[Jeff_H]

Buying and selling a boat without a broker is a bit more complicated than buying a boat with a broker and frankly I don''t think that I ever saved any money on the boats that I bought without a broker. There are several deals where I think having the broker actually acted as a neutral party to negotiate the price down to where it needed to be.

But if have your heart set on buying a boat direct from an owner then you need to amend step two of your sequence to make a formal contract to purchase and make a good faith deposit. Most owners will not give you their best price on a "what if" without the paper to back it up and without a good faith deposit he is under no obligation to hold the boat until you arrive. Of course this is where it gets dicey as there is no broker to hold the money and make sure its returned if things go south.

So, if the boat is remote, you should try to get the boat ''under contract subject to initial inspection, sea trial, full survey including engine and sail survey'' before heading off to see it. The initial inspection condition is important. Without it you can arrive at the boat and decide you''re not interested but have to go through a full survey in order to get your deposit back.

After the survey and seatrial there may be an adjustment to the sales price to accommodate items noted in survey. The contract to purchase should include language about that contingency. (I''ll be glad to send you a copy of a contract to purchase that I used recently when I sold my Laser 28).

As far as documentation goes it is pretty straight forward but if you have a loan the bank may require you to use thier professional documentation handler which is probably not the worst $150 or so you''ll ever spend.

Jeff