Buying Advice Is this tractor stolen?

[tcreeley]

Re stolen tractor- on craigs list I came across a tractor with FEL and backhoe for a very good price 3 weeks ago. I contacted the seller who wanted a deposit via paypal etc and would ship when the rest was paid. It turned out to be a scam- they get the deposit money and skip away with it. --It was too good to be true! Buy local and face to face. Look at the paperwork.

 

[bradmachine]

looking to buy a tractor off craigs list. nice tractor, low hours, good price, owner is from out of town. neighbor selling tractor, met owner, and neighbor. all seems ok. but how do I know its all OK,
not stolen, or has a lien on it.??

 

[goeduck]

Do you know where it was originally purchased? If not go to a dealer of the brand and ask them to look it up (need series number). The manufacturers financing arm could have a mortgage on it and should tell you. If not, from there you should be able to start asking questions starting from the original owner.

 

[TimberHole]

Based on some past threads it seems nearly impossible to protect yourself. Personally I would want the cell and home numbers of all parties, serial number of machine and their place of employment. I would ask who serviced the machine and call that person to verify they are legit people. If anything along the way smelled funny, I’d bail!

Read this:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/buying-pricing-comparisons/38034-buying-used-check-liens.html

 

[two_bit_score]

looking to buy a tractor off craigs list. nice tractor, low hours, good price, owner is from out of town. neighbor selling tractor, met owner, and neighbor. all seems ok. but how do I know its all OK,
not stolen, or has a lien on it.??

A timely question even if the original thread is from 2011.

The answer to your question is to ask a lot of questions and do a lot of checking and confirming.

Have you checked at the dealer it was purchased from? Have you checked with your county Sheriff’s Office?

Check everything out and walk away if something is fishy. Remember, even dealers sometimes get stuck with something not fully paid off or that has been stolen.

I was in court last week in central Texas on a 2016 Ford F-250 where the buyer ‘innocently’ purchased a stolen truck with the VIN switched. He lost his cash purchase price when it was seized by the Texas DPS.


TBS

 

[CMV]

looking to buy a tractor off craigs list. nice tractor, low hours, good price, owner is from out of town. neighbor selling tractor, met owner, and neighbor. all seems ok. but how do I know its all OK,
not stolen, or has a lien on it.??

Assuming tractor was physically there too when you met these people? It not being there would be huge red flag that its a scam.

Ask for dealer it came from, and get machine s/n. But dealer who sold it can look it up just from the owner's name too. That would at least let you know it isn't stolen.

 

[PILOON]

A while back I logged onto one of those obvious scams.
Decided to troll the seller so as to entrap him with LEO's.

Local LEO literally blew me away.
Provincial LEO's also blew me away
Feds put me onto phone busters (note they were closed during WE's) who said due to jurisdictions and cost of travel adding as well delays that they simply did not have adequate budgets to pursue those 'minor' infractions.

So all told if U want to scam keep it under $5K and ou will be scot free, or go real big (like Trump) and get tax deferments.

Another time I identified a clients stolen goods.
I had to go to court as a witness as did the owner.
I lived 58 miles from the court venue and supposedly would be compensated foe travel and time. Now that's a big LOL!
The total compensation was like $3.85 as they claimed I was not needed since the perp pled guilty.
BUT. had I not showed up I would/could have been incarcerated! WTF!

There are days that I question JUSTICE! Does that really exist?

Like one day an ambulance whoops bleeps honks for me to move over.
Well as a good citizen I do so but need to go thru a red light to do so.
No traffic so I comply.
I get a $130 ticket and 3 demerit points for being a good citizen.
Law says running a light is XXX points! No exceptions.

NEVER ask me to move again! I tend to be very deaf!
(Wife once complied and she needed a new fender which no insurance paid for)

Sorry to rant but at times I get PO'd and need to vent!

 

[two_bit_score]

A while back I logged onto one of those obvious scams.
Decided to troll the seller so as to entrap him with LEO's.

Local LEO literally blew me away.
Provincial LEO's also blew me away
Feds put me onto phone busters (note they were closed during WE's) who said due to jurisdictions and cost of travel adding as well delays that they simply did not have adequate budgets to pursue those 'minor' infractions.

So all told if U want to scam keep it under $5K and ou will be scot free, or go real big (like Trump) and get tax deferments.

Another time I identified a clients stolen goods.
I had to go to court as a witness as did the owner.
I lived 58 miles from the court venue and supposedly would be compensated foe travel and time. Now that's a big LOL!
The total compensation was like $3.85 as they claimed I was not needed since the perp pled guilty.
BUT. had I not showed up I would/could have been incarcerated! WTF!

There are days that I question JUSTICE! Does that really exist?

Like one day an ambulance whoops bleeps honks for me to move over.
Well as a good citizen I do so but need to go thru a red light to do so.
No traffic so I comply.
I get a $130 ticket and 3 demerit points for being a good citizen.
Law says running a light is XXX points! No exceptions.

NEVER ask me to move again! I tend to be very deaf!
(Wife once complied and she needed a new fender which no insurance paid for)

Sorry to rant but at times I get PO'd and need to vent!

But if you go REALLY BIG you have to be a Democrat and your last name needs to be CLINTON.




Politics is a No-No in here Piloon.

 

[scaredychicken]

If it feels fishy ... run. serial numbers are usesful. and if anything is scratched over it is probably deliberate, not wear and tear. ... Keep running.

I don't think I'd worry too much about the owner with a missing tractor - IF it was stolen some time ago, insurance has likly paid it out already, and the owner replaced it.

 

[TractorNH]

I had similar concerns in addition to where it was originally sold. I simply do not know if there is a market for "salvage" tractors like there is for cars but I assume given the high value of tractors there probably is a market. I had contacted a couple manufacturers customer service groups and they said they could tell me who the original selling dealer was. My concern was getting a flood tractor from Houston or something like that.

As far as liens, the dealer can only tell you if there is an open loan if it was financed through the manufacturer's finance arm. If someone went to their local bank and got a loan there is almost no way to know that or to know if it was in fact paid off. You could buy a used machine from someone opting to default on the loan and take the money and run. You would then probably lose the tractor or have to pay off the loan.

To many slimy people out there trying to scam us out of our hard earned money. It sucks but those are some of the reasons why I ended up buying new.