yes, to emphasize the point, if you don't do as jk says:
1. The only payment you will ever see is whatever he gives you before he takes the car.
2. He will do something with the vehicle that will get you sued and you will lose everything you have.
3. Or, something bad might happen.
<<He doesn't care about title transfer; actually doesn't want it>>
When you tell him no, he will disappear and you will not hear from him again. You didn't lose a sale, because you never had one.
I hope my tone doesn't offend you -- just trying to make the point so you don't lose big time.
Is this a common scam? I've never heard of this happening before?
are you still considering this? I would hesitate doing this with my next door neighbor. I would never do it with somebody I never met before.
what do you think would happen if he reneged on the deal? How do you know he lives where he says he lives. How would you ever sue the guy and then, collect on the award?
If I can get an $11k car for $3.5k, I would make a killing parting it out.
Maybe it is legit but I would not even consider it.
"Common?" - I don't have any statistics to tell how many people have fallen for it. I have heard of it and when I've advertised a car for sale, I've gotten at least a couple of calls each time from people asking if I'll take payments. Add out of state to that picture. Someone proposing this is either:
(1) an honest person who doesn't like banks and just happened to come from out of state and found your car was exactly what he wanted
(2) an honest person down on his luck who can't get a loan from a bank and honestly intends to pay you but will find that he can't
(3) a person who intends to make one payment, drive the car as long as he can with you paying the insurance and being the one at risk for any accident
(4) a scam artist who is part of an organization picking up cars and disposing of them in multiple ways, including parting them out.
I don't know which one of these your person is, but it is highly unlikely that it is number 1. The only difference to you between 2, 3 and 4, is that in 2 and 3 you lose and remain liable; in 4 you lose and the vehicle is likely disposed of in a way that relieves you of liability, but you won't know when you can stop paying for the insurance.