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Lozzer

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Hi all

My boss has had his Princess 85 motor yacht for sale with a few agents for about six months now and things are pretty slow, a few sniffs but nothing serious. He has asked me to become proactive in selling the yacht which I don't mind as I am sure he will look after me well if I achieve the objective.

Given that remit I have spent a few hours putting together the following website and I wonder if you would give me some feedback. I read with interest the feedback given when Henryf put his Princess 42 up for sale. I have tried to use lots of pictures showing the yacht whilst avoiding all fluffy talk about yacht.

I will be placing adds in the near future directing people to our website as well as engaging high end real estate companies down here in Marbella. I was thinking of Sunday times and some boaty mags any views.

All feedback happily received.

url www.princess85forsale.com

kind regards
 
photos are nicely setup, clean, clear and informative (most of them)
like the structure of the site, BUT DONT like the size of the blue header. WAY TOO LARGE for the info depicted!
Also don't like this blue, would probably pshop a strip from one of the ext photos with lots of clear med water and use it as a background.
Many things in the spec list are not shown in any pics, probably need more pics.


Mind, I'm not in the market for a 3m s/h mobo, so maybe I'm not the best advisor!

good luck with the sale and some info on what to come would be nice.

cheers

V.
 
Site looks ok, but my guess is that you haven't had a bite because of the price.

It is a four year old boat and it looks as though he is trying to get back what he paid for it although would be interested to be corrected here.

Have a look around and see what you can get in the age/length/spec range but my guess is it needs to be under £2m to be in the right ball park and may be even by a few hundred thou.
 
tbh I think that you need much better pix. The homepage is too low res. In one of the interior shots you can see the reflection of the person taking the picture. I thought the bits and pieces lying around - books, boxes of tissues, towels, someone's specs just spoke of a hastily put together second-hand effort.

Also, the name: the stuff about Prof Brodsky looks like a sloppy cut and paste: in one place it says "He currently is Five College Professor of Literature at Mount Holyoke College" and at the end it says he died in 1996. Also - quite honestly, the name presumably has great importance to the current owner but won't mean a thing to the next owner.

Sorry to be negative, but that's what I think.
 
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Hi All

Thanks for your prompt replies. I agree with pretty much all of the comments made. The price is based on what we were told to sell it for by the brokers we engaged originally.

Looking at the like for like prices its there or there about. But no phone ringing could be the price.

I will lose the whats in the name, as you say it was important to current owner but not so any prospect.

Will make amendments tomorrow as tired of looking at screens.
 
Larger image of the lay out, current one too small, as above, the name doesn't need an explanation, and if I were in the market for a 3 mil boat, which would only be in my dreams, the name would get changed having read the reasons for it, can you picture the new owner with guests on the fly taking evening refreshments,Guest Q, where does the name come from? New owner A, some old dead rusky poet who won the National Book Critic's Award for Criticism.

After this feedback I'm in with a chance of winning that:D
 
epervier said:
Larger image of the lay out, current one too small, as above, the name doesn't need an explanation, and if I were in the market for a 3 mil boat, which would only be in my dreams, the name would get changed having read the reasons for it, can you picture the new owner with guests on the fly taking evening refreshments,Guest Q, where does the name come from? New owner A, some old dead rusky poet who won the National Book Critic's Award for Criticism.

After this feedback I'm in with a chance of winning that:D
Click to expand...

He actually won a Nobel prize for Literature which puts him a little higher than most. Still agree new owner likely to change name. You will be surprised at how many people ask me where the name comes from? but point taken page is already out.
 
Hi Lozzer
This is going to be difficult to shift I think. It's very bog standard, very beige on the interior, royal blue everything outside, high hours (in the marketing sense) and has the less preferred layout with the tiny port guest cabin ( the claim it sleeps 9 guests didn't compute for me). So you're in a race to the bottom on pricing and it will take a lot of luck to get that price. It feels like a stock or semi stock boat so can hardly have cost much more than that when new, which makes the price feel cheeky IMHO. There's just nothing to differentiate it from the other base spec p85s out there, alas

Also as a buyer I'd spot the horseshoe and orange light at top of fly stairs, and the ex VAT, and think it's ex charter which needs a price chip on a boat this size. I'd think "they haven't quoted genset hours because they're so high". If it's not ex charter then IMHO say so in the ad

Some of the detail of the ad isn't great but that's a sideshow compared with the above. Better IMHO not to have bathroom pics with shampoo bottles on show and the loo seat up, for example, nor a non matching fender set, etc. but that's all detail. Main issue is that it is base spec beige/blue with high hours and 3.5 owner cabins so your owner has to be pretty price competitive

Good luck though!
 
Hi JFM

Hope you are well.

I will work on spec as it is more than base from Princess. We put quite a few extras on like stabilisers, dive compressor, twin KVH satellite systems, upgraded nav systems, two Sea bobs, Upgraded to sports Williams upgraded AV kit, upgraded domestic batteries, plus a raft of other stuff.

Thanks for feedback

Those interested in replacement yacht, I am afraid we are going to the dark side. Plan is to do a circumnavigation and the P85 just doesnt have the range....

She isn't a charter yacht just one that is well used by her owner. I we don't do circa 6000 miles a year something is up. Have boat will travel as they say. I laughed when you mentioned the horseshoe life ring you have never liked them.

The 9 berths is by way of a pulman in the 3rd VIP. We installed it due to sleeping arrangements at the time of purchase. Gensets only have circa 1100 hours each
 
It's overpriced and dull as dishwater .
£2-6M ex vat buys an awful lot of Sunseeker Y or Pred ,Pershing ,etc
Is it listed with a Prinny broker ?
http://www.dlb-yachting.com/
Reason I ask I sold my Sunseeker in 3 weeks last Sept -spoke to the french SS broker and was told they had a load of overpriced stock ,some over 2y + due to owners not budging on price .
I looked at the mkt and pitched mine15% below everybody else -wham bam sold ,to a German Guy .
As others have said its basically race to the bottom for a sale ie the next person who wants a P85 -or similar ?
A wood saloon floor would give it more appeal -cream carpet nightmare resale wise .
Hrs are fine not excessive IMHO -no deal breaker there .
PRICE
Figure on £1-5M in the bank clear ask £1-75 M -or end up with more than one boat .
Italy is on its arse re boat sales -I paid less than 50% of asking / advetised price for a replacement -broker incentivised me before I viewed ( still loads of other at the time still for sale ) .
I realise your boss is involved with a new build and can't beat down the replcement a great deal .
 
Portofino wow you think £1.75 As I may have said before we have based price on what brokers tell us. I have looked on the websites and yes there is one cheaper a 2010 model but other than that nothing. The are V85's going for a lot less but then that is a different yacht so cannot be compared with.

Agree italy on its arse. We looked at buying a 40m two years ago and were offered a 3 year old boat for €4.5m original price £14m and we didn't even start negotiating. We soon realised it would have been a bundle of trouble so we walked.

At the end of the day we will only know the price when someone transfers money into my bosses account. The new yacht doesn't arrive until spring next year so we can always enjoy for another year and worry about it then. Even then there is still the chance of keeping it as new yacht is for a totally different purpose.
 
Definitely get rid of the blue at the top, you want viewers drawn to the boat, not the top border.
Try to keep it to one line of links, 2 lines looks awkward.

Change the main picture to one of those scrollers, that shows one image of the boat on the move, one exterior and one interior, clicking on each brings to the appropriate gallery.

Make the first picture one of the boat on the move, you want the viewer to imagine themselves out boating, not just looking at a boat.
For the exterior pictures, you need blue skies, should not be difficult to arrange down there, no photoshop needed :-)


Then add more details below the scroller, there's no need to have a separate link to see some basic details.

Finally, I would try to split the image of the layout into 3 larger images and try to keep your images grouped together, as you click through you should see all the images of the helm, then the saloon, then bedrooms etc.

Good Luck.
 
Lozzer,

I'd agree with other comments regarding layout and photos etc. But from a technical point of view, there are a few tweaks to make to help the website list in the search engines. After all if you can have the best site in the world, but not much use if no one finds it :)

1) On home page add page title 'Princess 85 for sale' (no quotes). It says 'home' at the moment. You could add similar on the other pages, perhaps 'Princess 85 for sale - specification' , 'Princess 85 for sale - gallery' etc

2) Although less relevant these days, add some keywords like princess 85, for sale, yacht

3) Add a description on the home page, this is in the hidden meta data not on the actual page. You could keep it short and to point '2011 Princess 85 for sale, stunning example with TRAC zero speed fin stabilizers, water maker and water toys. Princess 85 for sale'

4) Consider adding a short summary on the home page near the pricing. Include the phrase 'Princess 85 for sale'

5) submit the URL on these links, will just help Google and Yahoo know your site exists

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url?pli=1

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

6) Buy some Google Adwords, if someone searches for 'Princess 85 for sale' make sure your add is top of the list.

I'm not an expert, just picked up a few things over the years tweaking my own business website.

Anders


Edited to add another link to this website with a Princess 85 for Sale
 
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Hi Lozzer, best of luck selling this boat at this price in the Med at the moment. To be blunt you've got everything against you. First, you're selling a GBP denominated boat in the Eurozone during a time when the € is depreciating against the GBP and likely to weaken further. Second you're selling a British built boat in an area where you've got stiff competition from arguably more prestigious Italian brands which will probably be priced similarly. Third, the engine hours are high for a 4 yr old boat which as jfm says suggests charter and you'll be competing with other boats with half those hours. Fourth, of course, the Med boat selling market is on its knees anyway.
Your website is OK as far as it goes. As others say, you should perhaps lose the boat name and the blue top banner is a bit loud. The main problem as far as I'm concerned is the photos which look dull. If you trying to sell a boat for top dollar, the photos need to look good and these don't. How about asking a pro photographer to properly light the boat and take some really good photos? The layout diagrams are a bit small too.
You say you've had the boat on the market for 6 months. As you probably appreciate those 6 months are the worst 6 months you could have picked for selling a Med based boat and you may have to hang on until Spring before you get any interest. I'm not going to say much about the price only to say that some brokers try to suggest a high asking price just to get the boat on their books knowing full well that it won't fetch anywhere near that price. The price is on a par with other P85's listed on Yachtworld but given the factors I've listed above, I guess your owner is going to have to take a big hit to shift it
 
Portofino said:
It's overpriced and dull as dishwater .
£2-6M ex vat buys an awful lot of Sunseeker Y or Pred ,Pershing ,etc
Is it listed with a Prinny broker ?
http://www.dlb-yachting.com/
Reason I ask I sold my Sunseeker in 3 weeks last Sept -spoke to the french SS broker and was told they had a load of overpriced stock ,some over 2y + due to owners not budging on price .
I looked at the mkt and pitched mine15% below everybody else -wham bam sold ,to a German Guy .
As others have said its basically race to the bottom for a sale ie the next person who wants a P85 -or similar ?
A wood saloon floor would give it more appeal -cream carpet nightmare resale wise .
Hrs are fine not excessive IMHO -no deal breaker there .
PRICE
Figure on £1-5M in the bank clear ask £1-75 M -or end up with more than one boat .
Italy is on its arse re boat sales -I paid less than 50% of asking / advetised price for a replacement -broker incentivised me before I viewed ( still loads of other at the time still for sale ) .
I realise your boss is involved with a new build and can't beat down the replcement a great deal .
Click to expand...

Have to say looking at your link, Leopard 27 looks a lot of craft compared to the Princess 85 half the hours and half the price, ok I realise apples and pears,but it still represents stiff competition £2.6 mil plus tax = £3.12 mil v €1.59 mil TTC (INC TAX)
 
Lozzer said:
Hi all

My boss has had his Princess 85 motor yacht for sale with a few agents for about six months now and things are pretty slow, a few sniffs but nothing serious. He has asked me to become proactive in selling the yacht which I don't mind as I am sure he will look after me well if I achieve the objective.

Given that remit I have spent a few hours putting together the following website and I wonder if you would give me some feedback. I read with interest the feedback given when Henryf put his Princess 42 up for sale. I have tried to use lots of pictures showing the yacht whilst avoiding all fluffy talk about yacht.

I will be placing adds in the near future directing people to our website as well as engaging high end real estate companies down here in Marbella. I was thinking of Sunday times and some boaty mags any views.

All feedback happily received.

url www.princess85forsale.com

kind regards
Click to expand...

Like a house, there's only one reason a boat doesn't sell for months and when listed with more than one broker. The price. Stop fannying around with a website and spending money on magazine ads which don't work (unless you keep the ad running for months) and just reduce the price.

The only way this might work is if you offer some incentive ie pay for inspection flights, transport, a week in a local villa...
 
And, as already mentioned, those dull photos just don't cut it for a £2,000,000 boat. Get a photographer in, turn the lights on and create some atmosphere.

Get rid of the blue banner. Pretty cheap looking. Just stick with white.
 
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