Brokers and sellers

[robmcg]

I had a bit of a brain fart 3 or so weeks ago and put an offer in on a secondhand boat. Must admit I am/was a motivated buyer with the cash ready and waiting. My offer was 10% below asking price but was turned down in under 30 minutes. No harm, no foul. Just putting myself in the sellers position, I would have been disappointed that the broker made no attempt to develop me as a potential purchaser. In fact, never even had a follow up phonecall. Surely there is more to brokering a boat than putting up ascertain and showing folk around the boats. Just feel it was poor service for the seller.

 

[jac]

Was that your final offer or your first / only?

If they had already been back and forth and realised that you wouldn't have gone higher then you're probably being harsh on the broker.

If they didn't come back to you with some feedback and a "try 5% under asking" then I thin you're being very kind.

When we sold ours, the first offer was about 25% below asking and we rejected but the broker did go back and try and get more. Sold to another buyer about 6 weeks later though.

 

[robmcg]

If they had already been back and forth and realised that you wouldn't have gone higher then you're probably being harsh on the broker.

If they didn't come back to you with some feedback and a "try 5% under asking" then I thin you're being very kind.

When we sold ours, the first offer was about 25% below asking and we rejected but the broker did go back and try and get more. Sold to another buyer about 6 weeks later though.

Was a maiden offer, just no further contact after initial rejection. Not sore the offer was turned down, (although 10% off asking wasn't cheeky I thought). Shame for the seller, as when the iron was hot so to speak I could have gone up a bit.

 

[jac]

Was a maiden offer, just no further contact after initial rejection. Not sore the offer was turned down, (although 10% off asking wasn't cheeky I thought). Shame for the seller, as when the iron was hot so to speak I could have gone up a bit.

If you like the boat why not make contact with the broker again. Go back with an " we will be withdrawing the offer as we've seen another boat and your vendor obviously doesn't want to negotiate" line.

If he doesn't bite then it really is a bad broker! Can always go back in a month or two with a line about the other "mythical" boat falling through and offering a couple of grand more. Can't be that many new buyers coming into the market so if it hasn't sold in the next month or two then I think the vendor will have to be preparing to pay for another 6 months storage ashore over the winter which may help persuade the vendor to be reasonable.

 

[V1701]

I don't mean to pry but how much are we talking? If relatively low value the broker won't make much and won't be bothered to do very much (usually, in my experience). I'm minded of an offer I made a year and a half ago on an appallingly presented boat that was for sale for £10.5k. I offered £8k which was all but laughed at by the broker, whose opinion it was that she'd sell "as soon as the season starts". I don't even know if he put the offer to the seller. Same boat was still there more than a year later asking £8.5k...

 

[Tranona]

I had a bit of a brain fart 3 or so weeks ago and put an offer in on a secondhand boat. Must admit I am/was a motivated buyer with the cash ready and waiting. My offer was 10% below asking price but was turned down in under 30 minutes. No harm, no foul. Just putting myself in the sellers position, I would have been disappointed that the broker made no attempt to develop me as a potential purchaser. In fact, never even had a follow up phonecall. Surely there is more to brokering a boat than putting up ascertain and showing folk around the boats. Just feel it was poor service for the seller.

You are making assumptions about what has gone on between the seller and the broker. The broker follows his client's instructions, which may well be not to go any further with you. If you really want the boat, re-open negotiations in the knowledge that you will need to offer more than your first offer.

 

[jonic]

If you want the boat just ring him up and offer a better price than your rejected one, the balls back in your court.

At the moment, to them you may seem to be uninterested or looking to pay less than they want - and they may well have someone else who is interested at the right price.

The broker does not get paid until he has a sale and all the time the boat is unsold he is spending money and incurring costs. So no benefit to him to not pursue a buyer.

He could be pursuing someone else if you have indicated you are not in the market at or near the asking price.


......however if it were me, I would have followed you up with some feedback or an indication of where the seller would go to.

Good luck with it.

 

[robmcg]

Thanks for the replies. As I said, I wasn't complaining that my offer was turned down, just wondered if the seller was getting good service. Personally, I wasn't really willing to revise my offer up by a huge amount as the boat required over 5k of work, on top of the asking price, which would make the total outlay possibly above asking price. In this market, I think that would be foolish.

 

[wklein]

To be fair to them, yacht brokers do not provide a public service, they are a business and do the same amount of work regardless of the size of the boat, why would they be as interested in cheap overpriced boats?

Having said that i looked at our boat twice through the same broker (it having changed hands while i was saving up) and the first guy was completely dis-interested and was actually more scathing of the boats flaws than i was. Went back 18 months later and they were really helpful (if a little secretive of sellers intentions) and in the end apparently cut their commission in order to bridge the gap between prices.