The four things that differ by state
Which agency holds the record. Depending on where you live it's a DMV, MVD, BMV, RMV, Department of Revenue, Department of Transportation, or the Secretary of State. That's who you ask, and whose forms you use.
What substitutes for a missing title. Duplicate titles exist everywhere. Bonded titles, court-ordered titles, and salvage-specific transfers to licensed buyers exist in some states and not others, and the age of the vehicle sometimes changes which one applies.
What happens to your plates. Some states keep plates with the owner so you take them off and transfer them. Others keep plates with the vehicle, and a few require you to surrender them to the agency to cancel the registration — where that's the rule, skipping it can create insurance-lapse problems for you.
Whether you must report the sale. Many states have a notice of sale, report of sale, or release of liability, sometimes with a short filing window. That filing is what ends your responsibility for the vehicle, so it matters more than it sounds.
How to use this table
Find your state, note the agency and the form family that usually applies, then open the state guide for the full picture — paperwork, no-title options, current payout ranges, and the cities we buy in.
Then verify at the source. Form numbers and filing windows change, and we deliberately don't state a requirement more precisely than we can stand behind. Every state guide links to that state's own agency so you're reading the current rule rather than a summary of it.
If your situation is unusual — an inherited vehicle, an unreleased lien, a car titled in a state you've since moved away from — the agency that holds the record is the right first call, not the one where you now live.
What's the same everywhere
You must be able to prove you own the car, you should never sign a title and leave the buyer's section blank, and you should never hand over a vehicle before you've been paid.
Disclosure obligations are also universal in spirit: flood, fire, and total-loss history should be stated in writing on the bill of sale, whatever your state calls the resulting brand.
And in every state, keeping copies — the signed bill of sale, a photo of the title, the VIN and odometer — costs you nothing and settles any question that comes up later.