STOP Asking for an Out-the-Door Price... THEN DO THIS to Save THOUSANDS! Kevin Hunter

Stop asking for the out-the-door price. Do this instead. One of the biggest mistakes I see car buyers make is weekly asking for an out-the-door price. And the key word there is asking. Yet getting an out-the-door price is one of the smartest things you can do. The mistake is that you're asking for it. Most people call a dealership and say, hi, can I get your best out-the-door price? Right there, you've already surrendered control of the conversation. You're asking permission. You're hoping they'll cooperate. You're waiting to see if they'll help you. That's completely backwards. If you want dealerships to treat you like a serious buyer, you need to lead that conversation, not be the follower in it. Now, here's exactly how I do it. I call the dealership. Hi, my partner and I are shopping for a 2026 Ford F-150. I see you have stock number 123ABC listed online on your website. Please go put your hands on the truck and verify it's physically on your lot. And when you call me back, I'll tell you what's next. Did you notice what I didn't say? I didn't ask. I didn't say, could you? I didn't say, would you mind? I simply gave clear instructions. And because they're reasonable, they almost always follow them. Confidence creates compliance. A few minutes later, the salesperson calls back. Yes, Kevin, I verified it's here. Perfect. Now I thank them. Thanks for checking into that. Here's what's next. I need a written out-the-door price that includes the selling price, tax title, license fees, dealer documentation fees, and any dealer-added accessories or add-ons you expect me to pay for. I want everything listed together in one written quote. Notice something again? I'm still directing the process. I'm not asking whether they'll provide it. I'm telling them exactly what I need. And then, and only then, do I ask my first question. And it's a very important one. I simply say, would you prefer to text that written quote to me, or would you rather email it? Think about what's happening psychologically. I'm not asking, will you send it? I'm assuming they already intend to. The only decision I'm giving them is how they would like to send it. That's a completely different conversation. Instead of debating whether they'll cooperate, we're deciding between text or email. That's the only decision. That's called assuming compliance, and it's incredibly powerful. Eventually, the written quote arrives. Now, what do I do? I don't immediately negotiate. I don't start arguing over numbers. I don't panic because the price isn't low enough. I thank them. Thank you for getting that to me. I'll review everything with my partner. I'll get back to you within 24 hours. And when I do call back, I'll tell you what's next. Notice the pattern, every step. I'm setting the next step. I'm setting the timeline. I'm controlling the pace. I'm driving the road to the sale. I'm telling them that I'm going to tell them what's next. They're simply following directions. Now, does every dealership cooperate perfectly? Of course not. Some will try to change the subject. Some will ask you to come in first. Some will want to discuss monthly payments. Some will say, we don't give out-the-door prices over the phone. Well, that's fine. There's other dealers out there. You don't argue. You don't chase them. You simply move on to another dealership. And remember, you're interviewing them just as much as they're trying to sell you a vehicle. This is exactly how professional negotiators work. They don't hope dealerships do the right thing. We create a process that's easy for them to follow. The more organized that you are, the more serious they take you. And dealerships can tell the difference almost immediately between someone who's buying emotionally and someone who's running a professional buying process. Guess which customer usually gets the better deal. This is exactly what our Homework Guy car buying service does every single day. Our professional coaches negotiate vehicles across the United States. We know how to establish control from the very first conversation. We do it on both new and used purchases or leases. Doesn't matter. We don't care. We know how to obtain written out-the-door pricing. We know how to compare competing offers. We know how to negotiate thousands of dollars in savings before our client ever sets foot inside the dealership. If you'd rather have experienced professionals handle the entire negotiation for you, and this sounded like it's too difficult for you to follow, well, visit thehomeworkguy.com and click on our hassle-free car buying service. It's the big red button on the homepage. We'd love the opportunity to help you. Before we wrap up, let me leave you with one final thought. Words matter. The person asking for permission usually loses leverage. The person confidently leading the process usually controls the negotiation. So stop asking dealerships. And that's the key word right there in all of this. Asking. Stop asking dealerships whether they'll give you an out-the-door price. Tell them exactly what you need. Set the next step. Set the timeline. And always stay in control of the conversation. In my next video, I'm going to show you how exactly I take that written out-the-door price and turn it into a strategic counteroffer, followed by an even stronger counteroffer that puts even more pressure on the dealership. You're not going to want to miss that one. I'll see you on that video. How to turn a written out-the-door price into a winning negotiation. In my last video, I showed you how to get the dealership to give you a written out-the-door price by leading the conversation. Once you've got that written out-the-door quote, now the real negotiation action begins. Today, I'm going to show you exactly how I analyze that offer, how I decide what number to counter with, and why I almost never counter with the price I actually want. And how even one simple back and forth can save you thousands of dollars. Well, let's jump in. Why I don't respond immediately. The first thing I do actually is absolutely nothing, but not forever, for the amount of time I told the salesperson I needed. If I told them, I'll review everything tonight and get back to you tomorrow morning, that's exactly what I do. Keeping your word matters. Most dealerships deal with buyers who are fickle and disappear. They change their minds or never respond at all. When you consistently do exactly what you said you would do, you immediately separate yourself from the average customer. They know you're different and they treat you differently. Professional people like working with other professional people. Don't negotiate the out-the-door number first. Now, I start analyzing the offer. Let's use an example. Suppose the dealership sends me this vehicle's selling price, $64,595. And then, after taxes, dealer fees, title, license, everything, the out-the-door price comes to $69,400. Most buyers immediately look at that $69,400 number and start throwing out random offers. That's not what I do, and that's not what our coaches do. Never. I work backwards, and so do my coaches. Because if the selling price isn't right, nothing else is going to be right. Step one, fix the selling price. The dealer selling price was $64,595. Now, let's say the homework target price is $62,525. The first question I ask myself is, what do I honestly believe this vehicle should sell for? Based on market conditions, plenty of research, inventory, current incentives, competing dealers, and everything else I know, let's say that I believe the fair selling price is $62,525. So, I adjust that $64,595 number down first. Everything else gets rebuilt from there. Step two, add back the required costs. Selling price of $62,525, now I add back the legitimate cost. Sales tax of $3,750, title and license fees, $500. The new out-the-door price is $66,775. The government fees aren't negotiation items. They're simply part of buying a vehicle. When I add everything back together, my revised out-the-door price becomes $66,775. Now, here's where the strategy starts. Step three, don't ask for what you really want. The real goal is to buy this truck for about $66,500 out-the-door. Do I offer $66,500? Absolutely not, because then there's nowhere left to negotiate. Instead, I intentionally go lower, usually by around $1,000 on a deal this size. That means my written counter offer becomes $66,775 out-the-door. Notice something, I'm not making a ridiculous offer. I'm making a serious offer, one that tells the dealership I'm ready to buy, but I'm expecting you to negotiate. Now, here's why this works. Over the years, I've learned something. Being about $1,000 apart on a $65,000 to $70,000 vehicle isn't that much. It's close enough that most dealerships will keep talking. But if I throw out something ridiculous, like $64,000 out-the-door, I'm way too low. There's a good chance they won't even bother responding. The goal isn't to shock them. The goal is to push back, but to keep them engaged. So here's what I'm actually hoping for. The dealership comes back and says, we can't do $65,775, but we can do $66,500. That's perfect, that's where I want it to be all along. One back and forth, and I just reduced the deal by roughly $2,900. That's strategic negotiating, not emotional negotiating. If I have other comparable out-the-door prices from other dealers, and you always should, you might not be done here. If you have a significantly lower OTD from another outside the area dealer you negotiated with, here's where you say to the local dealer, match this offer or I will take a trip and purchase the other car. Never counter with your final number. This is one of the biggest mistakes buyers make. They counter with the exact number they want. Never do that. Always leave yourself some negotiating room. If you don't, you've already used up your last move before the negotiation even starts. Well, Kevin, what if they say, you aren't even in the ballpark? Sometimes you'll get this response, you aren't even in the ballpark. Great, now make them help you. Simply respond, then tell me where your ballpark is. They give you a number and you say, I'll think about it and I'll get back to you. Notice what just happened. Instead of arguing, you paused and gathered information. If their ballpark is still ridiculously high, you probably don't have the possibility of a deal. It could be time to move on to another dealer. But if it's reasonably close, counter again, because I can promise you something. The first number they throw back at you will never be their best number, never. There is almost always another move left for you. The big picture, notice something. None of this happened inside the dealership. No pressure, no manager walking over, nobody breathing down my neck, no waiting three hours, no sitting in a finance office because everything happened because you controlled the negotiation on the phone from the comfort of home. You got the written out-the-door price first, then you analyzed it, you rebuilt the numbers, you made a strategic counteroffer, and you negotiated from a position of strength. That's exactly how professionals negotiate. Get that conversation well rehearsed and down to a science and you'll get somewhere. Once you've done that, use the negotiation process I showed you today and you'll negotiate like someone who's done this hundreds of times. If this video helped you, give it a thumbs up. Subscribe if you haven't already and leave a comment and tell me what vehicle you're negotiating right now. As always, I'm Kevin Hunter, the Homework Guy, America's consumer watchdog for car buyers. I'll see you on the next video. And I'll get some fly swatted. ♪♪♪