Georgia's board put the five car rule in its FAQ to say it is not true.

Every state on this site answers the same first question: how many cars can I sell before I need a licence. Florida says three. North Carolina and Michigan say five. Arizona says seven.

Georgia says the question is wrong.

The State Board of Registration of Used Motor Vehicle Dealers has gone to the trouble of putting the myth in its own FAQ in order to kill it. The entry reads: is it true that I can sell up to five vehicles per year before I must get a used car dealer license? The answer begins NO - that is not a true statement, and goes on to say that if you sell vehicles with the intent to make a profit, you need to be a licensed dealer.

It then explains where the number came from. Five cars a year is a figure the Department of Revenue uses to flag someone as a possible unlicensed dealer. It is a detection trigger, not permission. The thing that decides whether you need a licence in Georgia is intent to profit, from the first car.

Everything below comes from the Georgia Rules and the Secretary of State's own pages, cited by rule number. Where Georgia publishes no figure, or publishes two that disagree, this page says so.

What is and is not a motor vehicle here

The exclusions matter, because they decide whether this chapter applies to you at all. Under the definition the board cites, motorcycles, motor-driven cycles, go-carts, airplanes, motorboats and trackless trolleys are not motor vehicles. Pull-behind trailers are not regulated by this board either.

Selling online only does not exempt you. The board states plainly that an internet-only seller still needs a licence. Selling a car titled in your own name that you drove as your personal vehicle does not need one.

The building

Rule 681-6-.01 is the premises rule, and it is written by people who have seen every workaround.

• A permanent building where the required records are kept and from which sales are negotiated
• A modular or manufactured office is acceptable only if it is tied down, on blocks, with the wheels removed
• No storage buildings or similar moveable structures built for non-office purposes, for anyone licensed from 1 January 2007
• An open-lot dealer must conduct business in a building on the same property as the display lot
• One dealer per plat of property. For new applicants since 2007, only one dealer may be licensed to operate an open lot on a single plat as defined by the county tax assessor's records
• A working land line telephone, installed and listed in the licensee's trade name, matching the application and any advertising

Georgia is the only state covered here that specifies a land line. A cell phone satisfies Michigan. It does not satisfy Georgia.

What Georgia does not publish is a square footage, for either the office or the lot. Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Michigan all give at least one number. Georgia gives none, and this page does not invent one.

The sign, in unusual detail

A painted sign on the building, door or window is allowed if it meets the local ordinance and the board's criteria for lettering size and street visibility. Any phone number on the sign has to match the one on file.

Concrete footings are the detail worth noticing. It is the only state here that tells you how to anchor the sign, and it is not a requirement you can satisfy the week the inspector calls.

Working from home, which Georgia allows

Rule 681-6-.01(f), effective 1 January 2007, permits a residential address where local ordinances allow it. The conditions are specific:

• The office must be a separate building, detached from the residence. The board's FAQ says it twice: the dealership cannot be set up in the residence
• The permanent sign requirement still applies
• Office furnishings and filing cabinets sufficient for the records the statute requires
• A dedicated phone line for the business, plus dedicated lines for computers used exclusively for the business
• Readily accessible to the public and to official inspectors during regular business hours
• The licence, the Department of Revenue sales and use tax number and the local business licence displayed conspicuously inside the office
• Zoning certification, which is part of the application

This is the most permissive home-based rule of the states covered here, and it is still a detached building with a six-inch sign on concrete footings.

Sharing a building with another business

Rule 681-3-.05 allows it, from 1 March 2007, provided there is a clear and distinct separation of business. The constraints are tighter than they first look:

• The entrance to the dealer's office or salesroom may not be shared by another business of any kind
• The office must be accessed from outside the building. No office entered from within another business's office
• A separate suite or office number to differentiate the address
• Separate office, inventory, records and files
• The telephone cannot be shared, and must be listed in the dealer's name
• Own signage, meeting the rule and the local ordinance

Like-kind businesses with a common designee or ownership are exempt. The rule's own examples are title pawn stores, used parts licensees and auto rental.

An office suite in an office complex is permitted under 681-6-.01(e), with the sign at the nearest point of public access from the street, at minimum at the building entrance, on a publicly displayed lobby marquee listing all businesses, and directly outside the dealer's office door.

What you actually pay

The bond runs with the licensing period after the first term, and the rule is explicit that at no time should the licensee be without a bond during a licensing period. Every location carries its own bond and its own signed power of attorney.

Insurance is required but the amount is not in the rule. Rule 681-3-.04 points at the statute for the limits, and 681-3-.01(2)(c) requires a certificate naming the board as certificate holder, with garage liability indicated for the appropriate policy limits. This page therefore states no insurance figure.

The seminar, before you apply

Georgia puts the education first, which is unusual. You must attend a board-approved pre-licensing seminar before submitting the application, and proof of attendance goes in with it. The certificate is good for one year from the date of completion.

The board does not publish a number of hours for that seminar, and it does not set the price: four approved providers run it and you deal with them directly.

For renewal, the figure is published: six hours of continuing education to be eligible to renew.

Fingerprints, and a contradiction

Rule 681-3-.01(2)(d) requires fingerprints scanned at an approved GAPS print site, reported through GCIC and NCIC. The sequence is particular: you need an application on file with the board before you can be fingerprinted, because board staff verification is what triggers the instruction to report to a print site.

Then the state disagrees with itself. The FAQ sends applicants to pre-register at fieldprintgeorgia.com. The How-to Guide sends them to the Identogo site instead. Both are current board pages. Neither publishes the fee. If you are doing this, confirm the vendor with the board rather than with either page.

The inspection, and the ones after it

Once the application is complete and before the licence is issued, an inspector schedules a preliminary inspection of the premises against the established place of business law and rules.

What happens afterwards is the part worth planning for. The dealership becomes subject to periodic inspections, and the board states that all inspections are unannounced. After three documented unsuccessful attempts to inspect, the licence is subject to revocation.

Combine that with the requirement that the premises be readily accessible during regular business hours and you get Michigan's problem by a different route. Georgia never tells you how many hours to be open. It just needs to find you there.

Lots, temporary sites and the ninety-six hour rule

• A supplemental licence is needed for any lot operated more than 96 consecutive hours that is not immediately adjacent to the established place of business, one licence per lot
• Temporary sites are capped at 96 consecutive hours within a 30-day period, no more than three times per calendar year
• Sixty days' notice to apply for a temporary site
• Within one county of the county of the dealer's established place of business

Rule 681-3-.02 also requires non-returnable photographs with the application showing the complete facility, the sign and the entire display area. The photographs are how the board sees your lot before anyone drives to it.

Timing, and the two expiry dates

Allow 30 days from submitting the application, less if it is complete and nothing needs board review. Anything requiring board review waits for the next meeting, and the application has to be complete and received at least 15 days before a meeting to make that agenda. An incomplete application may be withdrawn if the noted deficiencies are not satisfied within 60 days of notification, and then you start again with all documents and fees.

On expiry, Georgia publishes two different answers and this page is not going to pick one for you:

• 30 September of even-numbered years, with a late window of 1 to 31 October, per the fee schedule and the How-to Guide
• 31 March of even years, per the FAQ and the renewal section of that same How-to Guide

Both say two years. Both require the six hours of continuing education first. If a guide quotes you one of these dates with confidence, it has read one of the two pages.

Dealer plates and drive-out tags are not in this chapter at all. They sit with the Department of Revenue, and the board's own FAQ sends you there.

Where the money actually goes

Georgia's entry cost is moderate and legible: $170, a $35,000 bond, a seminar, a sign. The part that is not on any schedule is the building, because Georgia will not let it be the spare room, will not let it share a door, and will not let it be a shed.

And because there is no five-car allowance, the licence is not something you grow into after a trial year. It is the first thing, before the first car.

Which puts the whole question on the cars themselves. A licence is one line a year. The margin is decided by the transport, the detail, the two tyres, the title work and the month the car sat on the lot, and almost none of that gets written down against the car it belongs to. Deelary keeps every one of those costs on its own vehicle, so the total cost, the margin and the days in stock on screen are the real ones. What a good gross profit per car looks like is the number to check yours against.

Comparing states? Dealer license requirements by state puts the bond, the office, the sign and the course side by side. Texas measures the ceiling, Florida inspects before you file, California gives you an exam you can fail, North Carolina rations your plates, Ohio counts the chairs, Michigan counts your hours, Arizona lets the lot be a vacant lot, and Tennessee will not let it be grass. Do you need a dealer license to flip cars covers the threshold question across states.