Negotiating Price????

[malyea]

I've narrowed my search for a trailer sailer to the C22 (nice design, good weight, well built, 'easy to find') and want to score on a winter time steal of a deal.

Question - how low do I start with an offer and not risk alienating the seller?

Recession, winter time, cold and rainy.....I'm inclined to figure out the 'average asking price' for similar boats and then initially offer 60% - 65% of that average, regardless what the seller is asking......

Thoughts?

[JohnRPollard]

I think you are going about it backwards.

The "average asking price" really isn't germaine. Some boats will be beat up or neglected, while others will be newer and/or pristine. It doesn't make sense to apply an "average asking price" to either of these examples, does it?

You will be better off in the long run to find the boat that represents the best value. That is, the boat in the best condition for the fairest price.

Well maintained, thoughtfully equipped and upgraded boats are definitely worth a premium, especially when you consider that that premium is typically much less than the cost of bringing a lesser boat up to the same standards.

[tommays]

As someone selling a boat right now the big mistake i made was listing at a fair price becasue people seem to think they need to lowball to get a good value

ITs the worst when they do this without even taking the time to visit the boat

Now when they want a good deal i give them links to the cheep boats



Knock youself out with this bargin as thats the GOOD looking picture




Or buy one that is IN working condition becasue there pretty close in price

[Jeff_H]

And just to insert a note of realism here, at this point, most sellers seem to have adjusted their asking prices downward in recognition of the recession. Older boats that are on trailers usually do not drop much in price during the winter since they are generally mostly paid for and the owner pays little to store them. So my point is that I would suggest that it would be totally unreasonable to expect to be able to buy a good clean commodity boat like a Catalina 22 for 60%-65% of the average asking price. I would think that you might expect to be able to negotiate something in the 75% range but that would almost be on a case by case basis. Then again, who knows, you might luck out, but I would not go into to a negotiation with 60%-65% of the average asking price as an expectation.

Respectfully,
Jeff

[sailingfool]

You have good advice above.

My ten cents is to say you start off on the wrong foot by focusing on price,,,you need to focus on value.Paying a fair price for good value is winning...buying a boat cheaply is mostly likely losing.

You are better off to pay 50% above "average asking price" for a well equipped, well maintained "needs nothing" boat, than paying 50% below "average asking price" for a "needs work" boat. Boat gear and maintenance are very expensive, even if you do a lot of work yourself and ignore the value of your time. Buy a boat where the lamentable seller has made all the investments, you'll likely only pay about 50% of the costs he has poured into the boat...that's a real deal. The best you can hope for in buying a boat is to actually get what you pay for.

[malyea]

Thanks, all good points! I guess that's why old adages are old...and adages...like, "you get what you pay for".

[QuickMick]

I was surprised to find how many boats the marina has for sale that they 'dont have much in.' Luckily I found great sales guy who (I believe) not only shot me straight, but has continued to offer advice/help and let me utilize the shop resources... I negotiated by paying the ask, then having 6 mo dock rental/utilities waived to back the $ down.... so far an amicable set up... worked out to be about 20% off the ask