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I may be selling a 30' outboard express and have some questions for people who have done this before.
1. With the size and configuration of this boat, we have a ton of stuff on it. Does this stuff normally sell with the purchase price or is it not even in the deal? ie: dock lines, bumpers, anchor, pfd's, cleaning chit, etc.
2. The boat is "documented". Is there any difference in selling as opposed to just a state registered boat?
3.A surveyor will check it out. Will both parties negotiate after his findings or does one party normally "eat" the findings?
4.Can the whole deal be done just between the two parties or do we need a closing agent? Where can I find sample paperwork to use?
Thank for the help
In my opinion the dollar factor of a boat tell's me who all should be involved i.e. 5000.00 or less if you know what your doing you can kick the tires but say a 30' like your's demanding big dollar's you might find a broker and let him be the go between he does it for a living and knows what the in's and out's are it will cost but he can find you better buyers than the local paper might ......John
Gator, I'll take a stab at this and see if I can help you out.
Question 1) Normally basic Coast Guard equipment goes with the boat, all other personal items do not convey unless stated in the ad, or on the contract between the two parties.
Question 2) Being the boat is documented, you will need to do a Coast Guard " Bill of Sale", you can find this form at the following site. http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-m/nmc/genpub.htm
If the new onwers wishes to document the vessel also, he will need to contact a documentation service. I normally use Gloria Rector Vessel Documentation, Inc. The ladies name is Jane Beale, email address is jbeale9594@aol.com
The new owner is responsible for the fees for this.
Question 3) Surveys, usually if it's broken the owner pays, if it's maintainance it's inherited with the deal.The findings usually are negotiated between the buyer and the seller. That being if it's broke, the owner either fixes it or makes some kind of consession to the price.
Question 4) Yes you can do this yourself, and yes it can be a pain!
Gator, This is what I did when I sold my boat. Before the buyer went to look at it I took out everything except the safety equipment and I left two lines on the boat. The surveyor gave a report to the buyer and my windlass was bad. We came into an agreement where I would take some money off the deal and would throw in lines, bumpers and other goodies and he would take the boat as is. I guess the deal can be done between both parties but we used a company that only does boat closings in Ft. Lauderdale to handle everything for us. When my uncle sold his SF they had offered 550K and after the survey the broker came back and told my uncle they wanted 7K off. My uncle looked at the list and told them he would take 1K off. The deal was made for 549K.
When ever I sell a boat they basically get the boat the way it came from the factory, a few docklines and anchor, electronics and any equipment that is fastened to the boat.
Hang on to your pants Gator, you just post this today.
I could only make comment on question 3 & 4.
ColdBusted about cover no. 3 perfectly. Just remember the buyer is in the driver seat. Usually there is more boats then there is buyers (so it would seem). So the amount of movement you do in regards to repairs, is all dependent on how many possible buyers you have knock down your door. Which ties into #4.
What are broker fee's? What 10%, 12-15%? Well at anyrate, 10% of 80K is 8k. For half of 8k you could sure spice up a deal and still put money in your pocket. JMHO
Coldbusted hit the nail on the head. There will be two times you negotiate; once to get a purchase price, and again regarding the survey findings (if there are any). The survey findings are usually categorized into A: things that are important for the boat to be safe, and B: other things (I am putting this in very simple terms). The B category is usually cosmetic items, and maintenance items that should be done. The things in the A category are things that are broken, or will soon be broken, and are needed to make the boat go, float, not blow up, and hold all the onboard fluids in the proper place. The things in category B will make up the majority of the findings and are usually not factored into the deal. The things in category A are the things that will be negotiated on as they are what make the boat safe and seaworthy.
Electronics: If you advertise a piece of electronics and it does not work you may be responsible to get it working. If you know some piece of electronics does not work simply don't include it in the sale or make the buyer aware that it is broken before negotiating price. This applies to most of the accessories on your boat.
Selling on your own is pretty easy, the documentation thingy is no big deal. Either the new guy has it exchanged to his name, or you delete it from USCG records. All the docs needed for that are on the USCG website.
Downside to selling on your own: handling a lot of unwanted calls, paying for advertising, arranging advertising, figuring out paperwork, negotiating with buyers.
Your other options: hiring a yacht broker to handle all of the above, and show your boat for a 10% commission. If you don't mind showing your boat then you might consider a service like ours that handles all of the above, but you show your own boat for a 3% commission.
All three methods work fine, you just need to do some souls searching to see how much time and money you want spend to sell your boat.
When I was in the 10% routine i got 10% on 90% of the deals. The only time we got less was when the buyer and seller could not come to terms on survey findings, in which case we would cut the commission a little to bring the deal together.
My buddy just sold a $2,400,000 boat: he got 7% and the listing broker got 3%. So you can dispell the myth about more expensive boats having reduced commissions. There was a 10% commission on the 4.6 million dollar boat he sold last year. More often than not the commission remains 10%.
There is no doubt that there are a lot of hungry brokers running around these days that would do anything to sell a boat such as cutting commission, as long as their boss goes for it who might not be so hungry.
It's a completely different service. It is more of a service to offer people who would otherwise go the FSBO route the services of a broker, with some participation from the seller. That's why it's only 3%.
When I was doing the 10% thing we usually collected a full 10%.
I have to agree with Yachtjim. Most marinas and dealers are working at least 10% on used boats, some in my area are getting 15%. Don't be fooled, they get it.
Yachtjim gets 3% because he helps owners sell their own boats. They do some of the work. I would use his service before paying a marina to sell a boat.
"A boat is a hole in the water, surrounded by fiberglass, into which you throw money"
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