You have no bank here to be involved; but maybe your buyer does. Go to his bank and let them take care of the money transfer to your lender. They will also have all the paper work there or can go on line to get them. You will be signing papers in front of his banker and all papers can be notarized there and witnessed. His bank will wire your lender the money and it is a done deal except for the titles and they can either be sent to his bank or his address. This can all be taken care of even though he is not making a loan at his bank. He will be protected and your loan agent will be protected which will make them feel better about the money transfer.

Your buyer will then come to you and have you sign over the titles. I suggest you request the titles be sent to his bank so both of you feels safe. Then meet him there and sign them.

Or what Donald said.^^^^

Reality is talk to your lender. Have done a couple this way. Buyer pays off the loan with a wire xfer. Remaining amount goes to ur account. Bill of sale is all he really needs to have a legal issue with you. Titles will be mailed to u afterwards sign and fwd to him.

really no risk on your end. I will say that lenders are usually slow to release titles.

I like this best of all. As curtbass says he doesn't get the boat until loan is paid in full I don't care how much you trust him. Too many things can go wrong and if they can they usually will.

Buyer lives in Austin and I live about 4 hours north. Going to his bank isn't realistic.

This will work best whey you guys are not close to do business. Once your lender gets the money you can let him come get the boat. His paper work can be done with you at that time; so no one has to make another trip.

Just spoke with the buyer. Currently we are going to meet Sunday when banks are obviously closed. He suggested he could bring a certified check for the payoff amount and cash for the equity in the deal owed to me. I would require that he have insurance by then in order for him to take the boat. I know he can insure it before he "owns" it because I insured the current boat about a week before the lending process was finalized. We would sign a bill of sale, exchange personal information thus making it clear that ownership was exchanged at that point in time in the event that, God forbid, something were to happen to the boat and/or motor while he's hauling it or potentially taking it out on the water the next day. I'm new to all of this but this sounds like the most viable option...

If we lived an hour apart it would be different but 4-5 hours separation is not something easily navigated.
I see nearly zero risk on my part with the above mentioned scenario. Thoughts?

Sounds like you have your mind made up so too late for "thoughts". You received a lot of good advice but decided to do it your way so good, bad or otherwise it's on you now. Anything the two of you sign is not worth the paper it's written on without a notary.Good luck though.

Well, there's the perfect scenario and there's what we have to work with. Nothing has been decided as of yet other than we are meeting Sunday currently.

Sunday and a certified check..... I would never do that and have turned that offer down multiple times.

Always some reason they are in a hurry to pick up the boat, and can only do it on Sunday.

Make it clear that no titles will be signed or handed over, Heck I would tell them to come down the following week to pick it up. Put it on the bill of sale that the check must clear.

Takes like 10 days for a certified check to clear. Ur bank will be able to advise.

No way I'd agree to that. Take a sick day off of work and meet halfway at a bank.

There is one good outcome and 900 bad outcomes possible in this scenario. Going to a bank helps cut that in half right off the bat.

Certified checks can be faked really easily.

There's just not a great scenario here. If I was him, there's no way I'd wire a transfer without taking possession of the boat. If I was you, there's no way I'd let him take possession of the boat without the transfer completed. That's one reason meeting at a bank to do both at the same time makes the most sense.

There's a reason everyone is cautioning you to be aware of risk here - because lots of folks have been burned on these sort of deals before.

This has bad idea written all over it. I implore you to not handle it this way.

Roger that. I�ll hold off. Don�t mind holding onto the boat for another week or so anyways while I wait to have my new boat built. I shutter at the thought of not fishing DURING THE FALL no less for 6-8 weeks.

YOU LISTENED, WHEW.