If you’re looking to sell your bulldozer, wheel loader, excavator or any other heavy construction equipment it can be somewhat aggravating to get the right buyers to your door.
You may already know, putting a for sale sign up will attract many a lot of attention, but what can happen is you spend more time talking on the phone or showing the machine than you would like. There’s also marketing, inspections, negotiations, storage, insurance. Thankfully, there are options to help you find a new home for your machine including auctions, online resources, and private sales. Which option you choose depends on how soon you need to sell the machine and how much money you hope to get for it.
ABSOLUTE AUCTION
An absolute auction can be live or online. This is a great way to go if you have more than one machine you want to sell quickly. There are no minimum bids or reserve prices. Your machine will sell to to the highest bidder. People flock to these auctions hoping to steal a machine for an amazing price. This may scare you into thinking you could end up getting less than half of what you want for the machine, and although that’s definitely possible, with so many aggressive bidders, chances are you’ll get a nice return. You save a ton of time as the auction house takes away all the phone calls, negotiations with the buyer, storage, transport of the machine. Generally, this is the way to go.
Before choosing an auction house, be sure you know how they operate, what the fees are, and the details of their contract. Don’t get caught off guard.
A great auction house company you probably already know about is Ritchie Brothers Auction.
RESERVED AUCTION
With reserve auctions, sellers place a hidden reserve price on each item. If the highest bid is less than the desired price set by the seller, the seller can accept or reject the bid. This is the most common type of auction. Of course this is nice for the seller as they won’t get less than what they want. However, buyers don’t flock to these auctions so you could end up dragging the old girl back home.
ONLINE SERVICE
You can minimize your cost, risk, and time-spent by choosing an industry-targeted online listing service that's secure, and lets you control the selling process. A popular site like EBay is one way to go howver it is probably best to deal with an online service that specializes in construction machines and that offer escrow services, like Ritchie Bros. EquipmentOne. This way you can be sure the transaction is handled properly.
PRIVATE SALE
Finally, you can always just pull the machine out to your front yard and put a “for sale” sign on it. Using an online forum like craigslist, or perhaps advertising the old fashioned way, in a newspaper, is another way to sell your machine. You can definitely get the most for the machine this way, but you need to factor in the time you spend setting up the sale. Also, you’ll likely meet many people you’d rather never cross paths with as there are some real “winners” out there.
SELLING TO A DEALER
You can also sell your machine to a dealer. They understand the industry and the market, have connections to sell your equipment. Of course, they’re going to turn a profit so you won’t get as much out of the sale of your machine as you may like but it’s a quick way to get it sold.
EQUIPMENT BROKERS
As with dealers, established equipment brokers know the industry and have connections. They have experience with inspections and negotiate for both the seller and the dealer to get a fair price. They too will make money off the sale however, it will likely be much less than a dealer. Using a broker will save you time, however you may still be responsible for storage, maintenance, insurance costs, and losses from depreciation.
CONCLUSION
Once you've decided on the right sales option for you, you need to find the right resource. Different vendors and services have different levels of service, costs and experience. Here are 10 simple questions to ask before you sell equipment.
