Having a cab company, what I do when
buying a car I figure the worse and adjust my offer accordingly. For example I just bought a 2005 crown Vic. It had
oil on the bumper. I assumed it had a bad rear axle. I got the car for $900. I explained that a rear end
repair was 1200. I might get lucky and get away with a bearing and seal for about twenty five dollars. I doubt it because it looks like the car was driven a while like that. So if that is the case a can get a used one for 150 and put it in myself.
The same applies to boats. If you can do
repairs yourself you can get braver
buying stuff but if you have to pay full
price then I would walk away. Mine had not been hauled out for years. I bought it frozen in the water. When I hauled it out the bottom looked horrible. Lots of scraping,
sanding, fairing the keel, sealing and some VC17 it looks like a different boat.
At this point I probably have more labor into the boat than it is worth but it was good to learn. So I would
research the boat and see how bad it could get and decide from there. The one thing that saved me was I have a cast iron keel. I walked away from two because the had damage and could not narrow down a top end
price of the
repairs. There was a Watkins 28 I liked but it was too big of a gamble. If you are unsure then pass there will be more everyday. I don't want to sound wishy washy but the point I am trying to make is I don't buy unless I know I am covered price wise and can handle the repairs. Good luck
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