Broker charging for a sea trial??

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

So how about a little math discussion.
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A $40k boat takes just as much time to sell as a $120k boat. So just like real estate agents every broker is trying to up their reputation and list/sell the $200-$400k boats.

I think this is a key point Ex-Calif. Brokers are business people who work on a commission (mostly). At the lower end of the market most won't be able to devote the same amount of time, nor focus, as they can with higher-end boats. To make a reasonable income they either have to sell a huge volume of low-end boats, or they devote almost nothing to service the low-end sale. In either case they probably know very little about the boat I'm interested in -- something that became obvious to me when I was shopping for our current boat (price range, $40 to $60K).

This is why those of us at the lower end of the market are better served dealing directly with owner-sellers. It's not that all brokers are bad, it's just that mostly they can't make a living selling to the likes of me.