Buying abroad yet again.

[Nicholas123]

I have seen mentioned in another thread that once you make an offer a boat should be removed from sale when offered by a broker.Is that the same for a private sale?
I believe the seller in my case who is acting on behalf of someone else is very genuine & has said that I should be able to get it within such & such a price which I think I would be happy with but no concrete offer has been made & I expect to sort out the details on a visit do you think that this is sufficient?

 

[jwilson]

I have seen mentioned in another thread that once you make an offer a boat should be removed from sale when offered by a broker.Is that the same for a private sale?
I believe the seller in my case who is acting on behalf of someone else is very genuine & has said that I should be able to get it within such & such a price which I think I would be happy with but no concrete offer has been made & I expect to sort out the details on a visit do you think that this is sufficient?

Unfortunately you cannot guarantee that the seller (or broker dealing on his behalf) will "hold" a boat for you pending a visit. If you really want to make certain make a definite offer, subject to survey, sign a Sale and Purchase agreement and put down a deposit. Your subsequent inspection can form the first part of the survey.

If you were the seller, and someone had said to you that he would pay say 95% of the asking price subject to coming to see the boat at a date in the future, would you turn down a subsequent definite bird-in-the-hand offer of full price from someone who had already seen it? It is all too easy for a verbal "I'll buy it at ....." to change once the person sees the boat.

Once an offer is made and accepted, and the deposit and sale agreement are in place, you should be safe, though the seller could just change his mind and accept whatever penalty is written into the contract. In the case of the agreement we use as a broker, the buyer gets double his deposit back. Other contracts have lesser penalties. We have never actually had to do this.

Most brokers mark boats as "under offer" once the deposit is down. This does not mean that no-one else can view the boat, but that anyone else who does so first gets told that they cannot make an offer unless the present sale fails to complete.