Why doesn't this beautiful catamaran sell?

[TacomaSailor]

I've posted several questions about a larger Lerouge cat we want to purchase and have received a lot of very good information from members here.

My wife and I have now decided we really do want to buy the boat:

51ft Lerouge Catamaran - Price Reduced! - Eric Lerouge design combines luxury ... - SeaBoats

BUT - my wife is the sensible one and keeps asking one very disturbing question:

Adagio seems to be a beautiful, well made and carefully maintained boat. It is for sale at a very reasonable price. SO - why hasn't anyone purchased her during the three years she has been for sale here in San Diego?

She then follows up with the next question that is the show stopper:

You (me - the old tired sailor) are 67 years old with bad knees. Sometime in the next seven or eight years you will have to sell Adagio. Who will buy her if it took three years for us to decide to buy her?

What answer does this esteemed group of catamaran enthusiasts have to my wife's two tough question?

She is very concerned we will never be able to sell Adagio if we buy her and sail to Florida. She worries we will be stuck with the operating cost of a 51' x 28' catamaran forever.

Why hasn't Adagio sold here in San Diego despite the price dropping every year?

[scuba0_1]

not sure there a 45 2000 for 220

Also it says launched in 2003 but the engines are 2005. Ask the broker for a detailed list of owners and repair work. Still seems over priced.

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[nimblemotors]

Any boat at half-million dollars is an expensive boat. Not being common, there is not a lot of value comparisons to make, which is possible with production boats. I'm sure you understand this. This boat will sell for half the current price in 5 years I would guess, maybe less even.
Be sure you can afford the losses, boats are not investments, big boats major expensive luxury items. If you have the funds to lose, no worries!
Get what you want, life is short, can't take the bank account with you, and your kids will just squander an inheritance buying boats or something..

[scarlet]

overpriced... 50+ foot cats don't have as big of a market as the 35-45' size... Not a well known brand... not a lot of folks looking for Cats on the west coast most prefer east coast due to the close proximity to the caribbean...

those are my guesses...

I looked at the pictures, and it isn't anything I'd be interested in.. but that's just me..

[Sand crab]

I like that boat but.....

Look at those pics. It seems to me that the bows are slightly out of the water and the sterns are too low. I suspect that the PO added too much weight when he did all those great improvements. Now, add all the 1000s of pounds of your stuff, friends and their stuff, diesel, water, beer, etc and it will sit even lower. There were older photos of the boat where the bottom sugar scoop steps were at the waterline. Do you have access to the older ads?

[Grateful]

I'll bite.

Because the price hasn't gone down enough yet?

It's a lovely boat, but there is A LOT of downward pressure on boat prices just now with the strong dollar / weak euro. That won't last, but now might be the time to make a low offer that works for you.

[Sand crab]

Here's what I'm talking about.
http://newimages.yachtworld.com/resi...100221_0_0.jpg

[denverd0n]

Selling boats, or anything else, is really pretty simple. I could sell the boat that is the subject of this thread in an hour... if I price it for one dollar. Or I could price it for 2 million and spend the next 20 years waiting for a buyer. Somewhere in between those two figures, there is a price that would get it sold within 6 months to a year. Want to sell it faster? Price it lower. Willing to wait longer? Price it higher. It truly is that simple.

The reason that it has been on the market for three years is that the owner has priced it too high to sell any more quickly than that.

[weavis]

3 years no sale?

Based on my personal experience with buying and selling......... for me it is $150K too expensive.

NOT because it isnt a wonderful and amazing and this and that vessel, but because it has no real value on the market established.

Its worth 400k to me and if I was buying, that is my assessment. You are buying, as your wife can see, an unknown resale value.

Does it make my value a correct one? It doesnt have to. At some stage, probably now, it would probably be the only offer on the table.

In that case, the seller would be in the position you would be in 10 years from now when then only offer on the table might be $130K. You take it or leave it, but in any event, you will be spending to keep it and maintain it for a long time if you dont.

At 400K its worth the risk TO YOU. Over 500K? not so much. The seller took the risk in building/purchasing and is losing already........ why should you follow his example?

You have one other choice. Offer $375K and give him 2 weeks to think about it. If he says no offer 400K final offer.......... then walk away and go find a known manufacturer who will deal with you at the lower prices for a great value CAT.

I NEVER feel irritated or disappointed in low ball offers from potential buyers of anything I sell..... If I know they are wanting what I have, we will find a price a little lower than I would like, and a little higher than they hoped for.

[Dave852]

If you want the lowest in and out cost, go with lagoon. You can pretty much predict to the dollar what your selling price will be three years down the road. But if you want a boat like Adagio you will have a smaller less predictable market when you go to sell her. Don't like the leisure furl and hopefully the improvements they made were with weight in mind but I like her, she looks well cared for, special and might be a sweet sailor. One things for sure, she will sell, we just don't know at what price yet. I know it won't go below $450,000


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[Suijin]

I've had more than a couple of brokers tell me that it often takes years for some owners to come to grips with the value of their boat and to agree to price the boat to sell. And some owners are happy to wait, using the boat while it's on the market, until either the right buyer comes along or they finally decide that to lower the price so it moves.

As for the boat being down at the stern, it looks more like it's up at the bows and that could be explained by a range of less sinister reasons.

The price is just too high for the market and where she's located. If you don't have a buyer's broker you might want to consider retaining one. They can help you to pin a rational market value on the boat, get the real scoop from the selling broker, and determine if there is a reasonable offer to be made that will get traction with the seller.

[Capt.Alex]

I would not buy a 50' cruising boat, for half a million bucks that only holds 80 gallons of fresh water....

[FollowingCs]

Date Launched is questionable. Says 2003 up top, but in the description says 2005. Given the engines are 2005, I'm guessing 2005. Maybe construction started in 2003? Built right before the market crash....

Also, looks like the 2nd owner bought her in 2010, and put it through a re-fit (or so it says). I'm guessing that guy got it pretty cheap during the down market (like a house flipper), but put too much in to it (like many house flippers), and now wants the value back out.

Just guesses. My wife is a Realtor, and once a house is listed in the basic systems, the only thing holding it back from selling is price. Those who look at it don't think it is worth the price. Most don't want to offend with a low ball offer.

- Ray
~ Following Cs ~

[TacomaSailor]

Thanks for the comments - they are about the same as my wife has expressed to me. My problem is that I am in lust with the boat after having been on it twice for many hours.

here are some responses to questions or concerns raised in your comments:

- we do have a buyers broker who is a very experienced multihull cruiser and racer and is intimately familiar with Adagio

- the current owner also owns a custom built 65' carbon fiber cruising catamaran that is doing a circumnavigation with paid crew. He joins the boat for a couple weeks at a time. He has no concerns about the cost of upkeep on Adagio and has no particular reason to sell her for less than what he thinks it is worth. Thus, our 6-month negotiation with him.

- Adagio was built in 2003 in the Brazzapi yard in Belgium but it was not outfitted there
- Adagio was shipped to Miami for outfitting which was completed in 2005

- a close friend was the captain responsible for outfitting in Miami for the current owner
- that friend was then the captain operating the boat in Florida/Bahamas for a year
- another friend who is a professional sailor, primarily on multihulls, recently helped the current owner sail the boat from San Diego SE 1200 miles to Bara de Navidad and then 400 miles back to Puerto Vallarta and then Cabo San Lucas
- the pro sailor, who has no connection to the sale of the boat, tells me the boat sails like a dream, for a big cruising cat, and easily sailed at TWS in anything from 6 to 12 knots

- the boat has a big watermaker. Our boat has only 83 gallons of fresh water tankage and a 16 GPH Spectra watermaker. We spent three summers cruising in the far north Sea of Cortez where there is NO fresh water available and seldom carried more than 30-gallons in the tank. I would not want a cruising boat with more than 80 gallons of fresh water - why carry around that weight?

[snort]

That's way out of my price range, so I don't even allow myself to look at boats like these.
But, Lerouge is a top designer and production is way lower than the usual suspects: FP, Lagoon, etc... so value is harder to assess because there aren't a thousand already out there being sold and re-sold.
You might trying sending a query to some multihull brokers not currently involved in the sale and get some ideas. It would be interesting to find out how close they are on determining value. Some may punt, claiming not enough info, but you may get some interesting responses as well.