Category: Accelerated Title

Top 5 Reasons to Remain Optimistic About Your Trades

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Used vehicle sales helped keep dealerships afloat during new vehicle inventory shortages in recent years, but they are expected to be flat this year as new vehicle sales rally. Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke recently shared this projection in a 2023 Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index. His team also expects used vehicle values to begin recovering by the end of the year, based on year-to-date increases in the first quarter.

Whether used vehicles are leading sales for your dealership or playing a more supporting role, the way you handle trade-ins affects your profitability and cash flow. In any market conditions, optimizing trade-in payoffs and lien and title release can help you save on processing and holding costs and realize profits sooner.

Let’s look at five ways using a digital solution can help you plan for success and make the most from your trades:

#1 – Eliminate deal-killing surprises

When a trade-in comes to you without a title, you don’t know what you don’t know. There could be an ex-spouse or estranged parent listed who won’t approve the trade or can’t be reached. Before you know it, you’re facing unwound deals and bad feelings all around. Or inversely you may find yourself doing what other dealers do and turn away a potentially profitable trade due to the risk of there being a payoff surprise tied to the vehicle with no way of knowing what details reside on the title.

A trade-in titling solution lets you view an image of the paper or electronic title before you take in a trade. With all the facts in front of you, your dealership can work with the customer to solve any potential problems or choose not to accept the trade. Either way, you move forward with all the necessary information to make the decisions that are right for you.

#2 – Less painful payoff quotes

Does your ear feel warm just thinking about the time you spend on the phone to define what the trade-in payoff amount is? Do you hang up each call expecting that you may still have to deal with a short pay or overpay?

Using a digital trade-in titling solution gives you a direct online connection to top lenders for reliable payoff calculations specific to the lender and based on the date you choose.

#3 – No more checks in the mail

It’s probably been a while since you wrote a check at the grocery store. So why are you still cutting checks and shipping them to lenders? The entire process is surprisingly costly for dealerships, adding up to an average of a thousand dollars per month for a single rooftop.* The administrative work includes having to look up the correct remit address for the lender and making sure you verify the account number. It’s a lot of effort that could be handled with a press of a button using a trade-in payoff solution.

With all the routing information included on the back end, ACH payoff gets the payment to the lender immediately so processing can begin right away.

#4 – Title or lien sat release in hand faster

The longer it takes to get a trade-in vehicle’s paperwork transferred, the longer it sits idle on the lot costing you money instead of making money. On average, it takes 18 or more days to release a lien or title and in the meantime the vehicle is taking up a percentage of what you spend on dealership overhead costs. Expedited lien and title release cuts that processing time down by 70% when you use Dealertrack Accelerated Title®.**

#5 – Steady cash flow

It’s important to keep cash flow moving to power your dealership. The sooner you have the lien sat release or title in hand for a trade, the sooner you can sell it and realize fuller profits. Instead of letting holding costs add up and take away from your profits, speeding lien and title release means you can be re-selling the vehicle more quickly off your lot or at auction.

The bottom line

Streamlining your lien and title payoff and release processes can benefit your dealership regardless of economic trends. Take control of your operational efficiencies now to help make the most of your trades, even when times are uncertain.

Save money and get rewarded!

Throughout November 2023, use Accelerated Title and you can earn rewards and be eligible for grand prizes. Terms and conditions apply. Find out more here.

Sources:

*Dealertrack and dealer customer data as of August 2022. Not a guarantee of actual savings.
**Based on average industry timeframe for vehicle title release and vehicle payoff process of 18+ days, as determined by 2022 Dealertrack data.

Six Ways it Pays to Go Paperless

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When Earth Day comes around, it’s a good time to think about saving paper. But saving trees and doing good for the planet aren’t the only benefits of using less paper at your dealership.

If you’re using dealer software, you’re already familiar with the digital efficiency of submitting credit apps to multiple lenders with a click, accurately crunching deal numbers, signing deals on devices, or cutting down the wait for trade-in title release. But digital solutions also remove hassles associated with paper workflows and make your daily tasks easier to manage. Here’s how:

1. You can’t get a paper cut from a mobile device

Does anyone really enjoy printing and collating paper documents? It’s a lot of work and even when you do everything right, you’ll be presenting them to customers who immediately envision a case of writer’s cramp on the horizon when they just want to take their new vehicle and go.

If you made an error? Then you must start over and use up more time and paper.

And let’s not forget what those reams of paper cost! Record Nations estimates that the average business spends as much as $8,000 a year on paper.

Digital submission of credit apps and contracts can be handled on a tablet, so you don’t need to juggle stacks of paper to collect the information and signatures you need. No paper cuts, no writer’s cramp – just fast, efficient processes that help keep car buyers engaged in the excitement of their purchase.

2. We all remember the great toner explosion of 2019…

Printers and copiers can go from being useful tools to messy, annoying hindrances in an instant. Paper jams, the inability to connect to a data source, and mishaps replacing ink or toner cartridges can lead to frustrating downtime and delays for customers. Copiers and printers require expensive, often proprietary supplies, and service maintenance calls are even more costly. And printing checks often requires special equipment and more paper handling with mailing and stamps.

With digital processes, the war with printers is over. Online solutions allow you to submit credit apps, build funding packages, get electronic signatures, transfer trade-in payoffs via ACH, and connect securely to lenders – with no need to involve paper documents.

3. Valuable time and real estate

Did you know that a four-drawer file cabinet takes up an average of 9 square feet of floor space? That sounds like the beginning of an algebra problem, but think about what else your dealership could put in place of all the paper files you currently store.

Gartner research shows that every day, between 2% to 5% of an organization’s files are lost or misplaced. It takes an average of 18 minutes for an employee to locate a paper file and for misplaced files, the time spent jumps up to two hours! In contrast, digital files are securely stored in a customer’s digital deal jacket for easy, on demand access.

4. Keeping data out of the wrong hands

Speaking of secure storage, mishandling paper documents and files can compromise data security and expose your customers’ personally identifiable information (PII). For instance, if you forget to pick up a document from the copier or leave it out on your desk, anyone could pick it up and potentially misuse the information printed on it.

Digital solutions help keep your files password protected and available only to authorized staff members. And electronic transactions are encrypted and more secure than mailing or shipping paper documents, so sensitive customer data stays protected throughout the deal.

5. No need to get up

It’s easy for a customer to miss a signature in the haze of colorful sticky flags on stacks of paper forms. With digital signing, customers can review and sign once on a tablet or mobile phone, then simply click to apply the rest of the necessary signatures. They can do it on the lot, in the showroom, sitting in the vehicle they’re about to buy, or even handle deal completion from their home or office.

Dealerships can create full funding packages with an eContracting solution for uploading stips and deal documents, adding signature and date fields to create eSignable forms, and set up secure, single signing sessions for their customers wherever it’s most convenient for them.

6. Too much? Too little? Just right!

The most paper-intensive part of manual trade-in payoffs is cutting and mailing checks. If it’s a short pay, you have to generate another check. If you’ve overpaid, you get a check back from the lender to process and deposit. Meanwhile, your lien sat release or title release gets delayed until the finances are sorted out.

A digital trade-in titling solution removes all that extra time and paper from the equation with reliable payoff amounts calculated from lender data and payoff submission via ACH. Liens and titles get released faster and your staff no longer has to deal with all the back and forth.

The bottom line

Switching to digital processes can save you up to $65 per deal on average1 – and approximately 52 sheets of paper per deal.2 Don’t let the inefficiency of paper deals impact your business – start adopting more digital credit applications, digital contracts, and electronic trade-in payoffs so you can maximize your savings!

In the spirit of conservation, Dealertrack is rewarding dealerships that use digital solutions throughout April of 2024. Learn how you can earn rewards >

1Savings estimates based on $50 savings from printing, shipping, and forms costs plus $15 savings when using Accelerated Title. Figures based on dealer calculations using Dealertrack’s Accelerated Title Savings Calculator and Digital Contracting Calculator as of 2022. Not a guarantee of savings.

2Based on Dealertrack and dealer customer data as of August 2022

Unmasking “Double Agents” Before Taking Trade-Ins

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It was the kind of trade-in that would get the attention of any dealer in the city. With low mileage, sleek lines, and a purring engine, it had “fast resale” written all over it. But this car was a double agent, hiding a secret on its title that threatened to cause heartbreak for its owner, the dealership, and the next eager buyer.

Luckily, the dealership had seen its share of double agents before. A less seasoned dealership might have waited weeks before receiving the title and learning of the customer information discrepancies it contained. But this dealership was primed and ready with a trade-in titling solution that offered a quick peek at the title before there were commitments on either side.

A Surprise No One Wants

There are good surprises and bad surprises in life, but what every dealership wants to avoid is a trade-in title surprise. That’s what happens when the customer’s name or address is wrong on the title – or worse, there’s a co-owner or co-signer that no one mentioned. When you’re handling your payoff and title release manually, these unwanted surprises may take weeks to pop up. They can delay remarketing or even unwind both the original deal and the trade-in resale.

Shining A Spotlight on Title Details

Dealertrack Accelerated Title allows dealers to see the full details of titles held by top auto lenders ahead of taking in a trade. That information helps the dealership get ahead of any needed title changes that could hold up resale or unwind a deal – and they can choose not to accept a trade depending on what they uncover.

According to the 2020 Dealertrack Online Dealer Community Survey, on average about 53% of vehicles taken in on trade each month require title acquisition, which means more than half of trades could be hiding payoff and title surprises that need to be addressed.

Not only can Accelerated Title help you identify and defuse double agents among your trade-ins, but it also helps complete payoff and title release up to 70% faster than manual methods, so you get a clear title in as little as 4-6 days. Full title details plus expedited title release means you can confidently turn a trade and realize its profit potential without lingering unknowns casting a shadow over the deal.

Register for a brief, live demo to find out how Accelerated Title can help your dealership avoid double agents. 

What To Do About Trade-In “Freeloaders” On Your Lot

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When you take a vehicle in on trade, it starts out at the dealership as an honored guest. After all, it’s there to be re-sold at a profit.

But when it takes a long time to get a clear title, soon that same vehicle reveals its secret identity as a freeloader: a trade-in without a clear title that takes up space on your lot, costs you interest, and racks up other holding costs that eat into your profitability day by day.

According to Dealertrack data, the average industry timeframe for vehicle title release and payoff is 18 days or more. And data from a 2019 NCM Associates Group Study puts average holding costs at $37 per day, per vehicle. So that means the average freeloader chews up nearly $700 in profit potential while sitting idle on the lot waiting for the lender to receive the payoff and ship the title back.

Turning Freeloaders into Profit Earners by Shortening Their Stay

Dealertrack manages paper and electronic titles for numerous lenders, which makes them uniquely positioned to speed trade-in title release for dealers. Dealertrack Accelerated Title® helps a dealership complete payoff and title release for trade-ins up to 70 percent faster, so the clear title arrives in as fast as 4-6 days.

That means you can hustle those freeloaders off the lot more quickly, help maximize your profit potential, and see the cash flow from re-sale or auction with less delay.

There’s an old saying, “Every guest brings you happiness. Some when they arrive, and some when they leave.” Accelerated Title can help ensure that your trades don’t overstay their welcome so they can bring your dealership happiness – and profitability – coming and going.

Sign up for a brief, live demo to find out how Accelerated Title can help your dealership avoid freeloaders.

Avoiding Title and Payoff Surprises With Trade-Ins

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Under the current market conditions, with new car inventory at historic lows, dealerships’ used car programs are more important than ever as a revenue and cash flow source. That puts increased focus on your dealership’s trade-in process, both for replenishing used car inventory and enticing car buyers to upgrade.

Now the challenge is to ensure that you have all the information you need to keep the deal moving smoothly.

The more you know…

Let’s say someone brings in a trade-in vehicle with great resale potential and they’re eager to purchase another vehicle from you. The customer tells you that nothing has changed with their name or address since they bought the car and they’re the only person listed on the title.

What you don’t know is that the title actually lists an old address – and the customer’s former spouse as the co-lienholder.

With manual processes and paperwork, that kind of revelation could take a while to surface and when it does, there’s a chance that your dealership could be stuck with a vehicle it can’t legally sell. At the very least, it will create extra work and hassle for you and your customer. At worst, it can cause the deal to unravel and leave you with the fallout if you’ve sold the trade to someone else or sold a new car to the customer who brought in the trade, valued with the vehicle they brought in.

When your dealership has access to a digital trade-in title solution, you can view all the title details immediately. That way, if there’s a potential problem you can begin to work it out with the customer then and there, before you even accept the trade. Having the information you need up front helps ensure smoother transactions and preserve your CSI scores.

Payoff perspective

Another manual trade-in process that can bring its own surprises is loan payoff. Having complete and reliable payoff information is important for desking clean deals. It also cuts down on time-consuming back-and-forth with the lender if you need to make adjustments.

A digital trade-in titling solution provides direct lender connections for real-time payoff quotes based on the payoff date and allows for immediate title release as soon as the lender receives payment.

Keeping cash flow moving

Why is all this important? Because delays in payoff and title release equal delays in cash flow. While the dealership waits for the title on a trade-in, holding costs accumulate and the potential for retailing or auctioning the vehicle is held back. The sooner you can have the title in hand, the quicker that cash flows into your bank account.

Find out how Dealertrack Accelerated Title helps keeps your trade-in process moving without any surprises.

Your Shortcut to Faster Trade-In Titling

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The typical trade-in process is full of time-consuming manual steps that can mean a long road ahead before you receive the title and turn the inventory. Dealertrack Accelerated Title® offers an expressway to faster title release with just a few easy, online steps.

See how it works in the infographic below (click image for a larger view) and visit go.dealertrack.com/ATexpress to get your dealership on the AT Expressway.

How Dealertrack Accelerated Title speeds trade-in title release

Clear Titles, Full Details Make for a Winning Trade-In

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Autumn means colorful leaves, a chill in the air and the welcome return of football. This year, the auto business is experiencing some tough challenges brought on by daunting economic and industry conditions. Your dealership’s team has a job to do, and trade-ins can be part of a winning strategy for keeping your used car inventory stocked and your cash flow moving.

To lead your team to victory, you can take a cue from the inspirational pep talks football coaches use to help their players turn the game around. So, here are some encouraging words about how your dealership can utilize a digital solution to dig deep and overcome some of the obstacles you’re up against when it comes to trade-in titling.

The Need for A Clearer View of the Field

Let’s say you have a customer who’s ready to buy a vehicle – and they have a trade-in that you know is in demand. If they don’t have title in hand and you use a manual process to obtain one, it could be weeks before you can be 100% sure you’re in the clear and that there are no surprises like a former spouse as co-lienholder or wrong addresses to impede your progress.

Keep Deals from Getting Sacked

If you do encounter one of those payoff surprises, what you thought was a touchdown could end up being a costly sack. If you can’t gain a clear title for a trade – especially if you’ve already re-sold it – you could be facing a very unhappy customer and an expensive loss.

A better strategy is to beef up your defensive line with a digital trade-in titling solution that allows you to see full title details before you decide to take in a trade. That way, you have the information you need to anticipate anything that might tackle the deal so you can take the appropriate action before it’s too late.

Improve Your Inventory Game

Between car buyers’ understandable budget concerns and unusually low levels of new car inventory, used cars are having a moment in the spotlight for dealerships. Trade-ins play a big role in keeping a dealership’s used car inventory lineup solid, so it helps to optimize your payoff and title release process to not only avoid any payoff surprises, but also help keep trade-in inventory moving.

Outrun Cash Flow Interference

Manual payoff and title release takes an average of 18 or more days according to Dealertrack data. While trade-ins sit idle, you’re not yet realizing a profit on your investment. At the same time, holding costs add up until the title arrives, further impeding your profit opportunity.

Even if you’re planning on auctioning the vehicle, having the title in hand nearly doubles your chances of first pass sale at auction1 – and until the title arrives, your cash flow on the sale is held back while you wait.

Using a digital trade-in titling solution to expedite title release from key lenders can get your trade-in inventory in play faster by reducing the time spent waiting from weeks to days. That way you’ll get to the cash flow goalpost more quickly, regardless of whether you re-sell trades on your lot or at auction.

Want to learn how Dealertrack Accelerated Title trade-in titling solution can help you reach your dealership’s inventory turn goal lines more quickly? Visit our feature page for more information and to request a demo.

12018 (1.6X) Manheim Articles “Impact of Delayed Titles at Auction

CASH FLOW OPPORTUNITIES: THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN RETHINKING YOUR BACK-OFFICE PROCESS

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Now more than ever, dealers are looking for ways to promote efficient processes that can stimulate healthy revenue flow for their business. After all, cash is king, especially when looking at the current state of the economy and preparing for future trends. To stay competitive, it’s essential for dealerships to look for solutions that will help speed transactional processing of the inventory they source and sell.

Dealertrack Sr. Business Development Director Joey Yates and titling specialist David King recently explored cash flow efficiency in a video chat from their respective home offices. Through their discussion, they offer interesting insights and best practices for optimizing your back-office processes to help promote cash flow at your dealership, not only today, but for every day moving forward.

Understand the key drivers of cash flow at your dealership

Did you know that one of the most viable sources for cash flow at your dealership today is trade-ins? Here are some areas to look at to ensure that your trade-in program is operating at peak efficiency:

  • Inventory Sourcing – Source opportunistically, with cash flow in mind. When taking a vehicle in on trade, consider the speed of title receipt along with how fast you can recon the vehicle to determine when you can get to market and sell for cash fast. Vet your wins and employ a discerning eye towards trade and wholesale acquisitions to add to your inventory.
  • Marketability – Assess vehicles’ marketability and target key advertising channels to provide optimal results and visibility for vehicles you are looking to sell. This is especially important in today’s economy, where dealers are seeing a glut of supply and less immediate demand.
  • Process Efficiency – You want to move your inventory fast and keep holding costs and bottlenecks in recouping funds from hindering your cash flow. Use digital solutions to understand the payoff amount left on each vehicle (if any) and get the title released quickly. This will help with inventory turn – whether off the lot or at auction – and optimize cash flow for your dealership.

Digital tools help streamline processes

Manual processing of payoff and title release is time-consuming and can steal valuable time away from your remarketing window of profitability. The holding costs for slow movers or vehicles in title release limbo at auction can add up quickly, and negatively impact your bottom line.

A digital solution like Dealertrack Accelerated Title® allows you to gain insights into title details, calculate a reliable payoff, understand the profit potential of the vehicle, and gauge the opportunity for quick resale. You also want tools that will aid you in gaining the title quickly to help ensure speed for move to auction or remarket. When you add speed, insights and accuracy to your back-office process, you can boost fluid cash flow and recognize profit opportunities on your trade-in vehicles.

Want to learn more? Watch Joey and David’s conversation to hear their insights on increasing back-office efficiency, or download our Titling for a New Today Guide that focuses on cash flow opportunities for your back office.

Expediting Title Processing Can Save Time and Money

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In our digital-first world, no one wants to wait for anything. So why does vehicle title processing still take so long?

In this article from Used Car Dealer Magazine, Kaitlin Gavin, VP and General Manager of Dealertrack Registration and Title Services and Sandy Moon, AVP Client Experience at NextGear Capital, explored some of the title processing technology solutions that can reduce waiting and save dealerships time and money.

Read article

Improving Cash Flow with Faster Title and Lien Release

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Cash is king for any business, and dealerships are no exception. Even with solid reserves and good fluidity, better cash flow always helps with your dealership’s expenses and overhead.

So, how does faster title and lien release help with cash flow? Let’s take a look.

Immovable objects

Once you’ve invested in a trade-in, there’s going to be a period of time when the vehicle is basically an oversized paperweight until you can finalize the lien release and get your hands on the title.

In a few states, it’s illegal to re-sell a vehicle before you have the title in hand. Everywhere else, even if you do take a vehicle to auction without the title, Manheim data shows that your chances of selling it on first pass are about half what they would be if you had the title in hand.

Dealertrack data shows that the industry average payoff and lien and title release for a used vehicle is 12-18 days. That’s weeks where the cash you paid for a vehicle – and the cash you’ll ultimately get for reselling it – are tied up while your dealership spends hours chasing down titles and cutting checks.

All this time you’re also accumulating holding costs, including the overhead involved in storing the vehicle plus any interest if there’s floor planning involved. Meanwhile, you still need cash flow to keep taking in trades and covering payroll.

Turning metal into money

What if you could pay off trade-ins and get the title and lien release into your hands in days instead of weeks? Think about the cash flow boost you’d get from cutting two or more weeks off the time you need to wait before you can auction or re-sell a trade-in.

Dealertrack Accelerated Title takes the lengthy manual payoff and title release process and handles it with the press of a button. Instead of 12-18 days of cash stagnation while you wait for processing, you get your title and lien release back as quickly as 4-6 days.

That gives you the opportunity to consistently speed up your ROI for each used vehicle taken in on trade.

Want to learn more about this no-charge enhancement to your existing Dealertrack account? Request a demo today.