Buying a Boat - Lack of Response

[Auspicious]

The tire-kickers make life rough for all buyers. If you're serious about buying a boat then make sure your communications sound serious and professional.

[Rhapsody-NS27]

Originally Posted by sww914

he just listed the boat to get his wife off of his back.

I've been looking at different sites and actually saw this on a post. The one I saw said something like "Seeling because wife said it had to go."

Somehow, it doesn't surprise me.

[hogfighter]

This is a great topic....I've bought 2 boats in the past year and sold 1. I completely agree with the fact that the large majority of prospective buyers had no real intention of ever buying my boat. They wanted to (a) go for a boat ride, or (b) dream about sailing off to places unknown while taking up huge amounts of my time.

My advice is this: 1) Only contact the seller if you are truly interested in making a purchase. If you aren't sure what you want, visit any marina and talk to the owners. They are more apt to show you their boat just for fun. 2) Let the seller know that you are serious about buying. Do this by letting him know that YOU know there are plenty of tire-kickers out there, and you are not among them. Politely keep at him until he calls you back....that lets him know that you are serious.

Lastly, if you are planning on low-balling the seller, don't waste a ton of his time beforehand. I had a guy look at the boat 3 times before offering me a stupid-low price. I might have taken the price if he put the cash in front of me the first visit....but the 3rd? I'd rather burn the boat. I finally sold the boat to 3 Russians, one had a wooden leg.

Best of luck in your search!

[meyermm]

Originally Posted by hogfighter

This is a great topic....I've bought 2 boats in the past year and sold 1. I completely agree with the fact that the large majority of prospective buyers had no real intention of ever buying my boat. They wanted to (a) go for a boat ride, or (b) dream about sailing off to places unknown while taking up huge amounts of my time.

My advice is this: 1) Only contact the seller if you are truly interested in making a purchase. If you aren't sure what you want, visit any marina and talk to the owners. They are more apt to show you their boat just for fun. 2) Let the seller know that you are serious about buying. Do this by letting him know that YOU know there are plenty of tire-kickers out there, and you are not among them. Politely keep at him until he calls you back....that lets him know that you are serious.

Lastly, if you are planning on low-balling the seller, don't waste a ton of his time beforehand. I had a guy look at the boat 3 times before offering me a stupid-low price. I might have taken the price if he put the cash in front of me the first visit....but the 3rd? I'd rather burn the boat. I finally sold the boat to 3 Russians, one had a wooden leg.

Best of luck in your search!

I found your response interesting especially the bit about three visits before making a offer. Most yacht buyers will make more than one inspection before making an offer. I would be more suspicious if he made that offer on the first visit. Most sellers whether boat, car, house overvalue their property, most often by looking at other prices for similar goods being advertised. Trouble is in most cases non of those other prices are being achieved either and when they finally sell it is usually at more like the real value. The final selling price is kept confidential to save face and the seller usually says he got his price or near to. The comment about burning the boat rather than selling to him is why a middle man (broker) is a better way in most cases to sell. Personal feelings should never come into a negotiation which is hard to do if selling your own pride and joy.

[Rou-Coo]

Thanks for everyone's input. I don't feel like asking for an equipment list and photos is wasting a huge amount of time for a seller. They should have those ready to go - surely anyone online is going to ask for that.

One problem I have is just being so far from the ocean means that I can't easily drop in to marinas or brokerages to figure out exactly what I like. I know several makes of boats that I am interested in and several that I am not but there are many I don't have much knowledge of at this point. Part of 'shopping' for a boat car or other major purchase is to become educated about products and options... as well as seeking the best price for what you are getting.

I've got time and will keep looking until I get a few boats lined up in SF or Seattle to make a trip there worth while.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Rou-Coo

Part of 'shopping' for a boat car or other major purchase is to become educated about products and options... as well as seeking the best price for what you are getting.

I've got time and will keep looking until I get a few boats lined up in SF or Seattle to make a trip there worth while.

With all due respect, for most sellers this makes you a tire-kicker.

[Johnathon123]

I have had very similar experiences. My experiences were with owners, brokers and buyers agents.

I get reasonable responses from most countries but USA really struggles in the communication department on this count.

Walk the docks on your holidays, talk to owners you may just trip over a deal waiting to be had.

[tartansail]

I've recently bought and am currently selling. I worked with the same broker for both. Re: the non-response of sellers. My posting on CF notwithstanding , some of us are working to pay for our habit. No way would I have had the time to handle the calls associated with the boat I'm selling. Those who are juggling selling their boat with the rest of their lives (including, in our case, commissioning the new boat) would be hard pressed to be responsive to prospective buyers calls and scheduled times to see the boat.

I agree with the OP that it's reasonable to expect information early in the process to help the prospective buyer decide if a visit is warranted and to save time for all parties. I had an earlier deal fall through because of some findings on the survey. I share those findings with prospective buyers before they even see the boat since, (1) the asking price has been adjusted to reflect the issues and (2) it allows the broker to assess the response of the prospective buyer and decide whether they are serious or not.

[callmecrazy]

The biggest issue the OP has, and that I had myself, is being an Out of State buyer. Landlocked. You cannot be expected to spend thousands of dollars travelling around to 'tire kick' boats. And there is no way possible to get details of the ones for sale except for over the phone or through email.

My boat shopping experience was entirely frustrating because I actually had cash in hand, I had my shortlist of about 4 boats, I knew what condition and gear was acceptable, and I knew what area's I wanted to buy the boat in, and yet with all that, I was consistantly Dismissed as a 'tire kicker' because simply wasn't capable of showing up in person until I had more information.

I wasn't, and still wouldn't be, willing to go see a boat if the owner/seller is not willing to be helpful in every way possible. That's the rules I made after wasting about $2000 travelling for the purpose of getting some questions answered. Those rules served me well and I would suggest any person buying in the used market make it a point to let sellers know how obtuse they are being and that you are not doing them a 'favor' by trying to buy their boat from the them.

Tire kicking is a necessity for any potential buyer, how else do you find out what you want and what is acceptable? I understand visiting marina's and talking to other ownsers etc.. but what about condition? You must assess the condition in person and it usually only takes a few minutes of 'tire kicking' to decide if its worth pursing further or not... BUT when it requires taking a vacation from work, hundreds of dollars in travel expenses, just to go tire kick a few boats, it's completely unreasonable to expect somebody to not require photos, discriptions, and discussion about the boat beforehand. And they still might take one look and walk away... these people are 'tire kickers' that may very well be SERIOUS buyers.

There's thousands of boats sitting on the market that I'm positive would have sold by now if the sellers would just take a few simple steps towards actively 'selling' their boat.

Private owners may have issues with being active sellers, at times, but that is not what I found when I was out there looking. Most people that were unhelpful/unresponsive, who insisted I come see the boat to get my questions answered, those were the people who consistently had things to HIDE. They had trashy, damaged boats where the listing photo was 10 years old and they were asking 20 times the boats value. They won't give information over the phone or online because they know the 'tire kickers' would never come out to see the boat if they knew the actual condition... It's the oldest trick in the book, get them in the door at all cost, THEN begin selling.

Thats all fine and good for private sellers, but the biggest problem I had were brokers who do the same thing! These people are getting paid to sell someones boat for them and yet they still treat potential buyers with contempt and practice these absurd tactics. Its a crying shame.

There are good boats sitting on these websites right now that have been there for at least 3 years since I started looking. Same boats, same brokers. boats I probably would have seriously considered had those people been even remotely helpful.

Ironically, I bought my boat from one of those unresponsive sellers It had sat on craigslist for months at a ridiculously low price with no photos. They wouldn't respond to emails and the phone calls were always 'come see it and we'll talk'.
I had no intentions of going to see this boat, until I ended up just a few miles away looking at another boat and figured I might as well at least go see what the deal was... Turned out to be the deal of the century. Now if this seller would have sent me a few photos, it would have been the first boat on my list and he would have saved me about $1000 of travel expenses (that time around). Or more likely, he would have sold the boat the first week it was on the market instead of letting it sit for however long it took. It worked out good for me and him both, but it was still not the appropriate way to go about selling a boat IMO.

[Sailing Cowboy]

Your in the drivers seat as "cash" is king. Its a buyers market out there and if you are not getting the response you deserve move on. I find yachtworld fascinating in that you can search boats anywhere in the world. But somewhere reality has to set in and buying a boat far from home just doesn't make any sense when plenty of boats are within a 1/2 day drive of you. The other thing that strikes me in a negative way is the term "Broker". No offense to brokers on this so please forgive me but more often than not the market price for a boat is cranked up by 10%-20% to capture the "salesmans" commission. No different than real estate. Well with one exception that real estate "agents" have to abide by firm laws of ethics and standards and disclosure where boat salesman do not.
Save yourself the aggravation and 10-20% of the purchase price and plan a couple day trip down here to Bellingham, Blaine, Seattle, Tacoma, Gig Harbour, Oregon, Vancouver OR & BC and do some ground work. Other posters already mentioned the marina walk and talking to people on location and the "not so advertised, broker free, boats for sale. Some of the PNW biggest marinas are right in your backyard. Whats on Yachtworld is just the tip of the ice berg. The best commission free deals are yours for the taking when "cash" is king. IMHO.

[swisscraft]

Hi
I had a similar problem, living currently in Dubai but would like to buy in the East cost area - so there are over 13 flight hours in between...

Had a lot of hassle with mails, brookers and so one. Since one year I worked with Michele from Gratitude Yachting in Rock Hall MD. She did a great Job and was very quick in understanding our needs - even remote. I really can recommend her.

We currently working on a contract and I hope all is final the next week :-)

cheers Marco

[Dragon Lady]

I think you must be asking the wrong people, I live in Australia and have had people who don't seem to be able to send me info on the boat they are selling.
But there are plenty who will, just move on and don't be afraid of brokers, they can help you a lot, especially if you are purchasing from a long way away.
Take your time, you really need to workout what you want/need in a boat then work out the real market price before you make an offer.

[boatman61]

What I can never understand is... the folks with 250K to spend will bitch about travelling to buy..
Yet folks like me with 30K or less will happily travel... is this a case of the mind being more open than the wallet...
OR IS IT A CASE OF THE LESS YOU HAVE THE LESS YOU CARE....
Go figure

[boatless 4 now]

A few weeks back I and my family drove 8 hours, one way, two overnights in hotels, meals and gas. Met with the broker, walked the boat, liked it, wanted to make an offer and the owner won't return calls to his own broker..makes me want to sue him in small claims court for false advertising. $500+ out the window. Never understood how some people stay in business when they have someone who WANTS to spend money--- and they won't call you back Nutty

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by swisscraft

Had a lot of hassle with mails, brookers and so one. Since one year I worked with Michele from Gratitude Yachting in Rock Hall MD. She did a great Job and was very quick in understanding our needs - even remote. I really can recommend her.

Michele Martinage at Gratitude is truly an outstanding broker.