NADA Guides

[larrygio]

I'm a inland lake cruiser who's recently joined the ranks of sailors looking to purchase an off shore sail boat with the plan of getting us (wife and I) and the boat ready for the Caribbean. My question is how much value is the 'AVERAGE RETAIL' price guides worth when making an offer to an owner? First, is the calculated value a good indication of a boats worth and would it be an acceptable tactic to bring it up to the owner/broker when in negotiation?
Thanks for your comments...

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, larrygio.

The guides aren't nearly a valuable negotiating tool as a list of comparables. Actually, I've never known an owner who negotiated, except out of fear.

[LostAtSea2011]

Nada is way off on many boats and close on a few. My bank uses NADA and it has cost me the deal on a few boats I was interested in. I usually just explain to the seller the situation that I am limited to my bank using the NADA guide and negotiate from there.

[djmarchand]

Larry:

Get to know a yacht broker. They represent the majority of cruisng boats on the market. You can look at listings yourself on yachtworld. Once you find the boat that you want to make an offer on, ask him to run the broker only version of Yachtworlld called Soldboats.

Soldboats gives the reported actual sales prices for boats sold through Yachtworld. I say reported because some brokers fudge their reported prices, but only if it is a new boat line that they sell.

As the market has been very volatile, only look at prices reported over the last year. Make adjustments for age, condition and equipmet to give you guidance as to what price to offer.

David

[larrygio]

Thanks for the advice...