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Buying in one state and registering in another

kwon

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I just went through this nightmarish process for myself and I was going through so many different sources (DMV website, forums, blogs) and could never find a great walkthrough of how to purchase a vehicle in one state and register it in another. I know a lot of people here buy from Granger or are buying from nearby states and are having to register in their home state. Every situation is different so I'll just outlay my own process so you can see where I made mistakes and things I learned along the way. This is unique to my situation where I didn't buy my truck in cash and had to work with a lienholder (who financed my truck). I also have zero knowledge when it comes to titling and registering so some of you vets will be useful resources here as well.

Jan 28. - Took delivery of truck in Utah from a dealer in Arizona. Arizona is a reciprocal state to Utah so I paid state taxes at the Arizona rate and the dealer collected my taxes and submitted them to the state of Arizona. This could vary depending on your state and you may have to pay taxes when you register your vehicle. Another thing to note on taxes is if you are in a reciprocal situation and the state that collected your tax has a lower tax rate you will be expected to pay the difference upon registering.

Feb. 3 - Went to the local DMV to register because I had been told by the dealer that I had everything I needed to register my truck. This was incorrect and DMV told me I needed to have the title in order to register the vehicle (duh). They tell me that I need to reach out to the lienholder to request my title to be delivered to my address (this is very incorrect don't do this). I, unfortunately, left believing this is what I needed to do.

Feb. 4 - Call lienholder and they are waiting for my title to come in, they tell me to call back in a week

Feb. 11 - Call lienholder and they are still waiting, they tell me this could take a few weeks so just be patient and wait a few weeks.

Mar. 4 - Call lienholder and they are confused why I'm the one requesting. They tell me the local DMV has to request the title. I call the local DMV and they have never heard of this being done. I call the lienholder and they tell me to call AZ DMV. They also tell me that they have yet to receive my title so I should also call the dealer.

I call the dealer and they are sitting on my paperwork because there was a mistake. They send my information to the AZ DMV that day for title creation. I call AZ DMV to see if they can just send the title to my local DMV (bear with me, I was just learning). They say they can't, obviously, and that my local DMV has to request the title.

I call local DMV and finally, someone knows exactly what I'm looking for and submits the request to the lienholder for title to be sent to them.

Mar. 11 - I call the lienholder to check and they did receive the request for the title from the local DMV but are still waiting for the title from the AZ DMV.

Mar. 18 - I get a confirmation in the mail that the title is being requested for transfer (comforting) and the lienholder says that they are still waiting for the title to come in. Title creation takes a little while so I knew it would take a few weeks to go through.

Mar. 31 - I call the lienholder and they have a tracking number for the title being sent to the local DMV. I check and the title will arrive on Apr. 6th.

Apr. 8 - I get a letter in the mail saying the local DMV has received my title and that I'll need to come in with the necessary paperwork to register and create UT title.

Apr. 12 - I go in, they have my title, I pay registration and I'm good to go.

If I'd known the way it worked I wouldn't have had to wait for so long to get my truck registered. Luckily, the dealer gave me 90-day tags so my tags weren't expired but 90-day tags aren't common. Don't assume that the person on the other line knows what they are talking about like I did. Local DMV has to request title and hopefully, someone there knows what they're doing and just keep calling until you find someone who does. I'd also recommend checking that the dealer has sent your paperwork to their state's DMV as it does take some time to get the title created.

Feel free to tell me I'm an amateur, I am, and also feel free to throw in your own pitfalls and learnings from buying in one state and registering in another.
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azwickey

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Ouch, that sounds painful. Thanks for sharing what you learned. This will be helpful to me as I may go through this process too.
 

sglide05

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It was pretty painless for me. I bought my truck in Oregon and live in Washington. The dealer handled everything.
 

mustanga10

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I bought in Illinois and transferred to Wisconsin. It was a huge pain in the ass because Wisconsin dmv centers are closed "due to covid" ? so I had to submit everything by mail. My dealer was a big help but the Wisconsin DMV form was worse than doing taxes by hand!
It would've been a lot easier if I could've just walked in and talked to a human being to help me complete the 3 page form that Wisconsin uses for 300 different possible situations.
 

Agashi25

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LOL this gave me slight ptsd.

I bought in IA and needed to register in IL.

The process wasn’t all that terrible the only frustrating part was the dealer/ IL didn’t really properly explain what needed to be done. Once I figured out the process it was mostly a waiting game.

My dealer got the title with lien from their local county and mailed it to me (it took about 2 weeks)

Once I got the title I took it to the local dmv paid taxes and surrendered the IA title to them and left with my plates/registration.

I have a ATV I bought in WI that I need to register in IL. Now that’s a whole different complicated. IL demands a title from WI before I can register it and pay taxes. Except WI does not issue titles to ATVs so I have no process moving forward. I never realized it could be so difficult to hand over free tax dollars to IL.
 

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JG601A

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My experience was pretty simple and painless (except for writing the sales tax check). I purchased my truck in Oklahoma and had to register it in Texas. The dealer in Oklahoma didn’t handle any of the registration or sales tax portion but included a checklist of what I need to take when registering. I did call my local office to double check before going down there and was glad I did. Found out I had to have a state inspection done in Texas prior to registration. Also found out that the odometer statement had to be an original (one of the carbon copy pages) as Texas won’t accept an electronic copy done via DocuSign or like type of online service.
 

Wakevictim

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I had no issues purchasing in WA state over the phone (signed papers that were Fedex’d) and registering in AK. Didn’t have to pay sales tax either with proof of residency (AK doesn’t have sales tax). Dealer even took it to get Line-X and drove it to the AML barge terminal, where it was shipped.
 

Wolf Man

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Although I have a pending purchase with Granger in IA (waiting for truck to be built & shipped), I hope I do not run into any issues registering it here in NV and don't anticipate any.

I bought a Ranger back in the 80's from a dealer in UT.

They had sold many vehicles to Nevada residents before so they knew how to handle the paperwork. Basically all I had to do was sign a form telling UT I was not a resident and that I would be registering it in NV so they waived the UT sales tax.

In Nevada we do not have to do state (safety) inspections like some others, other than for smog every year after the first 2 years. However Nevada does require inspections at a DMV office of any vehicle purchased out of state and registered in NV, they basically just look at the odometer, VIN label and do a quick walk around. At least that's how it was in the olden days :ROFLMAO:, hope isn't hasn't changed since. Of course the sales tax was charged when I registered it here and the UT dealer had given me the sales documents to give to NV DMV.
 
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kwon

kwon

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It's quite interesting to me how different each experience is. I even think most DMV employees don't really know the correct way of doing it since each state is different. Glad to hear that the majority have had pretty seamless experiences.
 

discothan

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Interesting. I bought in Indiana and titled/registered in Michigan. With COVID, dealership offered to do all the paperwork for $50 on top of the $100 doc charge. I didn't buy it outright because I took advantage of the Ford Financing rebate/incentive so I knew it was going to be a pain to do what OP did. $50 for them to push buttons and for me not to deal with appointments and calls to DMV/lien holder.
 

Plat_2021

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Years ago I bought a truck in MI but needed to register in MN... As I remember it MI gave me in transit plates and I handled all of the title / registration once I got to MN. I am sure I had a loan but if I remember correctly I simply added the lein holder to the MN registration / title request... No that was before Covid and things may have changed.
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