General Info: Negotiating the price on a 400 Lagoon, 2011

[JimandBlieu]

Congrats AZ, I am green with envy!

[WindwardPrinces]

Nice boat!

Congratulations.

[monte]

Congratulations again Craig. Hoping all runs smoothly with the survey and settlement.
This is a great example of the 'how much should I offer' or 'what % should I offer off the asking price' question, because the answer really is..'it depends'
Craig flew down to see a cat that was on the upper end of the market, but very well speced and appeared well maintained. In reality it wasn't well maintained or in a state ready to market. Personally I would have skipped it unless around a 20% discount off the asking price was agreed on, but the seller wasn't up for any negotiations on the price.
Fortunately the broker had just listed another very similar owners version L400 which was available to view and I guess the difference would be chalk and cheese between a poorly maintained (sat in the marina for 9 months) yacht, and a yacht that was being actively lived aboard, maintained and upgraded. A case of being in the right place at the right time. I doubt the seller would discount the asking price by much, considering its fresh on the market, so agreeing on around 5% off the asking price is a pretty good win/win deal for both parties. More importantly, Craig ended up with a comparatively rare find, in that 90% of the similar boats on the market are ex charter or not maintained in ready to cruise condition.
So is 5% (around $20,000 off asking price) a good result in this case? I think so.
Could Craig have offered 20% less and walked away expecting a call from the broker the next week to agree to his terms. I doubt it.
Is it possible another buyer would have come on to the scene and paid close to full price while Craig was trying to negotiate a bigger discount, effectively sending him back to the drawing board looking for a boat and wasting an expensive trip to view the boat, delaying plans and possibly ending up with a yacht in worse condition for more money? Highly likely.
So yes, the answer to the original question is 'it depends!'
In this case I think Craig has a very good deal. I wouldn't feel the same way if he purchased boat #1 without a much bigger discount.💰💰

[Iaangus]

Quick question for Monte, For the first boat discussed, would 50% of original price paid when new be approximate fair price in you opinion? If not what would?
50% is a figure thrown around for expected depreciation for a boat in charter for 5 years is my reason for asking.

[monte]

Nope, 50% is ridiculous. I don't know the price paid originally, but it would have been under €300K. I had the option to buy a new L400 in 2011 and the price ex factory at that one was €250K. It mightn't have had air and genset which might add €30K. So total would be €280K plus any tax. If VAT was paid (I'm not sure if it was) then an additional 20% would be lost, along with the brokers fee of 10%. If no VAT paid or needed by the buyer, the loss would be 10% plus any price decrease in the negotiations (possibly another 10%, it depends how keen the seller is to sell)
Of course these prices are all in Euros. The seller may have made or lost up to 20% in that time, depending on which currency he works in.

[lindabarzini]

Why not make a side-deal with a broker not involved in the transaction and pay him $50 to get a printout from "soldboats.com" and see the selling price of the last few. Don't show the printout if the seller accepts your first offer. Show the printout if you need to bring the seller into reality.