Those tilt columns are a bear to work on, with plastic pieces that disintegrate when you just try to take them apart, especially on dry California cars. They were made by Saginaw (GM) so what else would you expect? That reality gave me second thoughts as well.
Plus the other negative of California cars that few talk about is that most owners out here never experience temperatures significantly below freezing and most of the time neglect changing out the antifreeze or just add water with no additional antifreeze. This turns the insides of the blocks into a rusty mess that most chemicals these days that are legal will not remove so well. And that leads to leaking "freeze" or "core" plugs to deal with and it is likely wise to change the head gaskets too, at least. A couple of the core plugs on that Imperial are all but impossible to remove and reinstall in the car since it has the subframe within the stubframe that cradles the engine and that makes access to those core plugs so bad, and the only real reliable solution is to remove the engine and heads to deal with all of this. When I called the guy in this listing with some questions about this car, he said he didn't think this car even had any coolant in the radiator at least, so who knows after sitting 27 years what is going on? But we don't have body rust to deal with as much as back East.
The seller also couldn't explain why the headliner looked stained - water, rodents or what? And the dashpad is sunburned, so even spraying it with a correct color vinyl spray won't fix it because the sun takes the grain out of the vinyl in those areas, and it still shows anyway. Then the whole fuel system needs to be changed out probably after 27 years, and maybe the brakes will need attention too. So Stan is correct, expect to do a lot of refurbishing on the car. But if you are in such a purchase for the long haul, then you have a good rust free body with a pretty nice interior to begin with and hopefully a good engine with some maintenance. If you think you will buy it and get it running and then turn it, you will likely lose money on this one depending on the final bid amount.
This car is originally tawny gold, which is my least favorite color on these cars, and it came with a white vinyl top when looking at the body code plate he is showing, and the gold interior. In visualizing such a stark contrast in top color/body color and then a gold interior, the image in my mind is an Imperial that doesn't look so glamorous.
And if you plan on picking it up cheap, he said he had 14 callers already when I called about the car (one of them from Australia - maybe crv), so at least it won't likely be a parts car! And obtaining a title based on a bill of sale for the car is not impossible out here, but you have to have the vehicle checked to make sure it isn't "on record" (if it is then you have to have the last titled owner get a duplicate title - you might need a lot of luck on that since this is an estate car with no title apparently) and if it was not on non-operation status for the last 27 years, then you will have to pay 3 years of back registration fees if you can get a duplicate title - probably around $300 total for these extra fees) and if it isn't on record then you have to have it inspected by the DMV (flatbed it there most likely if necessary) or if you can somehow find an independent vehicle verifier, they could go to the seller's door and do the inspection if he will cooperate in that endeavor. In this latter case, you would have to write up a statement of facts to explain all of what has happened to the car in the past that you know about, and if your statement is "credible" to the state worker reading it over, then you might get a title. Bottom line, this would significantly involve the seller, in either case, and from what I learned in talking with him, he works 7 days a week and barely has any time to even answer the calls he is getting (and said he didn't have time to look at the car again before the auction ends to answer some of my other questions to which he didn't have answers). This is probably why he is doing a bill of sale transaction. Cantflip is correct that dealing with bill of sale transactions can be challenging.
