yachtworld prices

pmills42255 · #1 (**permalink**) 08-07-2002

If a boat is listed at 82,000.00 what is a reasonable starting point for offers. Disregard obvious things like age, a "great deal" etc.. well don''t even consider that if it made it to the internet without being sold.... but what initial basis should bids be made? I thought it was easy but research doesn''t help with pricing! Its not that easy, and looking at 10 boats I can''t have a survey done for each.
kwhat do you think?
Paul

Jeff_H · #2 (**permalink**) 08-08-2002

A couple points here, first of all there is no real rule of thumb here. Some people, like myself, research the market for their boat very carefully and then list the boat at a price that is at the high end of a fair price for their boat in the marketplace. The actual sales price and almost all of the bonafide first offers were within 5% of that price.

Other owners float a price that is 15% to 25% higher than they are willing to take. The sales price on the boat that I bought was over 20% below the original asking price. Again getting a price difference that large is related to knowing the market for that model.

As to the survey business, if you are not capable of doing your own ''first walkthrough'' of a boat, or the boat is too far away, you can often get a surveyor to do a first walkthough for you. This is not a survey but the surveyor''s quick opinion. You will be buying a few hours of thier time and so is usually around $100 or so dollars. I would think that you could narrow your choices down to 2 or three boats, and then have surveyor(s) do the first walkthrough for you.

Regards
Jeff

ikent · #3 (**permalink**) 08-08-2002

Just a note here, the fact that the boat is listed on Yachtworld does not mean it wouldn''t sell on its own. Many brokers place listings on YW as part of their normal process. The posting goes up when the For Sale sign goes on.

We found our boat on a YW search the week it hit the market.

Good luck with your search.

RobGallagher · #4 (**permalink**) 08-10-2002

I found my boat on Yachtworld.com. I looked at many from that sight and my broker was great. Not only did we come to a price that I thought was more than fair, they treated me like gold. I looked for 2 years and I think that Yachtworld and Boattrader.com are by FAR the 2 best, Sailnets site comes in a distant third.

Granted not all brokers I spoke with impressed me. Some just never even call you back.

Good luck.

troyaux · #5 (**permalink**) 08-15-2002

If you are dealing with a dealer or broker on a used boat the markup you can expect to be is 20 - 25% as thats was the first thing I was taught about selling powerboats and I imagine Sticks are no different. Cars usually are maked up a minimun 10% and boats new or used a min 20%. the best way to offer low is to find a boat that someone has had a long time. One broker told me a 1984 34" IRWIN was listed at 42,900 reduced to 29''900 and he told me in about 3 minutes to make an offer for 18000 and he thought the seller would take it. I wasn''t really looking but if the broker told me to offer 18 on a 40 thousand boat I imagine I could have offered 15 and got an interest.

Research the seller and find his motivation for selling. Not everyone wants top dollor like most brokers would have you believe.

my first boat was a 25 footer that was listed at $6500 and after a few lowballs, a few letters to the seller and a lot of praying and 3 months I got the boat,good outboard, sails, trl, and all electrinics for $1500.... I paid $950 for a dingy and motor as they are always hot.

Best luck,
Troy

halyardz · #6 (**permalink**) 08-16-2002

Like Troy says, research the seller if you can. Some people "need" to sell their boat,
others are willing to hold out years for a magic price point. They also expect to "get their money back" from nice-to-have (for them) upgrades. You may not value those the
same way. Jeff''s advice very good too. Research,research, research, research.

Another point, some people start looking for
a certain model...when many models can actually fit their needs. Keep an eye on the
market/value curve of older boats. Markup is not relevant till the boat sells.

hamiam · #7 (**permalink**) 08-16-2002

Research well and don''t fall in love with a particular boat or you are destined to pay too much for it.

Poinciana · #8 (**permalink**) 08-19-2002

20% seems a little high, If I had my boat listed at $100,000 and got an offer for 80K I think I would be a little offended, but personally I have never delt with the situation. Any other first hand accounts?

gerryn926 · #9 (**permalink**) 08-19-2002

I agree, 20% is high, never heard this as any standard. In fact in the real estate space anything more than 10% less is considered low balling. Frankly I think the same thing of boats. Difference in boats is that sometimes you will run into a fool that just wants out.

Not saying you shouldnt put a low offer in, but be prepared to piss off the owner and be able to walk away from the boat.

#10 (**permalink**) 08-20-2002

While 20% is pretty high for the difference between a first offer and a sales price. The real key is to know the market and to collect data over a period of time. Sometimes asking prices are very close to fair and other times they are unrealistic. The key is to know which and to be able to support that position.

Keep records of listings. On one boat I tried to buy, I sent along 6 or 7 listings of sisterships that had sold over a two year period showing what the more typical asking prices were on that model. I used the listings to justify my nearly 20% lower offer. We had actually loosely come to terms on price but when I actually started to go through the boat carefully I found a bunch of serious problems that I had not expected and which the seller was not willing to address.

Jeff