Know the floor on every flip, not just the ceiling.
FlipScout is the deal-finder that scores every by-owner car listing against a real, guaranteed cash-out number from an actual instant-offer buyer — so a flipper knows the floor on their downside before they wire the money, not just the ceiling on the upside.
What a scan looks like
Every row is a real by-owner Autotrader listing scored against KBB, the red-flag ladder, and (on demand) a real Algo instant-offer. The five below are anonymised rows from a live Austin, TX scan on 2026-09-11. VINs are truncated to first-4 / last-4 so you can't cold-call the seller from this page.
Illustrative slice — real values, real VINs, no floors yet.
flipscout quote --yes populates the Algo floor
column with a real cash offer per VIN. See
what we won't build
for why nothing here calls Algo without your explicit per-VIN ask.
| VIN | Year / Make / Model | Mileage | Ask | KBB FPP | Discount | Days | Algo floor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JF2S…7232 | 2016 Subaru Forester | 119,000 | $3,500 | $11,030 | 68% under | 34 | — run quote |
1 photo suspicious ask; investigate before offering |
| JHLR…0500 | 2012 Honda CR-V EX-L | 168,736 | $6,286 | $8,415 | 25% under | 3 | — run quote |
fresh listing, 24 photos, high-mileage penalty applied |
| KMHG…4226 | 2013 Hyundai Genesis | 157,000 | $4,250 | $5,350 | 21% under | 367 | — run quote |
1 photo rot-penalty: on-market > 180 days |
| 1C4H…5772 | 2018 Jeep Wrangler | 117,604 | $15,488 | $17,509 | 12% under | 35 | — run quote |
thin margin after TX fees ($1,073); floor decides |
| 2FMP…8592 | 2020 Ford Edge | 83,425 | $14,777 | $16,394 | 10% under | 29 | — run quote |
modern SUV, good mileage — needs Algo floor to price |
Discount is 1 − price ÷ kbbFpp. Days is
daysOnSite from Autotrader's own field. Fees are
Texas 6.25% sales tax + $40 title + $125 Algo fee; see
Docs for the exact per-state formula.
Pricing
Three tiers. All prices are USD. Annual billing shaves ~17% off the monthly rate.
Free
$0/mo
Forever free
- 1 saved search
- Daily digest email
- Red-flag scoring
- KBB spread
- No Algo floor quotes
The v0.1 CLI is free and self-hosted. Pro unlocks the hosted SaaS features listed under Pro / Shop.
Pro
$29/mo
or $290/yr (save 2 months)
- Unlimited saved searches
- 15-min refresh
- Red-flag scoring + KBB spread
- HTML report per search
- 10 Algo floor-quote credits/mo included
- $2/credit after that
Shop
$99/mo
or $990/yr (save 2 months)
- 3 seats
- 3-min refresh
- Unlimited Algo floors (lead-capped per legal)
- CSV / API export
- Multi-metro
Every checkout runs on Stripe. Full pricing page →
FAQ
Is scraping Autotrader legal?
The CLI runs on your machine, in your browser session, at your IP address. You are the visitor Autotrader's Visitor Agreement attempts to bind — not FlipScout. That is the same posture as a browser extension. Our advice: keep it to personal use, don't crank concurrency, don't resell the output, and read Autotrader's terms yourself.
We deliberately do not run a hosted scraping service against Autotrader or KBB. The hosted (Pro / Shop) tier migrates onto licensed FSBO data — MarketCheck for listings, VinAudit for valuations — before any FlipScout-owned server touches Cox properties. See our acceptable-use policy for the full list of things we won't build.
What actually happens when I run flipscout quote?
The CLI opens a fresh Chromium context, walks the Algo (Auto
Lenders) instant-offer form for the VIN, and captures the
estimate range. That submission creates a real lead in
Auto Lenders' CRM: an Auto Lenders salesperson will
call the phone number in your config.local.json,
typically within the hour. That's why --yes is
required per VIN, why we cap submissions at 10 per invocation,
and why we log every submission to data/leads.jsonl
for your own audit trail. Don't quote a VIN you have no
intention of considering.
Are those Algo floor numbers real, or a guess?
Real. Algo returns a specific estimate range Auto Lenders will
honor if you show up with the car, clean title, and the vehicle
matches the VIN decode. When Algo doesn't return a number
(usually pre-2005, exotic, or an unsupported ZIP) the floor
stays null and the report says so. FlipScout never
fabricates a floor. This is written into the code and into
the acceptable-use list.
Can I get in trouble with my state?
Most states cap how many cars a private party can sell per calendar year before you need a dealer license. A partial list from real state law:
- Florida — 2/year
- Washington — 3/year
- Texas — 4/year (rolling 12 months)
- New York — 5/calendar year
- California — 5/calendar year
- Range across all states — 2 to 12
FlipScout doesn't do the counting for you and it doesn't ship an "evade the cap" mode — see the long-form article on state caps. Track your own sale count.
What data do you collect?
On the CLI: nothing leaves your machine except the network
calls your scan and quote commands make (to Autotrader, KBB,
and Algo). Your config.local.json — including
your name, email, and phone — stays on your machine and is
git-ignored by default.
On the hosted Pro / Shop tiers: the account email, hashed contact fields, saved-search parameters, listing scores, and an audit log of every Algo submission. Full detail is in the privacy policy.
Do you sell my contact info or the listings I look at?
No. We don't sell contact data or search history to third parties. The only outbound contact-data flow is the one you initiate: an Algo submission goes to Auto Lenders because that is the whole point of the floor quote.
Do you have testimonials or user counts?
Not yet, and we won't invent any. FlipScout is at v0.1 as of 2026-09-11. When we have a real number to cite (a case study from a permission-granting customer, an MRR line, a retention cohort), we'll cite it and link to the source.