Selling a motorcycle, couple logistical questions.

[Great-Kazoo]

No Notary. if there's a bank note on it then yes meet at bank. Payoff your note, buyer gets title, they go to DMV. keep plate and any other items you're not including with sale. There's a section on the title you sign, fairly self explanatory

[ChadAmberg]

Bill of sale is nice, mostly for you to say "THIS IS AN AS-IS SALE" so no coming back a week later when he ran it into a curb trying for money back and pissing and moaning.

Once you get acceptable form of payment in your hands, you then sign the back of the title, being careful to do it in the right spots for date, signature, and printed. Then they sign it, don't let them jump titles. Take a pic of the front and back. Take off the plates, throw them the keys, have a nice day. If they buy between 9am and 5pm, they're supposed to come with paper temp tags to drive away, but if it's after 5pm, the bill of sale lets them drive it home. Pretty crazy huh...

The key with motorcycles is, the test ride. Buyers want to do it, sellers shouldn't allow it. If someone has a motorcycle endorsement on their license already, then maybe I'd let them sit on it and rev the engine, etc. I'd ride it up and down the street for them, maybe let them ride bitch on the back so they'd feel how smooth it is.

[JohnTRourke]

Um, isn’t a notary stamp still required on private vehicle sales, on the title ? So, a bank or Notery would be required. And a bank to verify currency of the buyer, especially of large bills. Heck, any bills, people are passing $20 bills of funny money at garage sales for cheap items and getting real money in change.

You must be old (like me), the notary used to be a required, been gone in Colorado for gosh, 20 or more years.

Just as someone says, you don't even need a bill of sale, the back of the title has the bill of sale info. You might do a bill of sale for your records, just in case they don't re-title it.

[Martinjmpr]

NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER LEAVE THE PLATE ON!

NEVER!

NEVER!

So here's the deal: In Colorado if you buy a motor vehicle or a trailer from a private seller, and it's after 5:00 or on a weekend, you can legally drive that vehicle without a license plate for up to 72 hours to transport it from the place of sale to the place it will be stored.

I buy and sell lots of vehicles from private owners and I usually prepare a bill of sale with the following: Description of vehicle, date, time and place of sale, and then I append this to the bottom of the bill of sale:

42-3-115, Registration Upon Transfer
...

(b) A transferee may operate a motor vehicle on the highway before registering it if:
...

(III) (A) The transferee has purchased the motor vehicle within the last thirty-six hours from a person who is not a motor vehicle dealer under article 6 of title 12, C.R.S.;

(B) The vehicle was purchased either on a Saturday, on a Sunday, on a legal holiday, or between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m.;

(C) The vehicle is being driven from the place where the transferor stored the vehicle to the place where the transferee intends to store the vehicle;

(D) The owner possesses, in the vehicle, a bill of sale that shows the time and date of sale and that is signed by both the buyer and seller; and

(E) The owner possesses, in the vehicle, proof of insurance as required by section 42-4-1409.

Leaving a license plate on a vehicle is a nightmare. You are leaving yourself open to parking citations, toll citations,etc.


So in case it wasn't clear from the above

NEVER LEAVE THE LICENSE PLATE ON THE VEHICLE!

[Martinjmpr]

A few other odds-and-ends: The back of the title has the place where you have to write in the mileage and the buyer has to acknowledge the mileage reading. As the seller you print and sign your name. When I sell something, that's all I do. I let the buyer fill in everything else including the purchase price

I sent the OP a PM but I'll make this offer to anyone else here: I have a blank bill of sale in Word format that I'm happy to send to anyone here. That BoS includes the description of the vehicle (Make, model, year and VIN), the date, time and place of sale, and specifically includes the words "SOLD AS-IS WITH NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED" Whenever I sell a vehicle I always print two copies, one for the buyer (so he can show it if he gets pulled over for no license plate) and one for me (in case the vehicle is later reported stolen or otherwise involved in some nefarious act.) The buyer and I sign both copies.

It also includes the above-described quote from the CRS that shows that a license plate is not required if buying from a private seller.

I've bought and sold probably at least a dozen cars, motorcycles, trailers, etc using this BoS and I've never had anything come back to bite me so I assume it works.

[buffalobo]

Bill of sale is nice, mostly for you to say "THIS IS AN AS-IS SALE" so no coming back a week later when he ran it into a curb trying for money back and pissing and moaning.

Once you get acceptable form of payment in your hands, you then sign the back of the title, being careful to do it in the right spots for date, signature, and printed. Then they sign it, don't let them jump titles. Take a pic of the front and back. Take off the plates, throw them the keys, have a nice day. If they buy between 9am and 5pm, they're supposed to come with paper temp tags to drive away, but if it's after 5pm, the bill of sale lets them drive it home. Pretty crazy huh...

The key with motorcycles is, the test ride. Buyers want to do it, sellers shouldn't allow it. If someone has a motorcycle endorsement on their license already, then maybe I'd let them sit on it and rev the engine, etc. I'd ride it up and down the street for them, maybe let them ride bitch on the back so they'd feel how smooth it is.

+1. You can ride it after I have the cash or maybe title to vehicle you arrived in/on.

[Martinjmpr]

True story time: About 20 years ago my brother had an old Scout. The thing was a beast but after 4 or 5 years he got tired of sinking money into it and put it up for sale.

Foolishly, he left the plates on, thinking "what could possibly go wrong?"

Well, six months later he started getting inundated with notices of a parking tickets, warnings that the vehicle would be booted, towed, bills from towing and storage companies, etc etc. It was a real PITA that I think lasted over a year before he finally got it resolved. Apparently the "buyer" never registered the vehicle so it remained in my brother's name, along with the soon-expired license plates.

Now I don't think it cost him any money but it certainly cost him a lot of time, phone calls, explanations, etc and probably some sleepless nights as well.

"Average" people learn from their mistakes. "SMART" people learn from OTHER PEOPLE'S mistakes. So be smart and learn from my brother.

[Martinjmpr]

+1. You can ride it after I have the cash or maybe title to vehicle you arrived in/on.

My rule with MC sales is: If you want to test ride, you hand me my full asking price in cash. After that I'll toss you the keys and you can ride it. Bring it back intact and I'll give you back your cash and we can talk price. Drop it, wreck it, or damage it in any way, I sign the title over to you and its yours.

In the many years I've been doing this (over 20) I've only had one potential buyer actually do that (and that was when we were selling my wife's Intruder to another female rider. She was a beginning rider and wanted her dad to ride the bike to make sure it was OK.)

Most of the time they just come, look at the bike, start the engine and then once they've verified that it's in decent shape, we start talking price.

[Martinjmpr]

Blank bill of sale. Feel free to copy and paste into a word processor of your choosing:

***********************Motor Vehicle Bill of Sale***************************

I, _ of _ ___ (hereafter known as “seller”) being the lawful owner of the following motor vehicle:

__________________________, VIN: _______________________________________

Do hereby transfer all right and title in ownership of said vehicle to the following person:

______________________________of ______________________ in exchange for the sum of $____________ , ____________________________dollars, paid in the form of: _CASH IN HAND_______

Seller transfers all right and title to Buyer of this vehicle “as-is” with no warranties expressed or implied.
This transfer took place on _ at _ _ P.M at the following location:

___

____

_________________________________

Signature of Seller: _________________________________ Date: _______________

Signature of Buyer: __________________________________ Date: _______________

42-3-115, Registration Upon Transfer
...

(b) A transferee may operate a motor vehicle on the highway before registering it if:
...

(III) (A) The transferee has purchased the motor vehicle within the last thirty-six hours from a person who is not a motor vehicle dealer under article 6 of title 12, C.R.S.;

(B) The vehicle was purchased either on a Saturday, on a Sunday, on a legal holiday, or between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m.;

(C) The vehicle is being driven from the place where the transferor stored the vehicle to the place where the transferee intends to store the vehicle;

(D) The owner possesses, in the vehicle, a bill of sale that shows the time and date of sale and that is signed by both the buyer and seller; and

(E) The owner possesses, in the vehicle, proof of insurance as required by section 42-4-1409.

[kidicarus13]

C.R.S. § 42-3-115 Registration upon transfer

(1) Whenever the owner of a motor vehicle registered under this article transfers or assigns the owner's title or interest, the registration of such vehicle shall expire, and such owner shall remove the number plates.  The owner, upon applying for registration in such owner's name during the same registration period of another motor vehicle, may receive credit upon the fees due for such new registration for such portion of the fees paid for the cancelled registration as the department may determine to be proper and proportionate to the unexpired part of the original term of registration.  A transfer fee of one dollar shall be paid in all cases.