I first saw Marcee Hanan of Buyer's Advantage sign about three years ago when I went to her Seattle office building to set up a tattoo parlor client in QuickBooks, review their business model, and train them how to use their accounting software.
I thought at the time, "Wow, that's an interesting business idea. We have real estate agents to find us houses and handle the negotiation impartially, why not the same for cars? (And shuddering thinking of the last time I bought a new car and how emotionally and physically difficult I found it.)"
Then when my lovely 98 Volvo S70 with less than 50K miles on it got totaled, I had to shop for a new car. I had three weeks of rental coverage from evil State Farm which tried to nickel and dime me on what the vehicle was worth. I had to submit the matter for arbitration. The arbitrator hired by the company agreed with me that my clean well maintained vehicle with all service records was worth twice what State Farm was offering. Which meant that I had more money to shop with. But that's another review.
I knew that I had a choice in terms of shopping for a car.
I could do it myself and shop (till I dropped) on the Internet until 2 am, get a Consumer Reports report, use Costco's or other alleged auto buying programs "to get a deal", or go from dealer to dealer to get the "best price" while my business suffered from the time I would spend on "the search". Ironically, this is a common issue I deal with with my Quick Books and Quicken clients who tried to set up their books themselves, handle their own bookkeeping, and of course, mucked it up.
But that meant I would have spend a lot of billable time suffering through car dealer hell as I deal with salespersons I wouldn't hire as it was obvious that their only interest was their own and would sell me anything they could make money on as we bargain back and forth ("I have to talk to my boss about that...") while waiting in an uncomfortable auto dealer showroom dealing with their hard seats, lots of bad coffee, and blaring music (which annoys me as a hard of hearing person, I guess it's the vibrations). And wondering why?
Or I could hire a licensed expert like Marcee Hanan to be my car buyer's agent to do the work for me. Yes, you have to be licensed to do the professional work she does.
Marcee and I chatted on the phone. We first talked about what kind of cars I had owned in the past (basic Chevette 2 Dr, VW Camper, Peugeot 505 4DR, and Volvo 4DR loaded) had I bought new or used, what I liked about them and didn't, how long I liked to keep my cars, what I could afford, had I prequalified myself for a loan (yes, I used to be a real estate agent and understood the importance of being prepared) and what I wanted in a replacement.
She mentioned that she works with a couple of local dealers and suggested that I go on some test drives with her contacts and to do my own research as well (which would also give me some price comparisons). One dealer mentioned to me that "she's a tough negotiator and I was lucky to have her representing my interests."
I settled on getting a 2011 Prius IV with the navigation and solar roof package and some other less important features. I liked the mileage issues since I travel a lot and was tired of wondering when I would pay for the next tank, safety ratings (after my accident, it was on my mind), that the vehicle was slightly less than the same size as the Volvo so I would have more room in my condo's garage, and other features.
Marcee pointed out the advantage of getting the vehicle financed through Toyota at 0% for 36 months which I took them up on versus getting it for 2.9% from BECU or Verity Credit Union and how having an installment loan would benefit my credit score.
Marcee ended up getting the vehicle from another dealer out of state for $496 less than what one Seattle-area dealer offered (still saving me money when I took into account her fee and my time savings), $1825 less than using USAA Buyer's program, and several hundred dollars less than Costco's program (you think you are getting a deal until you add on the dealer's automatic and allowed markup under the program).
She even took a picture of me leaping for joy next to my "new baby" which made its first trip to Portland on one tank of gas recently.
So if you have to buy a car, choose wisely. Choose Marcee. You'll sleep better at night. And most car dealers won't. read more