There are many reasons why you might need to know how to sell a wrecked car that ends up on your property. If you have a serious car accident, and your insurance company decides to pay you a lump sum rather than pay to repair the car, they might let you keep the non-running wreck. Another common way for a homeowner to end up with a wrecked car on their property is if they’re in a serious accident, but they don’t have collision insurance on the car. That means that the insurance company will pay you for your medical bills, but there’s no money to fix the car. Another way you might end up with a wrecked car is if you’re not at fault in an accident, but it takes a while to collect from the insurance company for the other driver. If your disabled car is towed to your property to avoid paying storage fees at a tow yard, you might not find out if you can afford to fix the car for quite some time.

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Whatever the reason, you might be wondering exactly how to sell a wrecked car. The car doesn’t really have to be involved in an accident to be considered a total loss. If you car is too rusty to be safe to drive, or requires too many repairs to make it worth your while to fix it, you’ll be in the same situation. Most companies like Sellthecars.com that buy wrecked cars will buy cars that are in any condition, not just wrecked cars, so it doesn’t matter why you need to sell a non-running car. No matter what the reason, you should do it as quickly as possible to avoid negatively affecting your property values. Selling a non-functioning car that’s parked anywhere on your property is one of the quickest ways to improve your home’s value. Here’s why.

It’s a Nuisance

Whenever you want to sell your house, or have it appraised to borrow against it, the people that estimate your home’s worth look at everything on, in, and around your house. An inoperable car on your property does a lot more than just look unsightly. It’s not just worthless for the purposes of your home’s value. It actually lowers the value of your home just by being there. That’s because appraisers have to look at a property from the point of view of a potential buyer. That means they base their opinion on the average person, and the average person doesn’t want a non-running car on their property. The average person doesn’t know how to sell a wrecked car, but will demand that it be removed immediately. The appraiser knows this, and takes it into account during an appraisal.

If It’s There, It’s Part of the House

It won’t do any good to say that you’ll remove the non-working car before you move. When you have a home appraised by a realtor or other estimator, they only take into account the house the way it actually is, not the way it may be in the future. There are any number of different aspects of a home that might require repair or replacement before it’s put on the market for sale, but there’s no way to get paid for the work in advance. If you put a home on the market with a picture of it as it currently looks, but promise to paint it, re-roof it, repave the driveway, and get rid of the wrecked car on the lawn, no one will take the value of those repairs and improvements seriously until they’re already in place and ready for inspection.

Beware Superfund Status

Potential home-buyers are naturally curious and suspicious about anything that’s out of the ordinary about a house they might purchase. They hire home inspectors and appraisers to investigate properties very thoroughly in order to make sure they’re not left with a problem they don’t want to deal with. A wrecked car on your property could indicate that there’s a potential problem in addition to the car itself: pollution.

While you might have kept an old, non-running car on your property to use it for parts for another car, or with the idea that you might want to restore it someday, there’s no way for the next owner to know why it’s there, or how much it will cost to get rid of it. Junkyards often have problems because wrecked cars leak fluids, and these fluids are toxic. If a potential buyer suspects that brake fluid, gasoline, anti-freeze, or any other undesirable substance has seeped into the ground under a wrecked car, they might be afraid of the environmental damage it could cause. Leaking pollutants can poison a drinking water well, and removing contaminated soil can be very expensive. Even if you promise to remove a junk car before selling your house, the buyer and his agent might worry that they’re buying a potential problem anyway. That’s why it pays to find out how to sell a wrecked car as quickly as possible and get it off your property if you want to maintain your property values.

Look Out for Local Governments

In many cities, it’s illegal to keep a non-running car on your property even for a short period of time. In small towns, there might not be a law in place to force you to sell a wrecked car, but that could change at any time. If you have multiple wrecked cars on your property, you could find yourself in violation of zoning laws that forbid running a junkyard in a residential zone, among other problems. Once a neighbor complains, it doesn’t take very long for local governments to put a law in place forbidding keeping non-running cars on your property.

How to Sell a Wrecked Car and Make Money Twice

Many people simply don’t know how to sell a wrecked car, and they keep it on their property because they think it will cost money to have it towed away. That’s no the case. Any old or non-running car is worth something, and a late model wrecked car can be quite valuable. The sooner you sell a wrecked car for parts and scrap, the more you’ll get for it, and the quicker you’ll improve your property values. It’s a win-win way to improve your bottom line immediately.