what's the best way to secure a transaction.

[SP01715]

I would take a flight and do it in person. I sold a boat a few years ago, and the buyer wired 50k to my account the same day we had a conversation on the phone and agreed on a price. He then wired an additional 150k to my account before the boat left my house. This guy was over 3000 miles away and had only seen the boat online. We had a couple mutual friends that knew the boat, but this guy was extremely trusting in wiring me 200k while I still had the boat in my possession. After I recieved the funds the boat was picked up by a transport company. I never would have done what this guy did, but the economy was booming and I had buyers lined up. He did not want to miss out on the purchase.

The next boat I sold the guy met me at my bank and I had the boat on the trailer with me. We did the payoff and title transfer right there and he left with the boat. This is the way I would have done the deal if I was a a buyer.

I bought a vehicle from a kid (20 years old) a couple years ago and had a bad experience. I met him at his house and paid off his bank via telephone from his house. I left with the vehicle, but the bank would not mail the title to me directly. They would only send the title to the guy I bought it from, and then he would have to transfer it to me. Well I had a heck of a time trying to get ahold of this guy, and by the time I did (about three months later) the title had been sent to the DMV and destroyed. I had to go down to the DMV with a signed release from this guy (who was now afraid to meet me in person because I wanted to kick his ass) and spend three hours waiting to pay for a duplicate.

Lesson learned from that last purchase. I will do the deal at the bank and take the title right there. My.02