Quote:
Originally Posted by sailingdog
I'd point out that if there is a possibility that he will owe any money to the marina, that you may want to put aside part of the purchase price in escrow to cover it. Also, you would want the P&S agreement to clearly state that the boat is free and clear of all encumbrances or something to that effect.
Otherwise, the boatyard can place a lien on the boat, and if the boat is not USCG documented, you may not know about the lien until it is too late.
This guy sounds like a real jackass, and if he's in financial trouble, which it does sound like, he may stiff the yard payment until he sells the boat... or stiff them completely and leave it as a problem for the new owner of the boat.
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One of the dangers of venting on a public forum is that I could portray this guy as a jerk, and in so doing make myself look like one also. He is basically a real nice guy. He is just a little naive about how a boat should be bought and sold, and he severely undervalues the importance of a broker's services when both the buyer and seller are inexperienced, as we are. Negotiations like this are always a little tense by their nature, since the buyer and seller have different objectives at this stage. But once we get through that we will both have the same objective.
My broker is a fully licensed professional with 30+ years experience as a full-time broker, and his contract has a good clause regarding liens and encumbrances. He always uses an escrow service that also does doc prep and title searches. I have no reason to believe that the seller is in financial trouble or that he owes the marina money. The annoyances between him and the marina are over naive assumptions that he made around getting free haul-outs as part of the slip fees, etc. It seems that he fails to realize that brokers and marinas are all in business to make a decent living, and deserve to be paid. This stuff isn't free - nor should it be.