In today's unstable economy, the start up and seasoned business has an unique opportunity to acquire an attractive deal for off leases and repos for semi trucks, big rigs and over the road trucks. Due to a contracting economy, many lenders have excess inventories on their books that they need to put back into their revenue stream as quick as possible. These in-house inventories are non income producing, therefore putting pressure on the lender to make a deal with the consumer. These deals can be found in the price, the financing or a combination of both.



An off lease and repo semi truck has been returned to the lender as the lease has expired. The lessee has made a decision to return the item in lieu of exercising the buyout option. A repo has arisen due to a default of the lessee for non payment terms or a violation of the terms of the lease. Either way, the lender has taken these trucks back and/and now must recondition them and either sell these trucks or re-lease them.

The lender will either advertise their inventories through their internal sales force, trade journals such as truckpaper, truck trader etc or utilize outside professionals such as brokers to move their inventories as quick as possible. Sometimes, as these inventories either sit or whatever reasons aren't moving, the lender will put these items up for auction.

Some of the lenders in the market have advertised personal credit qualifications as low as 575, prior bankruptcy rules amended or ignored and start ups welcome. Additionally, the front money to commence the lease can start as low as first payment to whatever you might able to negotiate. Some of the lenders have application only programs up to $250,000. There are no financial statements, income tax returns or bank statements required. Additionally, some lenders may defer some of payments to get the semi trucks financed. The buyout clauses on these over the road trucks can range from a $1.00 buyout to 10% to 20% Trac leases to possible fair market value buyouts. One should understand these clauses because they have an impact on the passing of title.

For this article, the type of items we are going to identify as potential deals for the customer are the following manufacturers.

Petebilt, Mack, Kenworth, International, Freightliner, and Volvo.

Additionally, these semi trucks utilize a substantial amount of diesel fuel and this gasoline cost should be evaluated in conjunction with the finance costs of the truck. As the price of oil keeps going up, the decision making on both the dealer/lender and the customer has made it more difficult to balance the factors of profitabilty and survival.

In conclusion, this is a buyers market for semi trucks and one should evaluate all the factors relating to this acquisition including gas costs, air emissions, environmental type requirements, buyout clauses and the related financing.

Happy hunting for your acquisition and related financing...