Where Can I Find a Good Used Car Buyer?

Used vehicle acquisition is competitive, expensive, and nuanced, even for the best car dealers. While some dealerships are happy sending their UCM to the auction, others who aren’t satisfied with that approach need to get a little scrappy and think outside the box. But where do you find someone experienced, knowledgeable, and hungry—a person who’s always learning and unafraid to make mistakes?

Finding a good used car buyer is one of the biggest hurdles dealers face when trying to explore alternative acquisition channels. With the pre-owned market evolving rapidly, especially in acquisition trends, having the right person in this role could mean a huge difference.

Corey Abel, COO of VETTX, always says, “No employee in the dealership has a higher ‘gross to expense ratio’ than a car buyer.”

A decent buyer with the right tools can not only generate massive amounts of gross but keep costs down by reducing buy fees. Especially if that buyer is focused 100% on private party acquisition, the connections, and relationships they build with customers in your market daily will make them worth their weight in gold.

Where Do You Find Them?

When searching for a car buyer, you have two primary avenues: within your network and outside of it.

Inside Your Network:

• Employee Referrals: Start with your current employees, dealer partners, friends, customers, and vendors. More on this later. 
• Social Media: Make a post on LinkedIn, share it with all of your connections, and ask people to send it along. Trust me, you’ll get more than a few bites. 
• Dealer Associations: Your 20 Group or other associations may have job boards or members who can provide referrals.

Outside Your Network:

• Job Boards: Obviously, there are platforms like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and Glassdoor. However, I have to plug the Car Dealership Guy’s job board. It’s fantastic—I’ve personally used it to hire three people this year. This isn’t a sponsored mention, but I highly recommend checking it out; you’ll thank me later. Plus, it’s completely free.
• Recruitment Agencies: While high-level recruitment agencies may not be necessary for this role, some agencies specialize in automotive placements and could be a good resource. 

Homebase: Promote from Within

One of the easiest and most common strategies is to promote from within. We actually discussed this in a recent video about who this person at your store should be, so go to www.vettx.com/resources/videos and give it a watch. 

The gist? Be picky. If you need to fill a single buyer seat, don’t stick a salesperson who struggles to sell five cars a month into that role. Instead, choose someone solid—maybe not your best salesperson, but someone who’s not afraid to pick up the phone and dial for dollars. Not only will they make more buying than selling, but so will you.

Don't forget about your Vendors

Maybe a weird one, but don't forget about asking your vendors, Especially your acquisition or appraisal tools. At VETTX, we’ve seen firsthand the demand for skilled car buyers, and we’re stepping up to meet that need. We’ve been successfully helping our clients find the right talent to work in-house with our software. If you’re struggling to fill this role, we can help connect you with qualified candidates who are ready to hit the ground running.

Drive, Curiosity, & Ethics

I recently came across this post on X. It’s titled “How to Hire the Best People You’ve Ever Worked With.” The post is from Ben Lang, but it discusses Marc Andreessen’s (founder of the largest venture capital firm by assets under management) philosophy on hiring talent.

I won't unpack the whole thing; it's a super fast read and will change the way you hire. Essentially, you want to look at three things in a person: Drive, Curiosity, and Ethics. He breaks down his framework for each.

Trust Your Gut: A Quick Story

Let me wrap this up with a quick story. Our CEO, Nick Patterson, used to run a used car department for a Toyota store in Northern California. When he first started building out his buying center for street purchases, he needed all the firepower he could get. He took a chance on a guy from the detail shop who had never bought a car in a professional setting. That was almost a decade ago, and guess what? He’s still there, and he’s a car-buying machine. The guy averages 30 cars a month off the street. It was one of the best decisions that the store ever made.

At the end of the day, no matter what formula or procedure you follow in your hiring process, it’s about trusting your instincts and following your gut.

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This article was featured on Auto Success Online Magazine! 

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