Dealer Internet Inquiry, Georgia Dealer Titles, Electronic Title Registration (ETR), Temporary Operating Permits (TOPs)

View Georgia Dealer Licensing Steps at the Georgia Dealers License Page

We are going to cover the process of completing a title as a motor vehicle dealer. When you obtain your Georgia dealers license you are going to complete titles differently than you ever have before, because you will be able to do what his known as a REASSIGNMENT, you will be able to purchase a vehicle from one person, then reassign the ownership to the next person on the back of a title, so you will be able to flip a vehicle for a profit, simply by entering the information as a reassignment on the back of a title.

You have to have a dealers license to reassign ownership of vehicle on the back of a title
You will need to know how to complete a title as a Georgia dealer because many times it may be just you and a customer that are completing the title so the customer is going to expect you to know how to complete a title correctly during a motor vehicle transaction.

There are normally about 3 scenarios when you are completing a title, you may be buying or selling a vehicle at a dealer auction, you may be buying or selling a vehicle directly to another dealer, or you may be buying or selling a vehicle directly to an individual. If you are purchasing or selling a vehicle at a dealer auction you will stand in line after the sale and the title clerk will instruct you how to complete the title correctly since dealer auctions complete thousands of titles for dealers every day, or maybe you are purchasing or selling vehicle to another dealer and they may be able to guide you, but you want to make sure you know how to complete the title correctly just in case the other dealer is unsure.

We are going to go BUY a vehicle from an individual and bring it back to our lot and SELL it to another individual on our Georgia dealer lot that way you will have compete oversight over the BUY AND compete oversight over the SELL when you have your dealers license.

Before you ever purchase a vehicle from an individual as a licensed dealer it is EXTREMETLY important to ensure the individual you are purchasing the vehicle from has the legal selling rights to the vehicle, and that is going to be the individual whose name appears on the front of the title. As you can see on this slide the owner would be Stormie Knight, and this is a sample title from the Georgia Department of Revenue Motor Vehicle Division Manual, so before you EVER purchase a vehicle to resell from an individual, be sure to reach out to person in advance and ask the VERY important question, “Is the title in your name” once again ask the person “Is the title in your name” if they say yes the titles is in there name. GREAT. They have the legal selling rights to that vehicle so you can go make the BUY.
However, may times when you ask the seller if the title is in their name, they may say something like “No the title is not in my name, I bought it from my neighbor a couple of weeks ago, he signed the back of it, and you can just come buy it directly from me”

This seller is in possession of an “Open Title, blank or skipped title” which is illegal in all 50 states. The person attempting to sell you the vehicle has asked the previous seller to just sign the back of the title and did not complete the purchaser’s information.

Possession of this title is illegal. The person attempting to sell you this vehicle is basically acting as a non-licensed person illegally acting as a Georgia dealer. This person has not completed the legal steps that you are completing in order to obtain a legal Georgia dealer’s license. Not only is this transaction illegal in Georgia but is illegal in every state in the country, but why would a legally licensed dealer ever support the operations of an illegal, unlicensed person acting as a dealer. Step away from this transaction immediately!

When purchasing a vehicle from an individual be sure you are only purchasing the vehicle from the person whose name is clearly printed on the front of the title.

When you have established the person selling the vehicle is the rightful owner you will need to complete the first “NOTICE TO BUYER SECTION” as a dealer at the top of the back of the title. You are basically assigning the ownership of the vehicle from the person selling the vehicle to your dealership.

When a Georgia dealer purchases a vehicle to re-sell or takes vehicle on trade, the GA dealership’s name and address must be entered as the purchaser on the back of the title, or on the dealer’s reassignment form in the “Purchasers Legal Name” line. Remember the PURCHASER is always the person that is buying the vehicle and the SELLER is always the person that is selling the vehicle.

Before we get started, when you receive you dealer license you should always enter your name and your dealership name
You will enter your name then DBA which stands for doing business as, then your dealership name. Later on you may have a salesperson or a general manager completing titles for you then they would enter their name DBA then your dealership name. Enter your dealership address and the county of your dealership and the exact date the purchase is taking place.
Enter the mileage, I will talk about mileage reporting exemptions later on in the course, see these next two boxes to the right of the odometer disclosure. Lets talk about these 2 boxes. Every once in a while you might purchase an older vehicle with a mechanical odometer and it reads 23,000 miles but you are fairly certain the odometer has rolled over and suspect it reads 123000 or 223000, and the odometer has ROLLED OVER, then you would check box number 1 which states mileage is in excess of mechanical limits. Or say for example you are purchasing a vehicle and the seller tells you that the old odometer, or cluster stopped working so they replaced the old
Odometer cluster with a new one and now the mileage has a lower reading, well this vehicle has an INCORRECT odometer so you would check box number 2 that states the odometer reading is not the actual mileage, WARNING ODOMETER DISCREPANCY, this gives a warning to all future buyers the odometer on this vehicle is not correct. Be sure to check this box if the mileage is not correct. The you will have the seller of the vehicle sign and hand print their name, then you will sign and hand print their name. And now you have purchased your first vehicle as a licensed motor vehicle dealer.

Now we take this title and the vehicle we have just purchased back to our lot and we FRONT LINE IT, which means we prepare the vehicle mechanically and appearance wise so it is ready to sell at the FRONT OF OUR Lot, and there is some other paperwork we will complete at the time of the sale, which we will cover in a moment, but right now we are just concentrating on how to compete a title correctly.
Now when a person walks onto your lot and wants to purchase this vehicle, you do not have to obtain a new title, you are going to be a licensed motor vehicle dealer so you are going to be able to REASSIGN the ownership of this vehicle to the customer purchasing it on the lot, lets magnify this process to see it more clearly.

We are going to complete the box that states 1st Dealers Reassigment
Lets say a person named Jack McGregor has come onto your lot and loves this vehicle and wants to purchase it on your Georgia dealer lot, GREAT, in this scenario Jack McGregor is buying the vehicle so he becomes the PURCHASER, so we enter his name, home address and the county he lives in. Now over to the left you will enter you dealer number. And I want you to be aware, ONLY licensed dealers, persons that hold a Georgia dealer license, can complete any reassisnments, if a person does not have a dealers license, they must pay taxes and register the vehicle into their name, so enter you dealer number to show the state that you are a licensed dealer in the State of Georgia. Once again you will enter the odometer reading and check one of the two
odometer boxes if applicable.

Then you will print your name and dealership name, sign your name and finally the purchaser, buyer of the vehicles prints and signs their name and you have just sold your first vehicles. HEY GREAT JOB, pretty easy huh. On a side note, I am often asked what is the limit of the MARKUP of the vehicle, is it Blue Book Value, NADA Value, Black Book Value, no the limit on the markup is whatever price your customer is willing to pay you for the vehicle, so there really is no limit on the markup of the vehicle, the limit on the markup is what your customer is willing to PAY you for the vehicle that is why I always say this is the worlds greatest business there is no limit on the markup.

Now do you notice the multiple reassignment spaces on the back of a Georgia title, which allows multiple reassignments, or multiple sales of a vehicle from one dealer to another dealer whether the dealer is in Georgia or a dealer from another state.

The wholesale market in Georgia is very strong. On several occasions you may find a vehicle has been bought and sold between several dealers before finally being sold to a retail customer.

An example of this could be one dealer purchases a vehicle from an individual then takes it directly to sell at a Georgia dealer auction. Then another dealer realizes the prices at another GA dealer auction are higher, so they purchase the vehicle from one dealer auction and take it to another dealer auction to sell the following week. Another dealer purchases the vehicle from that dealer auction then sells it to a dealer across the street from there dealership. Then that dealer sells it to a dealer in another state,

Where maybe one dealer is purchasing a vehicle from another dealer and you would complete the title exactly like we did just a moment ago remember the purchaser is the dealer buying the vehicle and the seller is the dealer selling the vehicle

And once again you would complete it exactly like you did the other reassignments but once you have completed all the reassignments on the back of the title

You have what is known as a FULL TITLE

You could very well purchase a vehicle from a Georgia dealer auction that has a full title, or maybe you purchase the vehicle directly from another dealer in the State of Georgia and competed the final reassigement at the bottom of the title. Well as you see this title is now FULL and you would think that you would not be able to sell the vehicle again because the title is full, but I want to show you a great form called a GEORGIA DEALER REASSIGENMET Form.

You can take a vehicle that has a full title and RESELL the vehicle again with this great form you see here called the Georgia dealer reassignment form.

I strongly encourage you to obtain several Georgia dealer reassignment forms once you obtain your dealers license in GA, so if you, say for example purchase a vehicle from one individual on your lot on the last reassignment on the back of the title and you have a customer that wants to buy it a few moments later, instead of missing out on the sale, you can just sell a vehicle that has a FULL title with a dealer reassignment, form, this is a great form that you need to be sure to have available.

 

 

Georgia Dealer Titles!

 

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Delus Johnson-Lead Instructor
Automobile Dealer Training Association

Georgia Dealer License Instructor