The only bill of sale the Michigan Department of State publishes, and it is not for a car. Three tick boxes across the top of it decide what it can be used for - a non-titled trailer, a non-titled watercraft, or a snowmobile - and a motor vehicle is none of them. It has a page here because half the people searching for a Michigan bill of sale end up on it.
Written against TR-207 (Rev 06/26), issued under Public Act 300 of 1949, as amended.
If you found this page searching for a Michigan bill of sale for a vehicle, this is not it and there is not one. Read the certificate-of-title walkthrough instead: on a Michigan title the seller's block does the job a bill of sale does elsewhere.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TR-207 from the michigan.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual TR-207, rendered from the PDF the Michigan Department of State publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.
Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below
Filled in for what it is actually for. The two greyed tick boxes and the empty weighmaster block at the foot are the point of showing it: a snowmobile needs neither, and a car needs none of the form.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
I, [printed name], sold the following
Your name across the head of the form, before anything else.
Watch out: Printed, not signed. Your signature belongs further down, on the selling price row.
2
You fill this in
Check one
Non-titled trailer, non-titled watercraft, or snowmobile.
Watch out: If none of the three describes what you are selling, this is not your form. There is no fourth box and no other bill of sale in the Michigan set.
3
You fill this in
Serial number
The serial number of the item, beside its year and make.
Watch out: Not a VIN. These are things Michigan registers without titling, and the serial number stamped on the frame or hull is what identifies them.
4
You fill this in
Registration number
The current registration number, with the date of sale in the box to its left.
Watch out: Year of last decal, in the box below, is a snowmobile question - Michigan snowmobile registrations run on a dated decal rather than a plate.
5
The buyer fills this in
Buyer's information
The buyer's name, street address, city, state and ZIP code.
Watch out: Take it off their licence rather than from memory. This document is the buyer's proof of ownership until the department reissues the registration.
6
You fill this in
Selling price and signature of seller
The price in one box, your signature on the rule beside it, then your own address underneath.
Watch out: Both halves of the row. A price with no signature beside it is a note, not a bill of sale.
7
You fill this in
The weighmaster block
Empty scale weight, business name, signature of weighmaster and business address, at the foot of the form.
Watch out: Only a trailer or trailer coach needs it, and only if the previous registration showing the weight is not attached. Left empty on everything else.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
I, [printed name], sold the following
Your name in one long box across the head of the form, with the three tick boxes immediately underneath.
Check one
Non-titled trailer, non-titled watercraft, or snowmobile. The word non-titled is the whole point: these are the things Michigan registers without issuing a certificate of title.
Year, make, serial number
The item, on the row beneath. A serial number rather than a VIN, because none of these three carry one.
Date of sale and registration number
The two boxes that make the document useful, followed by year of last decal if applicable - a snowmobile question, since Michigan snowmobiles carry a dated decal.
Buyer's information
Name, street address, city, state and ZIP code.
Seller's information
Selling price and your signature on one row, then your street address, city, state and ZIP underneath.
The weighmaster block
The foot of the form, and only for a trailer or trailer coach: empty scale weight, business name, signature of weighmaster and business address. Michigan registers trailers by weight, so it either wants the previous registration attached or a commercial scale to certify it.
What gets this one rejected
•Using it for a car. It is not a form for a motor vehicle and it does not become one - the assignment on the front of the certificate is what sells a Michigan car.
•Ticking non-titled watercraft for a boat that has a title. Michigan titles watercraft over a certain size, and a titled boat transfers on its certificate like a car does.
•Leaving the registration number blank. Without it there is nothing to tie the document to a record the department holds.
•Filling in the weighmaster block for a snowmobile. It exists to certify a trailer's empty scale weight, and a snowmobile has no registered weight to certify.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Trailers need a weight, one way or the other. The note above the weighmaster block: attach the registration verifying the trailer or trailercoach weight, or have the weight certified by a weighmaster at a commercial scales.
•What to use instead for a car. Nothing published. The record of the sale a Michigan car seller keeps is defined by statute rather than by a form - the buyer's name, address, driver licence number and signature, the purchase price and the date of sale - or simply a photocopy of the reassigned title.
Every line here was read off TR-207 (Rev 06/26) itself —
the PDF is here — and off the Michigan Department of State pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
