Hasan Tayem, September 10, 2026

Hasan Tayem

My full name is Hasan Tayem. I'm the field operations manager. I handle basically everything the name sounds like. So I handle buying the vehicles. I handle coordinating with the drivers, pickups, drop-offs. I handle customer feedback, dealing with the customer side of things. If anybody has any complaints, stuff like that. If we need to resolve issues with a customer or get things figured out, that's where I step in as well.

Hasan Tayem

So you guys are the co-owners. I'm the guy who handles everything in the field. I'll be the one who goes and buys the cars and gets most of the transactions done. You guys handle more of the back end kind of things, and generally put in the funds for it.

Hasan Tayem

Yeah. So it just depends, honestly, who you get.

Hasan Tayem

I used to do many things before getting into cars. I used to do concrete, carpentry. I've done warehouse work. McDonald's, if you'd believe it. And then I slowly got into cars and started learning wholesale. I just fell in love with it, man. Buying cars is a passion. You get to meet different people. You get put in different situations. You get to adapt. You get to learn. You get to grow.

Hasan Tayem

I don't really have many qualifications that I could tell you on paper, but I could tell you from my personal experiences, the stories that I have. There are a lot of things that I have witnessed firsthand that not a lot of people could say they have done or experienced. Not really in a paper sense, but I could tell you everything.

Hasan Tayem

Exactly. I've been doing it for about three years. So three years, and going forward hopefully.

Hasan Tayem

I want to say I'm probably around the 500 mark, honestly.

Hasan Tayem

You can always learn new things. There are a lot of different situations that you'll be put in in this line of work that you'll have to adapt to. But once you understand how it generally works, it's a very good business to be in.

Hasan Tayem

Generally, when somebody inquires to sell their vehicle (let's say for example a 2019 Toyota RAV4), we look at what they have listed. So if it has accidents, if it has damage, the mileage, the trim, everything regarding the vehicle. We'll get the value of it, and then we'll look at what price would work best for us and works best for our customer as well.

Hasan Tayem

And then after that we negotiate. If we can make a deal that everybody's happy with, we'll set a time, we'll set a date, we'll go to pick up the vehicle. We'll head to the bank. If the car has a loan, the loan needs to be cleared out first. We'll get a payout quote from the lien holder, so let's say TD Bank. We'll head to TD Bank, get a payout quote, head to RBC, get a bank draft for the loan, and then if we have to pay you out as well, we'll get your bank draft issued too. Then we pay out the loan, get you paid out, sign the paperwork, and we'll be out of here. Simple as that.

Hasan Tayem

When you're handing over a VIN, it's normally nothing to really worry about. If they're just looking to get a Carfax. Sometimes people are just looking to get a general valuation of a car, because some details you don't really see until you have the VIN. It just gives you a little bit more of an accurate number. That's all it really is for us.

Hasan Tayem

I wouldn't say you should really worry about it unless you have a loan on the car. And even if you do have a loan on the car, there's not really any sensitive information, just an address that shows where the lien was issued, who the lien holder is, and their contact info. That's about it. It doesn't show phone numbers. Nothing.

Hasan Tayem

Generally, no. But of course, this isn't the perfect world that we live in.

Hasan Tayem

Exactly. Some people prefer to give the VIN on the spot. But it just slows down our process if we have to go out to every single person and get the VIN manually. That's not to say it's a waste of our time. It's just that there's so much to do that adding that extra thing would mess up the schedule.

Hasan Tayem

They're just worried that it's a scam. To some people it just doesn't make sense. What we're trying to do is prove to people that we are what we say we are. We're just looking to make things simple for people. Make things easier.

Hasan Tayem

Not a lot of people believe how easy it is. A lot of people think sometimes it's a scam. What we're trying to do is make it more seamless, more flawless. People's time is valuable to us, so when we can make ourselves faster and better, more people would be attracted.

Hasan Tayem

They'll just ask if the offer is still available. Honestly, I bought a car almost a year after. It doesn't necessarily matter when that happens. We're always going to be able to buy a car, as long as the offer is still strong enough. We will honor our offer and we'll get it done.

Hasan Tayem

We don't really care about the time frame. You can always come back to us anytime, even if that's something you wanted to try to sell privately. That's totally your call.

Hasan Tayem

Exactly. Everybody has free will at the end of the day, my friend.

Hasan Tayem

I'd honestly say the difference is that sometimes people's expectations of what their car's value is aren't really accurate with the market. That's not to say anything against them. It's just that we go purely off the numbers, not off emotion.

Hasan Tayem

Some people are into cars for loans that are $10,000 over what the car is worth, and in that situation you're probably going to end up paying out of pocket. Not a lot of people would want to pay $10,000 at the same time.

Hasan Tayem

Let's say I show up to a vehicle and there are bumps and scrapes that were not mentioned to me. I just simply tell the customer: hey, this is what I'm looking at, and it was not mentioned to me. My offer was for the condition that was mentioned. How could I have made that offer? If I had known the condition, my offer would have been different. I hope there's something we could work out. Is there room that we can make it fair for both of us, so my time is not wasted and your time is not wasted, because both are valuable.

Hasan Tayem

No, we're trying to make it as easy as possible. If the condition of the vehicle is exactly as mentioned, we will more than happily make the transaction in 10 to 15 minutes. It can be as fast as that, and not a lot of people believe it.

Hasan Tayem

I want to say about two years ago, bank drafts, you could issue them on the spot, and we'd go to the bank, and they'd deposit the money right away, and you'd have all the funds available to you. So let's say it was $40,000, you'd have the $40,000 right away.

Hasan Tayem

But two years ago they changed it so that the funds have to be on hold for four to five business days. They also had a period where they could call to verify it, but they stopped doing that about a year ago, because it's just too much of a hassle calling the banks and getting it verified. Too much fraud.

Hasan Tayem

So now, in 2026, you have to have a four to five day hold regardless of the bank, unless you're doing bank to bank. So let's say you're with RBC and it's going to RBC, they'll more than likely clear the bank draft right away because it's internal. But when you go external to different banks, they're going to hold it, typically, from what I've seen.

Hasan Tayem

They're just worried that the funds are not there. I went to Lethbridge to go buy a car. I got there at 1 p.m. I ended up leaving at 6 p.m., because the gentleman had a loan on it and he was concerned the loan wouldn't get closed. His bank allowed us to do a bill payment, so we got the bank information and the loan amount and we paid off the vehicle. His concern was that we would cancel it, and honestly the only thing he could go off of was my word. He texted me when he got the lien release, and he was very happy overall.

Hasan Tayem

If I get issued a bank draft for, let's say, $30,000. As soon as that bank draft is issued, that is cash. So if you lose that bank draft, you lost $30,000. But the bank draft can only be deposited to the name it is issued to.

Hasan Tayem

When the bank draft is deposited (and that's why we typically go to whatever bank the person is with afterwards, so they can deposit it), once it is deposited, I cannot cancel it. It is very, very hard to do, and they have to open an investigation because it's already been deposited. Even though the funds are still on hold, it's very hard to do that. Not a lot of people understand that, because I get it: it's fear of money. You're talking about usually big sums.

Hasan Tayem

For most people, as long as you go to the bank with the person and you see the bank draft being issued, almost 99% of the time that bank draft is 100% legit. There's of course that 0.9% where the bank messed up and the funds are not there. But that's very hard for them to do, because I promise you the bank will care more about the funds being there than you will.

Hasan Tayem

For most of my transactions, when I arrive I just greet the people. We quickly chat. I take a look around the vehicle. I walk around the body, look for any dents, scrapes, anything that might have been missed in photos or was not mentioned. We'll then quickly go for a test drive, just make sure the car drives smooth, there's no clunking, nothing.

Hasan Tayem

Once that is over with, we'll head back to either the house or to the bank, whichever it is. And if there's any negotiation that needs to be done, we'll try to talk with the customer. We'll try to make something that's fair and works for both of us, and then we'll move forward from there.

Hasan Tayem

I try to guide them through as best as possible. I don't want to seem like a know-it-all, but I know my job, so I just try to explain it as best as I can in a professional manner. This is typically what the process is from start to finish: we check out the car, we test drive it, we get the paperwork, we go to the bank, we get the paperwork signed, we finish up everything, and then we're out of your hair.

Hasan Tayem

Honestly, ten times out of ten, it's just something that wasn't mentioned. Not a lot of people know this, but a cracked tail light is actually a very expensive fix. It's about $800 for just a single side, depending, of course, on the year, make and model, that's all different, but it's typically within that range.

Hasan Tayem

And when there's condensation in the tail light, that's something that we have to replace. I've had it happen at least four to five times where I've showed up and there's condensation in the tail light, and the customer doesn't really want to go down in price, because to them it's simple, it's just condensation. What difference does it make? But to us, that's something that impacts the value of the car.

Hasan Tayem

If there's condensation in the tail light, that means that there's either a seal that's broken in the tail light, or the tail light is cracked. It's allowing air and water to get into the tail light. The tail light most of the time will still work, but obviously, if there's water in a tail light, that's not good.

Hasan Tayem

Honestly, how quick we are.

Hasan Tayem

Typically, I want to say an hour. If the car has a loan, maybe an hour and a half, just depending on the lines in the bank. Not necessarily something that's on us. But for every car it's different. Some cars you'll do in 30 minutes. Some cars will take six hours.

Hasan Tayem

If everybody understands how the situation works, it will be very quick. But if you have to explain certain things, or wait for certain decisions, then it will add time.

Hasan Tayem

Oh yeah. Let me give you an example. Maybe three weeks ago I was out in Kelowna, buying a truck from a lovely couple up there, and the lady was concerned again about a bank draft. She was worried about the money. So I said, listen, do either of you have an RBC account? They said yes, the wife had one.

Hasan Tayem

So what I did is an account transfer. I put the money in her account, and then got her to issue the bank draft to pay out the loan, and then she got her money, it all came out of her own account, just to make her feel more comfortable and happier with the transaction. It's not something that's really going to affect me, because the money's going where I know exactly it's going, and it all worked out.

Hasan Tayem

The funniest story to me, and it's still insane. Me and Sam went to go check out a car here in St. Albert. We showed up at the agreed time, we checked out the car, we test drove it, we made the deal, and we were about to head into the bank to issue him the bank draft. And the guy was like, hey, I want to check if my bank's open, would you guys be all right if you just waited a couple of minutes? It's right down the road. We said no problem, and we got back in our car and waited.

Hasan Tayem

A couple of minutes later I look behind me, and what do I see? The same car, but the car is demolished, Josh. The whole front end is on the floor. So I told Sam, I think that's the car that we were supposed to buy. He's like, you're joking. So we backed up and drove by the guy, and we asked, hey, what happened? He said, I was coming out, and a truck came flying out of nowhere.

Hasan Tayem

Literally, what are the odds. And unfortunately we couldn't end up buying it. But it was definitely an experience.

Hasan Tayem

Sometimes people forget dash cams. I've seen that happen quite a lot. It's not something that really increases value in cars. If you want to keep your dash cam, that's totally optional. You paid for it, you can keep it, it doesn't really change things for us. But we just ask that the condition of the car remains intact, because we've had it happen before where the A pillar came out and it would not go back in. That was not fun to deal with.

Hasan Tayem

No, we'll try to get it back to them as soon as possible. One time I bought a Lexus IS 350 from a gentleman here in Edmonton, and he texted me the next day. He had forgotten his AirPods, they fell beside the driver's seat. I told him no problem. Got it back to him literally the same day. Dropped it off at his house, and everybody was happy.

Hasan Tayem

One time I went to buy a car from Calgary, a Toyota Highlander, but the guy was worried about the bank draft because of that four to five business day hold. He was concerned about the money not being there. I tried to reassure him as best as I can, but the guy asked me, listen, would you be all right if I park the car in my garage until next week, until the funds are clear? As soon as they're clear, you can come take the car.

Hasan Tayem

I said, listen, you're putting me in a tough situation, but I get it. You're worried, it's $30,000. No problem. Just park it in the garage, as long as the mileage stays the same, and when I come to pick it up I have no issue with it sitting in your garage. We kept it there, parked, for a week and I want to say two days. And we picked it up. The guy was very, very happy, and he actually wanted to sell us another vehicle.

Hasan Tayem

Honestly, sometimes people just don't ask how it's going to go. If somebody asks me prior to going to check out a vehicle, hey, how's this going to work? I just sit down and explain a rundown of what we do, and how long our process typically is. Sometimes people have work, so they don't account for it if a car has a loan, if we need to go pay it out, if we need to go from point A to point B. Travel time adds a lot of time.

Hasan Tayem

And sometimes people don't know about previous accidents. I've had a couple of instances where I've asked people, hey, are there any claims or accidents on the vehicle? They'll tell me no, there's nothing. And then you do the Carfax, and it has a total loss claim. At that point it was just a waste of time. It's nobody's fault at the end of the day. I feel like it would be a lot more helpful if people just understood how the process worked, and that's why we're doing this.

Hasan Tayem

There was an Audi S4 that I went to buy from Vancouver. I flew in to go buy that car, and when I checked out the vehicle it was leaking oil. The gentleman was completely honest. He told me, hey, the car overheated with me before, on the Coquihalla.

Hasan Tayem

It had a couple of aftermarket upgrades. So I told him this is a big concern for me, especially if it's leaking from the valve cover gasket, that's a very expensive fix, that's a couple thousand dollars. We ended up speaking, we ended up making a deal, thank God, and we got the car picked up. But I would have been stuck in Vancouver if that didn't work out.

Hasan Tayem

Yeah, 100%. We don't like to pass on vehicles. We like to buy as much as we can. But it just has to make sense. It doesn't make sense to buy a car that I'm going to lose money on.

Hasan Tayem

That has actually happened to me before. Maybe a month ago, I was in Vancouver buying a vehicle. We met up at the bank, we test drove the car, and the car ended up needing tires, Michelin Pilot Sports. A set of those on that car is about $1,500 to $2,000. So we spoke with the customer, and it was honestly a lot of back and forth.

Hasan Tayem

When we finally got the deal finalized, we went to walk into the bank, and the bank was about to close. Same exact situation about the bank draft. The guy was just worried about the funds. The bank was honestly no help because they were about to close, so they didn't want to deal with it. So the guy ended up changing his mind. He said, hey, we'll just do this tomorrow. And we said no problem, I totally get it, you want to make an informed decision. We can meet tomorrow at 9:30 as soon as the bank's open.

Hasan Tayem

So we texted the guy to confirm that tomorrow we're still good to go. And he reached out and said, honestly, I don't really want to do the price that we agreed upon, because it feels too little to me. And imagine, that's something we had to deal with all day, and we had to get a hotel. So we just tried our best to make the customer happy. We agreed on another price, and we ended up buying the car the next morning.

Hasan Tayem

Honestly, I just hope people would understand how bank drafts work, because that has been the biggest pain, to be honest with you. And of course it's not people's fault.

Hasan Tayem

If we can get that message across. Hey, we're just trying to do business legitimately. We're not trying to be shady. We're just trying to get it done as efficiently and as best as possible. And I promise you, even if you ask your bank, they'll tell you the same thing. Typically the easiest and the best way to get a deal done is a bank draft, because it leaves a paper trail.

Hasan Tayem

Yes, sir.