How to Open a Car Lot in Atlanta with a Georgia Dealer License
When opening a car lot in Atlanta Georgia one of the first things that you need to do is ensure the building or office that you are using is zoned correctly by the City of Atlanta. In order to open a dealership in Atlanta, GA you will need to apply for a Georgia dealer license.
Georgia dealer licenses are approved by the Georgia Board of Used Motor Vehicle Dealers in Macon. The Georgia Board of Used Motor Vehicle dealers is part of the Georgia Secretary of State. So technically your Georgia dealer license is issued by the Georgia Secretary of State, however, Georgia dealer licenses are regulated by the Georgia Department of Revenue.
So, in a nutshell, in order you open a car dealer lot in the city of Atlanta you will need a Georgia dealer license issued by the Georgia Secretary of State but regulated by the Georgia Department of Revenue. And to take it one step further the State of Georgia will require you obtain an Atlanta business license BEFORE you are issued a dealer license so you can open a car lot in Atlanta. Did you get all that, I am going to simplify the process of opening a car dealership in Atlanta with a Georgia dealer license right now
You will need either a building, or an office to open a car dealership in Atlanta. There are 2 types of dealer licenses that are issued by the State of Georgia. A Used Motor Vehicle Dealer License and a Used Motor Vehicle Dealer License with a Broker Endorsement. If you have a building or office AND a lot you can apply for the Used Motor Vehicle Dealer License, this license does require that you have a lot at the same location as the building or office that you are using. If you obtain a Georgia Used Motor Vehicle Dealer License with a Broker endorsement, you can obtain a dealer license WITHOUT a lot.
The State of Georgia does allow a dealer license at your home; however you must meet all local zoning and have the license located in a building that is NOT your residence. I want to be clear on this, to have a dealer license at your home, you must meet your local zoning laws and have a building that is separate from your residence. Now I want you to be aware that having a dealer license at your home is not going to be the normal scenario in Atlanta, of for any city for that reason. As stated, a moment ago you must meet all local zoning requirements to obtain a dealer license. The City of Atlanta will probably not allow you to have a dealer license at your home, unless you are in some type of mixed-use zoning area. I will show you how to look up zoning in the city of Atlanta in just a few moments. You are going to need either a building with a lot, and office in an office in an office complex with a lot, a building or office without a lot, or in some scenarios, a building at your home that is separate from your residence that meets all zoning requirements to operate a dealership.
When I am giving a dealer training class, I am often asked the question, how do if find a location if I my local zoning does not allow me to have a dealer license at my home?
Well, there are in fact several ways to find a location to have a dealer’s license if your local zoning does not allow it. In fact, if you are not allowed to have a dealer license at your home, I am going to strongly encourage you to find a building or an office to obtain your Georgia dealer license, because a Georgia dealer license will allow you to enter and purchase vehicles wholesale from dealer auctions. You will be amazed at how cheap a vehicle sells for at a dealer auction and how high it will sell on your lot. When you get your dealer license and see how cheap vehicles are selling for at a dealer auction, I think you will wish you obtained your dealer license many years ago.
First I want to talk about how to obtain a Georgia Used Motor Vehicle Dealer license with a broker endorsement, remember this license allows you to get a dealer license WITHOUT a lot but you must still meet all other requirements.
There are several real estate companies in the State of Georgia that specialize in renting small offices to Georgia used motor vehicle brokers. So what this will allow you to do is get into this business simply by renting an office from a company that specializes in renting office space to persons that hold a Georgia Used Motor Vehicle Dealer license with a broker endorsement.
Lets do a search on craigslist a company is renting office space for $275 a month with three different locations
You will see some pictures of the offices that you can use for a Georgia dealer broker license, and it states on this page “our newest third with offices specifically for auto dealers. We have midsized offices furnished with a desk, file cabinet and two chairs for $275 to $295 per month. Although this ad is on craigslist you can the direct website address for this company is www.georgiaautobrokeroffices.com, I want to remind you in order to obtain any license you must first take a 4 hour dealer pre-license class and I truly hope you will consider taking that class from us which is required to obtain any type of Georgia dealer license including a dealer license with broker endorsement.
Another company that specializes in renting space to you if you want to obtain a Georgia dealer license without a lot, I found this company simply by doing a quick search on google for Georgia Dealer Broker Office and found a company with the website, omniautodealer.com once again that website is omniautodealer.com and on this screen you can actually see their phone number,
but on the next screen you can see how they stay compliant with the state law for auto dealer broker offices by posting the required signage on the front of the building. Georgia law requires you to post a sign with your dealer’s name in at least 6 inch or larger letters and as you can see here, this company will help you stay compliant with that law. So obviously this company Omni Auto Consultants have been doing this for awhile and the website says that are State Inspector compliant which I am assuming they have met all compliance requirements at this location, once again that website for auto broker office rental for this company is omniautodealer.com
Another company that I found that specializes in renting office space to Georgia used motor vehicle brokers and this website is liveoakvillage.net, once again the website address for this company is liveoakvillage.net, so there you see some information on the offices they can rent to you if you want to obtain a Georgia dealer license without a lot. Obtaining a used motor vehicle dealer license with a broker endorsement will allow you to obtain your Georgia dealer license, get into dealer auctions buy vehicles at low wholesale prices, then mark them up to full retail price to sell to customer.
I want you to be fully aware that a very large percentage of entrepreneurs like you might start with a Georgia broker license and operate without a lot, but end up obtaining a regular Georgia dealer license, the one which requires you to have a display lot.
When you obtain a dealer license with a broker endorsement and you are operating without a lot, you are missing out on the very large amount of business that you will receive with drive by traffic. Although more and more customers are finding vehicles on a dealer website, many, many customers still purchase a vehicle they have found simply by seeing the vehicle on the lot and then buying it immediately. When a person sees a vehicle on a Georgia dealer lot they have just driven by, many times they will get that spontaneous spark and their buying instinct takes over and they will buy a vehicle from you on the spot, right on your lot. This is still very substantial part of the buying process for most American car buyers. So although you might want to get started in this industry with at Georgia dealer broker license I believe you should certainly consider a full Georgia Used Motor Vehicle license with a lot because your profits are more than likely going to be much higher since you will have the vehicles you are selling right on the display lot ready to be test driven by your customers which will lead to many, many more of the spontaneous buy’s from your customers.
You maybe you are a little leery about paying the higher price to rent or purchase a dealer location that has a lot.
I want you to be aware that this is a very high markup, high profit industry that you are getting into here. If you are not able to obtain a dealer license at your home or if you want the higher profits that tend to come with a display lot, I will never hesitate to spend 6, 7, 8 hundred dollars or much more to rent a location that is zoned to have a dealer license with a lot. I you are not paying your entire month’s rent with one sale, then you are not marking your vehicles up enough. If you do decide to take your dealer license training from us, I will give you a link to a video that shows proven pricing methods on the vehicles you have for sale for top profits at your dealer lot, I will talk about your Atlanta dealer license class in just a few moments.
So how do you find a location that has a lot? There are several ways, you can check craigslist.org, loopnet.com propertyshark.com, you might call a realtor and have them keep an eye out for you, or in my opinion, one of the best ways to find a location in Atlanta for a car dealer lot, or in any city in Georgia for that matter, is to jump in your car and burn a couple of tanks of gas. If you have a job, take a different route home every day. Drive into areas of Atlanta or other parts of the state that you do not normally drive. There are several locations in the Atlanta Metro Area and throughout Georgia that are zoned to allow the operation of a motor vehicle dealership whether you choose to have a business location with a car lot or a location without a lot.
When you think you might have found a location to use to obtain your Georgia dealer license the first step is to ensure that is meets local zoning requirements to allow the operation of a Georgia motor vehicle dealership.
This is a crucial step in the process of gaining a dealer license anywhere in the State of Georgia. In my dealer training classes I have actually spoke with person that actually bought real estate to start a dealership only to find out that the location was not zoned correctly to have a dealer license. So, this person basically purchased a worthless property that the local zoning laws will never allow a dealer license. I also know of scenarios where a person will rent a location to have a dealer license and they assumed it met local zoning because it currently has a dealership at that location or possibly had a dealership at the location in the past. This does NOT guarantee the building is zoned for a Georgia dealer license. The City of Atlanta along with many other cities in Georgia will change a zoning law and allow the currently business in that are to remain in business because they are ‘Grandfathered In”. This means the business is allowed to continue to operate in that area as long as the business is owned by the same person. However, if the person that was renting a location in an area that has had the zoning changes decides to move or go out of business, the new zoning law will take effect at that location. So the next person that wants to obtain a dealer license at that location may not be able to legally have a dealers license there because the zoning requirements no longer allow it.
It is IMPERATIVE that you ensure the building you want to use to obtain your Georgia dealer license is zoned to operate a dealership BEFORE you ever rent or purchase a building to use for your license.
If you are researching properties in the City of Atlanta, I want to show you how you can easily enter the address of the building or office that you want to use to find out if it meets the City of Atlanta’s zoning requirements to allow the operation of a motor vehicle dealership at that location. And as a reminder the State of Georgia requires you meet all local zoning requirements as well
remember the State of Georgia requires you hold a local business license before you re issued your Georgia dealer license, so if you are in the city of Atlanta you will need to obtain your Atlanta business license
If you have specific questions about obtaining a business license in the City of Atlanta as you can see here is all your contact information. You can call 404-330-6270 or email newbiz@atlantaga.gov and I really hope that you find this information very helpful
As stated earlier part of the process of obtaining a Georgia dealer license is to attend a states mandated 4 hour training class. And that is what we do and we have dealer training locations all over the State so you can find a training location near your home just click on the Class Schedule link at the georgiadealer.com website
In you class we will complete all the paperwork that is needed to apply for your Georgia Dealer license, in fact if you are taking the dealer class in Atlanta we have a section of the course that is specifically geared towards gaining a license in Atlanta, but if you are outside the Atlanta area and are taking your class at our Atlanta location the majority of the class is geared toward operating a dealership in Atlanta but we will spend a few moments showing how to obtain an Atlanta business license. The state requires that you have a business license in whatever city or county that you are operating in, however we do have training classes that are not only held in Atlanta but also in Augusta, Columbus, Macon, Savannah, and Valdosta as well.
When you are ready to enroll in your dealer training class just click on the blue Enroll button at the top of very page of the Georgiadealer.com website. Thank you very much for considering the Automobile Dealer Training Association as your Georgia Dealer License Training Partner.
Find a Georgia Dealer Training Class near you by viewing the Dealer Class Schedule
We are here to help you start your Georgia motor vehicle dealership!
