Selling on BOATSFSBO.com

[hellosailor]

"If in FL or CA just file a incorporation ...Simple as that. "

I've never heard of incorporation being that simple. First, there's a filing fee. Then an annual corporate franchise fee, and annual corporation tax filings to be paid, often with a $400 or larger minimum annual fee. And the Florida corporation might be subject to the Florida business inventory annual tax? Everything that's in your inventory, all your assets, may be levied a tax on January first. You might want to check for complications like that, there are always special burdens or taxes on corporations.
Oh, and when you want to dissolve the corporation, there's more paperwork and often a fee and then a whopping huge penalty for not filing any of the requisite paperwork.

Simple? Hell no.

Could be worth doing if it saves you a couple or five grand in brokerage fees, sure. But SIMPLE? No, no "simpler" than winning a PGA tournament.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Simple? Hell no.

Could be worth doing if it saves you a couple or five grand in brokerage fees, sure. But SIMPLE? No, no "simpler" than winning a PGA tournament.

Winning the PGA is extremely simple. All you have to do is shoot a lower score than the rest of the field.

Setting up a corporation is way more complicated but seriously, only worthwhile if it saves a few boat units.

[osirissail]

Having had a little semi-dormant S-Corp for 50 years, I can affirm that there are indeed complications or better put - necessary paperwork that must be done every year. And local jurisdictions and sometimes the State require inventory taxes on everything from pencils, paper, desks, chairs, inventory, you name it - they tax it.
Then there are the Federal tax forms that have to be filed every year if you are a corporation.
But even "sole proprietorships" add paperwork but no where near as much as corporations. It seems "mom and pop" little stores/shops get off a lot easier than corporations - even little S-Corps. I wonder if you can operate a boat brokerage as a "mom&pop" type company?

[hellosailor]

" I wonder if you can operate a boat brokerage as a "mom&pop" type company? "

I think you are referring to a "sole proprietorship" aka just doing business by yourself.

You can pretty much do that for any business, unless you are in a venue that requires something more. Typically if you are selling motor vehicles and you sell more than, say, six per year? You need to get permits and register the business, to make sure you're not a criminal or otherwise barred from being a used car dealer or the like.

Which is why 90% of the classifieds for used cars are apparently not really from "My cousin is out of town and asked me to sell it" but rather from people who are in the business full-time after being banned from being in the business.

Of course boat brokers are a much finer class of businessmen.(G)

[phantomracer]

listed my boat with them. they listed my boat quickly on their site.

However, when I pressed for a list of sites, they did give them to me. I searched for my boat on all the oyhter sites. was not listed even weeks later.

after countless emails and phone calls, dragging their feet, never got it listed on the other sites. Calls got more rude, then stopped calling me back all together.

Contacted American express, filed a claim, they never challenged it, amex refunded my money promptly.

Pays to use Amex!!

[lifeofreilly57]

Wasn't totally impressed with the original exchange with these guys so I never bothered listing with them, glad I didn't.

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by phantomracer

listed my boat with them. they listed my boat quickly on their site. . . .

. . . after countless emails and phone calls, dragging their feet, never got it listed on the other sites. Calls got more rude, then stopped calling me back all together.

Contacted American express, filed a claim, they never challenged it, amex refunded my money promptly.

Pays to use Amex!!

That is very useful information - thank you for posting your experiences.

[tuffr2]

I bought a boat on boattrader.com which seemed to me to be a good web site to search.

I would not hesitate to use them.

Other websites could be just as good but I know boattrader is good.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[SeaBird]

We have our sailboat and business listed for sale in various places, including Craigslist, and we received an email from a "billwallace958" that says, "saw your boat on craigs- another good site is 36boatads.com I think your boat would get a great response on there only takes a minute to get on many sites, I love it-"

I checked out the website, which redirected me to BoatsFSBO Used Boats for sale by owner boatsforsalebyowners.net and after looking around I decided to fill out the form....make, model, size, blah, blah, blah...clicked send and then it just said something like "thank you for your information." So, I guess they're just collecting email addresses?? All this happened days ago and still our boat and business are not listed on their site and I have nothing my email inbox from them, which led me to google "is boatsFSBO a scam?" and it seems like it is. Que pica del culo.

Ripoff Report | American Boat Listing BoatsFSBO.com Complaint Review Patchogue, New York: 1166090

[SeaBird]

Update on my own experience with BoatsFSBO.com;
I filled out their form to list our boat for sale but no email or anything was sent to confirm they received info or anything. About a week later I got a call from a US number and they didn't leave a message and so I called back as it could have been some travelers here in town wanting to go on a sailing excursion. A guy answered the phone "hello?" and I said, "Hi, this is Heather from Sea Bird Sailing Excursions, you just called, how can I help you?" He said that he was from mentioned website and he wanted to know if we were interested in listing the boat for sale there for $499. I said, "please email me the details and I'll go over it and get back to you." He never emailed the details. No emails received at all from them, which is odd, so I don't trust them.

[Tom in Boston]

Beware of BOATSFSBO.com! They troll for victims looking at sites like Craiglist or their own “free” website to lure you in, and then demand payment for your boat to be listed. Their promise to list your boat on up to 40 of the top websites is a complete lie. A search in Google turns up nothing. Once they have your money, they will no longer communicate with you and will not give you a refund. I know, it happened to me. I suggest you go elsewhere.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Tom in Boston

Beware of BOATSFSBO.com! They troll for victims looking at sites like Craiglist or their own “free” website to lure you in, and then demand payment for your boat to be listed. Their promise to list your boat on up to 40 of the top websites is a complete lie. A search in Google turns up nothing. Once they have your money, they will no longer communicate with you and will not give you a refund. I know, it happened to me. I suggest you go elsewhere.

Sorry you got burned. My son-in-law listed his boat on craigslist and got a call from FSBO. He asked me about them so I did some research since I had not run across them once in the 3 years I shopped for a boat. I confirmed everything you found out.

The multiple web sites deal is a lie and they do not show up in a boat search on google. Even if you go to the FSBO web site and find a boat for sale if you google the exact brand, year, model, price, even wording from the FSBO website the ads don't show at all or are on the second or third page of results.

[peterh401ri]

STAY AWAY!
I regret not reading reviews before signing up. They are NOT free and use high-pressure sales tactics up front and then push their add-on offers. In both cases they totally misrepresent their services pushing only for your credit card number. Their customer service is unresponsive to complaints. They have no contact address - which is a red flag. Their outrageous lack of ethics of these people amounts simply to theft. File a complaint with Google.