I Want a Used Car Dealership; What do I need to do?

If you sell less than 6 a year you do not need a license (I think) I have not read the regulations but a friend and I have discussed this before and he is in the car business.

All your money will be made in the financing.

Already a lawyer so it shouldn't be too much of a change. Just need to buy cheaper suits.

Get your license from the Louisiana Motor Vehicle Commission.

You'll need a bank roll and or a line of credit. Presumable either would be small starting out so you want to keep your average cost down to buy more cars and get a higher ROI. Cheaper cars are a bit risky though because they can have mechanical issues, although it looks like you might know how to do that. Also I assume you won't have access to lender to be able to make money on the back end.

Get in with an auction to buy cars or sell the ones that you don't want to invest the reconditioning money into. Some cars can become a money pit, know when to say enough is enough, Your first loss is your best loss. Learn from mistakes and listen to people that know what they are talking about. Contrary to popular belief a book value is not necessarily the actual value of a vehicle. Get black book and access to MMR.

You need an even bigger bank roll for RTO. If you do traditional sales you get all your money back at the time of sale. RTO you got a lot of money out on the road.

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All your money will be made in the financing.

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Not true although the buy here pay here model works but it is a hassle always repoing cars.

If you buy cars on CL make sure you go in person and walk around the cars and then low ball them. Don't try to do it via email/text.

You need to apply for a license and pay some fees, and talk to your insurance agent about coverage for the cars till you buy them.

Unfortunately dealers now are scouring CL too so there is competition to buy cars. Many dealers have found it is cheaper to buy from consumers than auctions ie carmax model.

It is just harder to do now but can be done. Good luck

ETA: I know there are some already established used dealers that will let you use their badge for auctions and floor plan but they will generally want 50% of the profits and you will have to eat the losses.

Get 4.5 million and the best Manager you can buy.

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Pillars of the community in this business.

No wonder car salesman deserve the bad rap they have

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That's capitalism.

Buy low and sell high.

Floor plan
financing
add ons
good cars

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Contrary to popular belief a book value is not necessarily the actual value of a vehicle. Get black book and access to MMR.

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I am in the car financing business. I cannot stress this enough. MMR is Manheim Market Research. Manheim is an auction house operating nationally. With MMR you can see every Manheim auction transaction for a specific vehicle. They also give you a summary of average prices according to mileage. Invaluable tool if you're in the car business, and t free.

Also, if you're financing, consider putting GPS in the vehicles.