Soldboats and brokers

[Seapig]

Does anyone know a way to get soldboat data without going through a broker? I can pay the $420 fee but lying about being a broker, manufacturer or surveyor is not my style.

Call me old fashioned, but if I am getting a broker to give me information I feel a certain amount of obligation to use them in a transaction.


I am not trying to slag brokers here and would actually appreciate input from brokers on this forum, but what do (good) buyers brokers do for international purchases?



If there is a boat in there area, then they show it to you, just like real estate But if the boat in question is on the other side of the world what do they do?



It seems to me that a good surveyor is going to have more hands on experience than most brokers and members of this forum are more likely to be able to comment on the sailing characteristics.


Full disclosure, my interaction with brokers so far has not been stellar.

Thank you for your input.

[skipmac]

Full disclosure, I used to be a yacht broker but I have to agree there's a lot of brokers out there that seem to be incompetent or lazy and a few that are downright dishonest. When I bought my last boat I didn't have much luck dealing with brokers and ended up buying a boat from the owner.



Found a boat I liked listed with a broker, called but there was an offer pending. The broker said he'd be glad to find other boats for me so I gave him my list: cutter or sloop rig only!!, center cockpit only!!, shallow fin or modified fin keel with skeg hung rudder. So he calls me a few days later all excited with a great deal on an aft cockpit, full keel, ketch.


Regarding your question about how a broker would sell you a boat in a distant location, unless you're looking at really high dollar boats the broker would probably only sell you something more or less local. For a less expensive boat if the the broker couldn't find something nearby he/she might be able to help you search, find suitable listings and refer you to the listing broker, perhaps negotiating a finders fee for the referral.

[john61ct]

If you are interested in a very specific class / model / year range

and post here and on other sailboat forums with that info in the title, preceded by [soldboats?]

Then nicely ask for what you're looking for, maybe post an email address

You may well get some PM / email responses

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Seapig

Call me old fashioned, but if I am getting a broker to give me information I feel a certain amount of obligation to use them in a transaction.

If you are working with a broker I would feel it fair for them to share their login with you. All it does is save them work and we know how they like that

[john61ct]

The provider could easily detect such violations of their T&C and may well ban the broker.

[sailorboy1]

That’s crazy paranoid