I used to work as a Bail Bondsman so I'm familiar with collateral. The idea of a third party finance company is good, but I think part of the reason people DON'T buy is that the finance charges are too high. To keep rates low I could, in addition to the bike's collateral value, require other collateral (other vehicles' titles, etc.) and as someone suggested, get a good downpayment, and if someone falls behind repo it right away. Having repoed vehicles, it's no fun, and not the goal of it all. Thanks for the responses.

 

The financing would make or break what I think your trying to do. Before I convinced H-D credit to finance me I considered a buy here/pay here place. In the end a $16,000 would of cost me almost $40,000

 

I would wait for the economy to rebound a bit - good luck on your decision.

 

Dude, I don't think you will be be chasing your bikes around, because by the time you realize your not getting paid the bikes will already be in parts

 

Go for it! But limit the number of bikes you finance to mimimize risk. Also, align yourself with a good repo company so you don't have to do the dirty work. A close friend owns a few used car lots and uses these practices. He does very well.

 

I would do a little research on how much the rate actually affects the monthly payment. The interest rate makes a huge difference for a mortgage, but for a car or motorcycle, not as much. For example, a $15000 loan at 10% for 60 months is $318/month. The same loan at 5% is $283. That's just $35 a month for a pretty huge difference in interest rate. Do you really want to rely on people making payments for whom a few bucks is make or break?