Need some advice: car sale and deck/fence building - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

HitterD · 07-06-2007, 02:39 PM

Hello everone.

I didn't want to start 2 threads, so I'll include both questions in this one.

I'm about to list my car for sale, and I'm wondering if any of you have done this recently. How did you go about getting your car exposure? (online, newspaper etc...) I'm looking for a quick sale and I'm not really sure the best way to get my car noticed.

Second. I am about to begin landscaping my back yard (finally). I have the sod taken care of, but I need to build a deck and a fence. Has anyone done this recently? Did you build them yourself, or contract out? How much more will it cost to contract? Do you have anyone you can recommend?

Any advice on these matters would be greatly appreciated. The car I'm selling was the first car I've ever owned, so I'm new to this whole selling thing. I've also never built a house before, so I've never had to worry about the landscaping.

toonmaster · 07-06-2007, 02:45 PM

built both of 'em with my pops, probaby last time doing it with him as he's getting old. it is really quite easy, but you probably should wait and sod after the deck is built and leave the sides unsodded until the fence posts are in the ground.

HitterD · 07-06-2007, 02:54 PM

yeah, i should have mentioned. I have the sod ordered, I'm just waiting intil i finish the fence/deck, and then I'll have the sod delivered.

Slava · 07-06-2007, 02:56 PM

I would just list the car on-line and forget the newspaper/magazine. Most people search on line now and you'll get the most viewers there. Just google your vehicle for sale and which ever comes up first is probably where most other people are going to land as well.

GrrlGoalie33 · 07-06-2007, 02:57 PM

At this point, getting a deck built by someone else is going to be a hassle. Those guys book up pretty early, unless you have a friend that has a friend that'll do it cheap.

I (obviously) would recommend doing it yourself. I've found the guys at Totem to be really helpful in the past when building a fence. The one thing they have over Home Depot/Rona is they publish prices for standard sized decks and those include all hardware as well as the wood. Deck building is fairly easy, but time consuming.

Draug · 07-06-2007, 03:08 PM

I used the Autotrader to list the last car I sold. I also used the Bargain Finder. All 6 of my responses were from the Autotrader though, and I sold it to the second or third person that called.

I had a decent sized color add, with both the paper publication add and the Autotrader.ca add. I think it was somewhere around $95 for two weeks.

Bobblehead · 07-06-2007, 03:09 PM

The best results I've had for selling a car is putting a sign in the window and driving around. If you can park it on the side of a busy road (but a place where people can stop to look), so much the better.

We would get 2 or 3 calls from the sign in the window for every call we got from an ad.

ken0042 · 07-06-2007, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HitterD

yeah, i should have mentioned. I have the sod ordered, I'm just waiting intil i finish the fence/deck, and then I'll have the sod delivered.

Good call. I built my deck after sodding, and with all the walking around during construction, it took the sod 2 years to recover.

Nikki · 07-06-2007, 03:19 PM

I would suggest talking to one of the framers in your area, assuming they are still building in your area. One of them maybe willing to do it for cash and they can do it on the weekend. That is what we did and they built our deck in a day and did a great job.

Alana Flames · 07-06-2007, 03:42 PM

I bought a car recently and found buysell.com and autotrader.ca to be the best sites. Just make sure you put soem detail in your ad or people won't even click.

If you want a really quick sale you can take it to a dealer but they'll rip you off.

the best way is sometimes just word of mouth- ask your friends if they know anyone who needs a car.

what kind of car is it?

as for the deck, my best advice is to bribe your friends with beer. I really doubt you're going to find anyone in Calgary to do it this late in summer that won't charge you an arm and a leg.

HitterD · 07-06-2007, 04:52 PM

Thanks for all the great advice so far, really appreciated.

I'm going to go to Totem tomorrow and get some quotes.

As for the car, Alana Flames, It is a 2003 Chevy Cavalier Z24 - Black

PM me if you need any more details.

I thought Autotrader.ca would be the best, so I'm glad to see many others think it is a good choice, as it seems to be the site most people have heard of. I will driving it around to get some exposure as well.

I live in a cul-de-sac, so exposure kind of sucks. Maybe I can get away with parking it on a more traveled street?

Alana Flames · 07-06-2007, 06:27 PM

A lot of people park their cars for sale just of 16th ave going east right before you get to deerfoot. Theres a parking lot by an athletic field, i see cars there all the time. Also at the intersection of 14th st and northmount drive NW theres a park n' ride by the old library that there's always cars at. If you live in the south sorry I dunno. I'm sure you could get away with parking it somewhere- if there are no parking regulations, you aren't doing anything wrong or illegal.

Cavaliers are evrywhere which might make your sale a little tougher...when I was looking I was literally bombarded by cavaliers. I would say just make sure to stress it's good points in an add... people are too lazy to call and ask if it's reliable or has AC---> you really have to spell it out for them. At least I was lazy, lol.

Goodluck!!

HitterD · 07-11-2007, 05:47 PM

Once again, thanks for the advice everyone

I have decided to build the fence and deck myself.

One question: does anyone know where i can hire someone to dig the holes for the fence posts?

I'd like to stay away from renting an auger. There are alot of rocks in my soil, and if the auger jams it is a real pain to get back out of the ground.

thanks