You're the first person in the history of my 40+ years to get a title with JUST a bill of sale in Missouri. Oddly enough, the department of motor vehicles in Jefferson City
requires that you have a title, so it's not just 'your local office being cool'. When I got licensed to do MVI's (including ID/OD's) in '99, this process was
clearly explained to us, and many of us asked these exact questions.
Otherwise, what's to stop you from snagging the VIN off that Hemi Cuda at your neighbor's house, drafting yourself up a BOS, and mailing it off while you wait for your new 'Cuda ownership papers to arrive?
I hate to say it, but I'm going to disagree.
Missouri has NEVER accepted a bill of sale as ownership. You should see how long I had to wait at the local tag office while they called Jeff City about the Vermont deal.
Specifically:
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Or...
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There are exceptions for abandoned property but unless you're the owner of a business, even those are troublesome.
I first ran into this in '95, and at that time tried calling places about 'Georgia' titles and such as were advertised in Hemmings. Every single one of those places (back then there were 4 or 5 of them) told me that Missouri was worse than California about getting titles. Not saying you weren't successful with the Georgia route, but they didn't want to touch my car.
Ironically, it's gotten easier since NMVTIS went in due to the introduction of bonded titles and all that, but if you have a junker on the NMVTIS roll call, you're just screwed (ask me how I know this)