canoetrpr said:
Did you use any type of escrow service? How did you know that the seller would actually release the 'right' tractor (or a tractor at all) after you paid him?
I was open to escrow services when I started, but I then came to feel safe with the transaction, using the steps that I did. I would NOT recommend anyone using similar steps.
Here's what happened:
I talked with the seller verbally for a long time. He answered all of my questions and sent pictures of certain parts of the tractor so I could understand a few of the minor issues it had.
I verified that the seller was the person living at the place where the tractor was being sold from.
I bought the tractor using a 'down payment' from PayPal. PayPal has some kind of fraud protection service which, frankly, I did not check into in detail. The down payment was $1000 and I felt that my risk was minimal.
Before sending the $1k to the buyer, we agreed that the purchase was subject to an inspection that I would pay for. The seller agreed to transporting the tractor over to a local shop.
The seller took the tractor over to the local shop at a time which was coordinated by me. The shop spent a day or so looking at the overall condition of the tractor. The mechanical report came back fine with only a few issues that were OK with me considering the age of the equipment.
The seller and I agreed to an arrangement where he delivered the tractor to me himself. I agreed to give him another $4k prior to him transporting the tractor. We wrote a contract which stipulated all of these delivery terms.
At this point I had a $5k risk, but I also had a visual inspection of the person and the tractor by a third party (the mechanic), and I had positive confirmation of the person relative to his identity and his home address, how long he had lived there, and other things. There was still an opportunity for fraud, if a highly sophisticated person was operating the fraud. But in mind, I felt that the risk was covered well enough to move forward.
Our contract had provisions which stipulated that the tractor needed to arrive in California in the same condition it left the mechanic. Otherwise, the sale is invalid. It also stipulated that I could refuse the tractor in California, but would lose my $5k - to address risks that the seller had.
The guy left his place according to plan and arrived at ours within minutes of his planned arrival. Both of us were very satisfied with the transaction.
If conditions were not so 'perfect', I would probably recommend anyone else just go with an escrow service. Or, I would consider a visual inspection in person before the transaction is completed. You see here that I had a lot of things going in my favor because the seller was such a nice guy.
