avoid private seller hassles, but I thought I was retiring from riding then.

When my eye issues ended (temporarily) my riding in 2018, I sold my 2014 CB1100 back to the dealer, at a loss, but it was purchased at a significant out-of-the crate discontinued model discount November 2017.

Back to your situation, pdedse, using a bank of your choice sounds well protected.  Who pays the escrow fees?

It all turned out well because the buyer from Nevada ended up placing a lot of trust in me.  I mean, I know I'm trustworthy and would follow through, but he didn't.  We used facetime to have a long conversation, well his wife did most of the talking because he's nearly deaf and relied on facetime's subtitle capabilities.  We talked about him driving up hear (9 hours), meeting half-way, me driving down there for a fee...in the end we realized neither of us wanted to do much driving.  

We found an escrow company that handles vehicles, but they charge $200 and it's either split or negotiated.  But then after "vetting" each other as much as we could with more conversations and texts, he decided he'd send me the money and once it cleared the bank--a wire transfer--only then would I send him the title, bill of sale and keys, which I've done.  My bank assured me that once they clear a wire transfer, that money is as good as cash and there is no way it can be retrieved or reversed.  To be on the safe side, I created a new account with my bank, the money was received, and then I transferred the money to another account. I double checked with my bank, and they re-confirmed the wire and that the money was mine, no issues.  Even after all that, his shipping company doesn't pick up the bike until the end of this week, or beginning of next.   

So either they are among the world's best 75 year old actors and the scam is still to come, or maybe I'm the 62 year old scammer taking advantage of pour souls in NV...or it's two people who still believe.