i am planning to buy a new car, but still owe on my current car. i have financed through bmw and my father cosigned the loan with me. i am trying to sell the car privately before considering a trade-in on the new car. the problem i have is that bmw still carries the title of the car since i still owe 12k, and when the car is paid off my dad and i would both have to sign the title before handing it over to a private buyer.
to complicate things my dad does not live in the town that i do, so i would have to pay the loan off and then overnight him the title to get it signed before i could transfer it. this is a hiccup in the private selling process as you can imagine, since the buyer would certaily not accept paying for the car first and then getting the title at a later date. i feel i only have a few options, but need advice on the best one:
1. pay the loan off myself, have the title in hand when/if the car sells privately. then when the car is paid for by the new owner, i can pay myself back the 12k. problem here is if the car doesn't sell and i have to trade the car in, i would be out that 12k i had to spend instantly. that 12k would come out of the new car's loan amount, but still i am not ready to spend 12k instantly.
2. refinance the loan with bmw or another institution with no cosigner. the problem i foresee here is that my credit would take an INQ only a few weeks or months before i apply for ANOTHER car loan for the new car. i wonder if i did all of this within 30 days the credit would only take 1 INQ? in other words, could i refinance the bmw, sell it and then finance the new car in 30 days and only get 1 INQ? i don't think a refinance before requesting a new loan would bode well on the rate the lender would give me on the new car.
i really don't see any other options, but that is why i'm posting because i feel for sure there has to be a simpler way. i thought of having the buyer put down a deposit and then i write a bill of sale and the buyer would just have to wait a few days for me to get the title in hand, but i doubt the potential buyer would accept that situation, and if they backed out, again, i'd be out that 12k instantly since i would have to pay the car off myself to get the title. if i had the title without a cosigner, i could just have the new buyer go to bmw with me, pay them and then receive the title and keys all in a matter of hours.
so quick recap: i don't want to pay the car off instantly and be out 12k but i also don't want to take a credit INQ ding refinancing the car and risk getting a bad APR/no loan approval. do i have any other option? can bmw drop the cosigner from my loan without pulling my credit score again? my credit score is 748 from EQ. thanks for the help.
