Flipped another Caravan

So a while back I came across this ad:

'05 Dodge stow n go Caravan - $1000

Needs new tires and possible electrical and a new battery.
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No pictures, no other details. I emailed him then figured it had sold when I didn't hear back. About 5 days later he calls, says he still has it. I am thinking it's beat to crap with a ton of miles. I got the address, grabbed my cash, hooked up the trailer and headed out.

I show up and he is trying to jump it and not having any success. It was clear it hadn't been driven for a while judging by the expired plates, but more so by the flat tire and amount of cracking it had.

So anyways, while he is trying to jump it, I check the oil and other fluids. Oil is dirty, but overall everything looks good. I ask what he would take "as is" since he couldn't get it started, but he didn't hear me. He keeps trying, then I suggest he hold his throttle about halfway for a bit to boost the charge. It finally starts and sounds good.

Ask again what he would take. We agree on $800. He was asking $1,000.

I put the spare tire on, then load it on to the trailer and head home.

I put another $1,000 into it with title, tax, tires, detail (van was absolutely filthy, detail shop took 12 hours to clean it up), oil change, gas, insurance, etc.

Had it up for sale for about 2 weeks, had a few offers, but none sounded good.

Got a text yesterday asking if I would take $5,000. Finally, an offer I can accept.

Wasn't sure if he would actually follow through, since I had a offer over the phone last week for $5,600 and he never showed.



Anyways, he showed up, test drove it and liked it. Then he asked if I wanted the entire $5,000 because he had $4,500 at home and could get $300 from the ATM. I said yeah I'm going to need $5,000. It's what we agreed on and I feel it's worth that.

"Okay, I'll go get the money and borrow the rest from a friend if I need to."

He showed up with $5,000 cash. Not bad for a $1,800 investment.


Going to apply it to my house. Goal is to pay it off in 3 to 5 years.