Nalsie Ventures

Operating our Turo business has become more difficult and expensive – Increased insurance costs, required tracking devices (and the monthly subscription fee that comes with them), and moving the pick-up location to Manhattan have made things challenging. To help streamline the operation we decided to sell off our BMW 228i now and are considering more after the busy summer season.

I track the value of our cars using the Kelly Blue Book (KBB) app and get updates from Carvana periodically. I like to use multiple sources to get a better idea of the true value. KBB estimates what you could get for a trade-in and a private sale.

Carvana’s offer was within $600 of the KBB private sale estimate ($19,800 vs $19,200) so I went ahead and accepted it. To me the slightly lower amount was well worth not having to list the car, show it to multiple people, haggle and deal with inspections.

The process couldn’t have been easier. I entered the VIN and Carvana pulled up the details of the car. I attested to its current condition by answering a few questions. I had to upload one photo of the dashboard to show the mileage, and once verified I just signed a couple documents via DocuSign. 

You can choose to drop the car off at a specified location or have them pick it up for a small fee (which is deducted from the offer price). For just $40 I chose to have them pick it up, and was able to schedule the transaction for the next day! 

The Carvana rep called me the next morning to verify the appointment and showed up right on time. He inspected it, took some photos, and checked my license, then he loaded the car onto the truck and was gone.  All in about 15 minutes. The money was in my account the next day.

I will definitely be using Carvana again when I need to sell another car in my fleet, and recommend it to any Turo host.