[SteveYem]

Hey all,
I'm trying to gather some intel this weekend before I get a chance to call TxDMV on Monday morning, and I'd be much obliged for any guidance I can get here.

I am a resident of Pennsylvania and on Tuesday of the coming week I'll be traveling to southern Texas to inspect, test drive and hopefully purchase a 2018 M3 from a private seller. He has the clean title in hand. I know that in TX he can sign the title over to me without being notarized, while we do plan to both sign a bill of sale and have it notarized at the bank when I transfer the payment.

At that point, I will own the car and he will remove his license plate from it. I need to drive the car about 3 hours to the north to a friend's residence, where I will arrange to have the car picked up and transported to PA via a specialized auto transport service. What I am trying to figure out is what do I need to have in the way of temporary license plate/tag/registration in the state of Texas to identify the car while I'm making that drive and for the ~week or so that it might sit in my friend's driveway awaiting pickup?

I discussed it with the seller and his understanding was that I would not need a temporary tag / plate and that carrying a copy of the signed and notarized bill of sale would be sufficient to identify the vehicle and substantiate my ownership of it, but something tells me I need to have some manner of temporary tag on the back of the car to keep everything above boards.

Does anyone here have experience with this and could lend me some guidance? Thanks in advance!