Best way to sell my boat

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Kittycarter

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Hello,

Planning get a bigger boat next April and wondered the best way to sell my boat. Its a Fairline Sprint and brokers are asking £1500 to sell it which on a value of around £11k seems a complete rip off. Is selling privately realistic, I would sell it for a bit less as no fee to pay. I know about making sure it looks very clean and tidy and it will be used over the winter and Ill be on it every week to keep it looking good.

Any ideas or suggestions would be great.

Sean
 
Depends how quickly you want to sell it.

There are private sites such as Ebay and Apollo Duck where you can sell yourself but they perhaps dont get the traffic that a brokers site will see.

Most brokers charge a percentage fee so it might be worth shopping around. Also worth noting that a broker might be able to command a higher selling price in which case the fee might pay for itself.
 
At that sort of value I'd be marketing and selling it myself. Plenty of websites available. Ihmo you only need a broker if you're talking big bucks as it gives purchasers some confidence. Enjoy shopping for the bigger replacement.
 
What the broker charges is almost irrelevant as it is the net price you receive that matters. The problem is that low value boats are often just as difficult to sell as more expensive ones, hence the minimum charge many ask to sell low value boats. The normal brokerage fee is 6-8% so the broker quoting you £1500 is telling you he does not want to handle your boat. As suggested shop around for alternative quotes. The alternative is a private sale, but you have to pay for the advertising and then do the leg work to deal with enquiries, viewing and getting the money which is what you pay the broker to do.

No simple answer.
 
Murv said:
You might find some useful info in my thread here, there's also a further link in post #9 http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?404528-Could-someone-critique-my-ad-please&highlight=

For what it's worth, I'm going down the broker route now because I don't have the patience to deal with the timewasters. If you're a bit more tolerant than me, you should be fine! :)
I was quoted 6% brokerage.

Hope that's of some help,
Click to expand...

I thought 4% was normal but still expensive. I have always sold privately (up to now).

I don't think brokers bother to filter time wasters but as a private seller a few direct questions to the potential buyer soon finds them out.

I certainly do not like people on my boat unless they are genuinly interested buyers especially if unaccompanied by the broker as so often happens (found myself as a recent buyer). Valuable equipment can soon go missing !
 
Kittycarter said:
Hello,

Planning get a bigger boat next April and wondered the best way to sell my boat. Its a Fairline Sprint and brokers are asking £1500 to sell it which on a value of around £11k seems a complete rip off. Is selling privately realistic, I would sell it for a bit less as no fee to pay. I know about making sure it looks very clean and tidy and it will be used over the winter and Ill be on it every week to keep it looking good.

Any ideas or suggestions would be great.

Sean
Click to expand...

Is trading it in not an option ? Worked well for me
 
Gotta say in my experience brokers are not worth a light.

I was looking for a boat last year, and I mailed brokers, often not getting a reply and the replies I did get they often didn't have a clue WHAT they were selling.

At sub £30k I'd much rather deal with the actual owner........

I also wouldn't offer any more money for a boat just because it's with a broker. A boats worth what it's worth, I would only pay what I felt I wanted to pay.
 
We sold previous boats via Boatsandoutboards website. Free to advertise so we were fortunate and avoided brokers fees.

The £1500 quoted by the Broker isn't uncommon as a minimum fee and I don't think that it necessarily means that they don't want to sell the boat. They have costs to cover and they need to make an element of profit so it isn't entirely unreasonable. I would ask about the number of boats they are shifting......good brokers are doing okay so it could be a good option if you want to sell fairly swiftly. Alternatively, give Boatsandoutboards a whizz and see how you get on :)
 
If you want to make your boat stand out and reduce the need for taking people out, get a quadcopter film done of your boat and it in operation. Looks very flashy and motivating. Not that expensive either. If you need a contact I can provide one on the South coast.
 
If you want a sensible "price to change" to the bigger boat, which is ultimately what matters, you could do a lot worse than trading in with Essex Boatyards, and they will give you sensible after-sales support too. Their website lists their stock boats (the ones with "ES" in the number) and you can trade in against any of these. They are totally honest and reliable to deal with so worth a visit
 
We've sold four boats in the past few years using Apollo Duck and one buyer came from Wisconsin to Scotland to buy one of them ! Surprised us too....

The nearest broker to us charges 6%+ , so I reckon we've saved ourselves about £4600 in fees by not using them.

May be teaching you to suck eggs but ... the secret seems to be :

Pay for the option that allows you to post lots of photos, then make sure that you take those photos in good light conditions.

Don't take any photos with the boat so untidy that makes it look like it's just been broken into (it's surpirsing how many do look just like that) or you're halfway through sorting all your toolboxes out and decided to do so in the boat.


Lots of details, full spec etc.etc...

Set the table as if you're about to serve a meal & don't forget cushions.

My better half reckons that a decent display of cushions can spark interest from roughly half the potential buyers that no amount of details or techincal bumff ever could.

Longest any one boat was up for sale was 3 weeks.
 
Aha! Deleted User, Ellesar and others take note! I've been saying for years that cushiopns are mission critical to boating/selling a boat, and now Last Tuesday offers further hard evidence

The shape, colours, puffing up of them then a karate chop to the top, etc, are all critically important

Thanks Last Tuesday :D
 
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