u/PleaseBmoreCharming

Wondering if there are any unforeseen taxes or fees I have to account for in my offer. It's already been hard enough to find and coordinate a Maryland state inspection for it.

Any other tips or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

I've been searching for a specific used car model and year on FB Marketplace for months now and finally found a private seller who is not (obviously) fishy, communicates well, and is not over/undervaluing the car.

We meet up at their home and the car looks great, exactly as advertised and honestly, given the mileage and condition, a great deal. But what gave me pause is when I asked them about the title...

They have documented information about state inspection, work done to the car, etc. but they do not have the title in their name. There are no plates on the car, but the seller says they are willing to have it transferred in my name (via third party seller) BEFORE any money is exchanged. Their reasoning for not transferring the title into their name yet is because the dealership (?), or previous seller (?) is waiting so they don't have to pay sales tax on the car as they are in no need of it after all.

The car is less than $5k and they are clearly wealthy by the looks of their house so I wouldn't think they were scamming me, correct?

Did they get scammed by this previous seller and didn't realize it?

How could they have possession of the vehicle but not the title?

This all seems very fishy, but I can't help but think they are not the ones doing the scam here.

EDIT:

Thanks for the insight, all! I now know this is probably "title jumping" and what to look out for as I continue my online search.

Funny part is in my research after I posted this and people started to chime in...I learned my insurance company probably wouldn't have been able to insure the car even if I was somehow able to get the title and be okay with a rebuild. Lmfao