Senior buys, drives, and flips cars

The Milford and Highland area has a prominent car-loving population, and this extends to some students of Milford High School as well. Perhaps it is the long stretches of backroads, the General Motors Proving Grounds, or the proximity to the once car capital of the world that is Detroit, but many residents find themselves buying and flipping cars for profit or to simply show them off on Sundays, a common practice at Baker’s of Milford. Either way, cars seem to be a driving force of entertainment for many.

The practice of buying low and selling high is a common phrase when it comes to many sectors of commerce, and when it comes to cars, this, if done correctly, can be a couple thousand dollars turnaround in just a few weeks. Senior Will Sjogren has been quite profitable by applying this principle to cars he finds on Facebook Marketplace. Oftentimes, these cars are older BMWs; he has flipped six cars in the past year alone. Besides the fact that it is a source of income, it also lets him drive around sweet cars while he looks for a buyer. 

“What is your favorite car you’ve flipped?” 

“A 1990 BMW e34 535i.” For non car-lovers, this can seem like a bunch of mambo jambo, but each letter means something. 1990 refers to the year, obviously. BMW, or Bavarian Motor Works, is the make. E34 is the generation of BMW, used as a shorthand way of saying the entire name of the car. 535i is the engine and body type. 5 means a 5 series, a mid sized BMW, and 35 means 3.0 L engine displacement six cylinder turbocharged engine, producing 300 horsepower running of standard combustible gasoline, rather than diesel.

“What is your process of adding value to a car?”

“Honestly, I never really do anything to the cars, but I just work the sellers down to a price I know I can make a profit off and hold the car until I find a buyer who is willing to pay more than I did.” He went on to explain how there is a risk associated with doing this since a car that has been passed around a lot can have many problems, but as long as proper care is taken of the car, no major problems should occur that bite into your profits. 

In order to be able to do this for profit, one must have a pretty good idea of how much certain cars are usually bought and sold for. When going to look at a car, Sjogren has a price in his mind that he tries to work the dealer down to, and won;t buy the car unless he can get the price he wants, or else it would be a waste of time and money since he wouldn’t be able to make any money when selling the car later. This knowledge comes with many nights of research and browsing forums, transactions, books, and any other information he can get his hands on, since in a capitalistic society, knowledge is money.

Sjogren currently has in his garage a 2010 Nissan 370z and a 2004 Cadillac CTS-V, two high-powered cars, the former housing a GM LS6 engine and putting out 400 horsepower. If either of these cars interest you, Sjogren would like it to be known that they are both for sale at reasonable prices. “Wealth is about finding the easiest way to make money so that you can put the money you make from that into another easy way to make money so that by the time you’re old, you have a ton of money” says Sjogren, a principle he applies every day.