How to Make $60k per Weekend with an Auto Fair

So this is a great idea because a lot of ideas we talk about, it's very approachable and you don't need much money at all to start this. So the idea is this. You play middleman between a business or organization or university that has a big parking lot and a bunch of consumers that own a car that want to sell that car. So what you do is let's say there's a community college or high school, right? Let's just use Allen, Texas as an example.

Tell them what this is first.

I'm getting there. I'm getting there. So Allen High School is one of the biggest high schools in the country. They have a massive parking lot. And of course, the parking lot's really only used Monday through Friday, aside from the occasional football game. So what Sierra Auto Fair is, it's named after the community college in the area. And it is an auto fair where anyone that has a car that they want to sell will go to the parking lot of the community college on the weekend after paying about $149 to Sierra Auto Fair. And they will have a parking lot or a parking spot reserved for them with a number. They'll show up, they'll fill out a form, they'll scan a QR code, they'll park their car, they'll leave their keys with an attendant, and then they'll come back two days later to pick their car up. While they're gone, other potential car buyers will show up to this auto fair for free. There's no admission fee. And they go, they look around, they shop, and they can take it on a test drive if the car owner wants to leave their keys. Some don't. And then it's great because you don't have to go through the used car buying experience. You can go directly through a seller.

It's.

They're very, very high intent buyers, sellers right there, all in one spot. All thanks to a company that brings them all together on a parking lot that would otherwise be unused.

Do you know how the purchase works? Are they using like cashier's checks? Are they just like, I don't even know, transferring bitcoin?

It's completely up to the buyers and sellers. So CR Autofair doesn't even get involved there. Okay, we made our 149. We're good. We don't care what happens. They do like tracking to see if the car is selling for their testimonials and advertising and all that. But what's your gut take on copying this idea in another market, specifically the.

Cars or Just the idea of utilizing the parking lot space, the whole business. I mean, I really like it. I think it's. If you can get people there. Yeah, it's a great business model. My question would be like, are they paying rent to the schools? Like how are they getting that space? What does that look like?

I would assume they are. I have no idea how much. What I don't like about this is that it's like a three sided marketplace almost. You got buyers, you've got sellers, and then you have a venue, right? The venue would be the easiest. It's one point of contact. But then you got to get the buyers there and you got to get the sellers there. And a marketplace is hard enough when it's on a website, but in person, man. What if you have a hundred cars there and five attendees? What if you have 500 attendees and 10 cars? There's. How do you balance that? Because if you put out a Facebook ad and the ad blows up for people to buy cars, but your ad for people to sell cars doesn't blow up, that's tough. It's embarrassing. It's stressful. Very. Like the stress of an in person event versus like an online event are incomparable. So I don't like that about it. But I do like how approachable it is and that it's a proven model that you could replicate somewhere else.

Here's what I don't like about the business. I'll start there. I think there's a potential liability, right? Like do you have to get approval from the city in order to host one of these? In order to conduct commerce? I just have no idea. How would you work with the school? And then there's. If people are scammers, like who do they come after? Potential liability to you for organizing the event, etc. That's the downside. I think the upside is physical goods, probably high ticket physical goods because you don't want to craft fair, you don't want to have people come and selling a bunch of like cheap trinkets. But you want to have a space for people to come and bring their things that would typically want to be inspected pre purchase, potentially furniture, cars, maybe electronics. Like I'm trying to think of some of the other things. So finding that in any community I think is really easy. Anybody could find the high school. The question is like how do you, how would you go out and drum up interest and demand? Because like you said, it's a three sided marketplace. Would you start with the supply? Would you start with the demand first, like where would you start?

All right, if you were watching this clip right now, you are watching this on YouTube. And if you are a fan of podcasts, please check out my podcast while you're at it. Because sometimes I have podcasts that aren't on YouTube and sometimes I have YouTubes that aren't on podcasts. So check out the Kerner office on any podcast platform or you can go to tkopod.com also my newsletter will throw that in there. There are no ads, it's weekly. It's different content than my podcast and YouTube newsletter.chrisjkerner.com you'll the link and we'll see you there. I would start small for sure and try to get like 20 cars to pay. And I would plan it like two months out in advance. Like it's like, okay, October 27th, we're going to have this car fair. It's usually 199, but it's $99 for our first 20 people. I get 20 people and then I shut it off and then it's like, okay, paid. These guys have already paid. They're going to be there now let's go find the demand side and then just run. I go into all the Facebook groups and I would just start posting like we do with our home service businesses and just start generating organic interest. And I might even charge like $5 just so I have some real intent to show up.

I'm guessing for the Sierra one, it probably organically grew over time where each year got bigger and it was word of mouth, right? It was like pre Internet. Now I'm trying to think you'd probably have to spend a lot of money in order to get awareness or do some like neighborhood door knocking, flyers, like those types of things to get really creative. But that first year you're, it's probably an investment. Or that first car show is probably an investment. Probably not making any money. But it's one of those long tail investments where you spend a lot of money up front and then it's just sort of self fulfilling. Every year after the first year you've got the Facebook group and people are talking about the next event and you know what I mean? It's like I think there'd be some built in infrastructure after year one, but it would probably take, I don't know, I would guess you're probably spending a couple thousand dollars just to do the first one as a test. You're not necessarily profitable on the very first one.

Here's what I do. You ready?

Oh, okay.

I would go to Facebook marketplace and autotrader.com and just start messaging all these people, private party only, that are already selling cars. I would say it's a hundred bucks, but you're going to get a full refund after you show up, whether you sell your car or not. I just want to be sure that you show up. So if you never show up, you're not going to get a full refund, but I need to make sure that you're there. So it's 100 bucks, it's 200 bucks. You pay in advance. Now, I know you're going to be there. I'm going to give you a full refund. So they're especially going to be there. That way you get the demand side. Okay, you just start messaging people that are already selling cars. Not just any cars, Nick, but cars that you know are likely to sell.

The supply side, you mean?

Not the demand side, supply side. Yep. Yeah, yep. And then you can even go into Facebook groups of people that are buying, selling, buying and selling cars, because that's a thing. And then you could start posting in there to get the demand side. Or you could just use Facebook ads, Facebook groups and all that. But I think if you can get 20 to 30 people to pay a hundred bucks to get their car there, it will actually be easier to get the people to show up. Especially if you can say, hey, we're going to have Honda Civics there. We're going to have Ford F150s there. Like, you're not going to allow the Subarus or the weird things. You want things that are going to.

Sell, because the whole idea is not a car show. Like, it's not just for you to come and look at, like, you want to buy and sell cars there.

Yep.

You know what else could be interesting? You know those high school fundraisers where they sell, like, the little books and within the book are like coupons to Chipotle and the local Raley's or supermarket, whatever. Like, you could probably put a coupon in there as well. Like maybe pay for a spot in that book. And then when all, like just piggyback off of the high school kids selling to all their friends and family, because essentially that's what you want, is the local community to come and be active in buying and selling these cars, right?

Yep.

That might even be an interesting distribution model. Yeah, that might be an interesting business period.

Well, here's another idea. I'm wondering if you reach out to the people on Facebook Marketplace that are selling something that is in Demand, a Ford F150, best selling truck of all time. And you say, hey, I'm going to charge you 100 bucks, but I'm going to give a full refund. And what I want you to do is, everyone that messages you about your truck, I want you to point them towards our car fare. And that way it's much more efficient for you. You don't have to meet people up in the Walmart parking lot or at your house. That becomes your distribution channel. They start funneling people to your car fare.

That's interesting. So then you're contacting people who they're like, it's already a weird thing anyway to have somebody come over to your house and inspect your car. You could scrape it and be like, all right, anybody who's posted in the last three days, I'm going to message, and I know that anybody within the last three days, I'm going to schedule out seven days in advance a car show for them and just see who's interested in. Okay, bring your car here. The potential problem with that is if their card isn't running, like, how do they tow it there?

I think they normally would be.

That's an interesting way to do it. You're just scraping the new listings and.

You'Re getting them to bring people and.

You'Re pitching to them like, hey, don't have people come to your house?

Well, here's the pitch. It's like, hey, you have four interested parties for your F150. Have them all come at one o' clock on Saturday at the parking lot at the community college, all of them at one. Then you've got fomo. Now you have a four to one ratio of people interested in the car. And you got, I'll take 21 grand, 22 grand, 23 five. Right?

Are you ready for this? Are you ready, my boy? All right, then. Who knows if this will work? Then you go to three local auto body shops and you say, hey, I want you to sponsor this. We'll put your name there. Give us a mechanic. Just give us one mechanic for the hours between 10 and 1. Okay? Why a mechanic give people the option to pay for an inspection on that car. So they're just right there. Obviously you can't do the full suite because, like, you'd need to actually jack up the car and get under all that stuff. But maybe it's something quick where you can get a better idea of what's wrong with the car, what issues might be associated with the car. Because then the repair shop has, like, warm leads Right. Like, well, I just diagnosed it. But to get the rest, I'd really have to bring you into the shop. They're there. It's easy. The customer pays for it. It's like, oh, 50 bucks for a quick inspection. And so essentially they're like paying 50 bucks for leads. Does that make sense what I'm saying?

Yeah, I kind of. I'm hearing something in your mic. Is that you eating? Because it almost sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too. Nick. Is that you want to monetize from the sellers and from a local business owner. Is that good?

I don't know.

Because I was taught that you only want one stream of revenue, but maybe that's not right.

Honestly, I think you were just hearing that because Big dog's gotta eat.

So I love it. I love it. Like, why wouldn't you?

Because then you. Yeah, then you de risk a little bit the investment. It's like, hey, you sponsor this? Yes. You're getting people to pay to actually bring their cars, but you're also getting the local auto body shops to or mechanics to sponsor it.

Dude, this is such a perfect audience to buy and sell through because it's. The person selling is about to have cash on their hands. The person buying already has cash on their hands. It's high ticket. They're very like, anyone showing up is highly incentivized to buy or sell. It's just like the best audience you.

Could take this idea. Let's say you did it for electronics and you were very specific. Let's just say it's, I don't know, an Apple Electronics fair and you only can bring iPads and MacBooks and iPhones that are of a certain generation and beyond. Like, whatever. You make it specific. You can do the same thing. You could have Geek Squad there and sponsor it. Or like, the local you break, I fix there, like, and they're just diagnosing these things on the spot. So you have, again, people sponsoring it, but then also people paying to be a part of it.

You got your cake and you're eating it. I mean, you could have a local. You could have a local moving company. You know, these people buying and selling are likely either have just moved or about to move. They're in a change of life moment. You have all kinds of people come.

And sponsor it because the more stakeholders from the community that you get to be a part of it, the higher likelihood that they're going to post and get the word out about it. Right. So of course you want as many People there who are invested in its success. So it's not just the sellers, it's also the sponsors. Like if there's a way for the buyers, obviously that'd be cool. I mean, the mechanics could even do something where, yeah, we'll look at these cars. But also, if you come from the community, you don't have to come to sell your car.

You could for a quick.

I'm sure there's some $50 you can.

Do Oil changes on the spot.

That's interesting. Mobile oil changes. Did we just start in business?

Tire changes, brake changes. Johnny on the spot. The. The best thing that you could happen, that could happen is if you had 50 cars for sale and like 500 people show up and like by 1pm like everything's gone.

Right.

That would be the best scenario. Right. Then it's like, oh, instead of doing this next month, we're going to do this again next week.

Yeah. I think it'd have to be somebody who's like really well connected in their local market like that knows that space. Like those local businesses that can kind of work the buyer and seller side that might have a relationship. And there may be somebody who's like, dude, I could do this. I know the principal at the high school and I know Jimmy Doe Bob down at the mechanic shop. He for sure come down and maybe pay a couple pennies, rub a couple pennies together to fix some oil.

I'll tell you what, honestly, it'd be smart if a used car dealership did this and it's bringing people to their dealership and it's like, oh, why would you do that? Because these people don't want to use car dealership. They might. It doesn't. It's not like this is going to put used car dealers out of business. They might go to look at that Acura and, and they don't really like it, but the dealer has an Acura that they do like. It's like the dealer can just sit by idly watching someone else profit off of used cars or they can get involved. Yeah.

Like you said, if it grows, there are a host of businesses that would be interested in having access to that community that you're bringing there. Right. Like, used car dealerships would be one of them. Banks would be one of them. Not just because they're going to have cash on hand to deposit, but it's like, oh, you need to finance this car. Like you can finance private party transactions. That's absolutely a thing. So you could have the local credit union come by and just Be there in case anybody wants to have a conversation. There's a million different businesses that could be coming, dude.

You could also just take the registrations of the people that are interested buyers. They're not paying anything. You get their name, email, phone number. You could sell those leads five times. Sell them to a bank, sell them to an auto detailing business. Sell them to a car repair shop.

Well, dude, okay, take it a step further. You get their Social Security number and their credit card number. Dude, you can sell it like eight times on the black market.

You could literally steal their identity.

Wow. All right, I like this idea. Now here's my question to you. It's like a tangent on this idea. Are there not mobile, like oil change companies?

Yes. They're growing like crazy right now.

Are they growing like crazy?

Uh huh. Yeah. It's like, it's growing in popularity.

We need to talk about that. Like, I remember the company. When was it that you and I talked about? This was probably like seven years ago where they would do mobile gas.

That's growing like crazy too.

It makes sense. It totally makes sense.

Yeah. So there's a business in Huntsville, Alabama that's very similar to this car fair, but it's just like this three acre strip of land right off a highway where there's no attendant and you just pay $200 a month to park your car for sale. There's with a for sale sign. And everyone just knows there's like a sign. And they just come and shop at their leisure. There's no one there. And you just call the number. And that's how they monetize their land. It's just raw land with a gravel parking lot.

Really?

Pretty smart, right?

Well, because like every community, no logistics, really, wherever you live, there's like that one street or that one part of the street where people park their for sale cars.

Mm.

And they're not paying anybody for that. They're just like parked on the street. Yeah, why not?

Okay, here's an idea. You ready?

I'm in. I'm Sheryl Sandberg. Right now. I am leaning in, bro.

You are, you are. You're going full Cheryl. Never go full Cheryl. So let's say you want to do this idea. You got to go buy land on some highway that's super expensive. It probably works really well for some boomer that's owned that land forever, Right? And he's just like monetizing it somewhat passively. What if you went to a. A huge shopping complex like a Walmart or a Hobby Lobby that has a Parking lot way bigger than you need. And you say, hey, kind of like a Dutch brothers would lease land in the middle of a parking lot. You're going to lease 20 parking spots on the edge of the parking lot that's least desirable to the shopping center because it's far away from the shop, but it's most desirable to you because it's closer to the road. And you can literally just play middleman. You lease the these 20 parking spots for 500amonth and you could have people come park their cars for sale in that spot. You could put some signage up.

I like that idea less because, I don't know, I just, I would worry about the liability of k car gets broken into and stolen.

You're not pulling the actually card on me, right?

Actually, no, I'm not pulling the actually card on you. What I'm saying is if you went and did it at a supermarket or a Walmart, for me it's like, okay, well then we could set up cameras to make people feel safer. And then we could like, it expands the scope of the services.

It's simple on, on paper, but in actuality it's less.

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's what I mean. Like, I still think it's a great, I think it's a really cool idea. I just, that one would make me more nervous because at least with the fair, it's like this is a designated time. We're going to be here between 10 and 2. Cool, done. You're out where you start like sublease and if you own the land, cool, great. I'm generating revenue from this and I actually own the land. But then you start like subleasing the spaces from Walmart. I don't know.

Makes my sense. I think to your point, the liability, let's say you could easily go buy insurance. Okay, you solve that problem. You really don't solve that problem. Because the massive property developer that owns that land is probably just too scared of the liability to care that you can just go buy it. They don't want it. But if assuming you could overcome that, I see this as a good way to get your feet wet in the bigger idea, right? Prove the demand, prove the model. Maybe a month to month lease. Because it's like, listen, Dutch Brothers is gonna, they're gonna break up your concrete. They're gonna put in plumbing and electrical and all that. If you don't like us, we're gone in 30 days. We're just testing something here.

Yeah, I like it.