jamie N
Well-Known Member
Excellent watercolour. Thanks for posting, I've taken a screenshot and it enlarges well. All I need now is a decent frame!
Fender Kickers, yacht sales experiences, get it off your chest here...
- Thread starter xyachtdave
- Start date
pretzel_logic
Member
Spare a thought for those of us who are buying for the first time. We have around £50k to spend and have contacted a number of brokers in Greece (including the one selling the charter company Sail Ionian boats). We can travel out there at the drop of a hat and have identified a few boats we want to view (and would rather combine a trip with as many viewings as possible). However thus far no-one has bothered to get back to us despite filling in the contact form then emailing directly.
Any advice? We are serious purchasers having recently sold a share and now want to commit to our own boat and have cash but it seems that we are being ignored. I'm guessing £50k is seen as pretty small fry so it's not worth them spending three minutes replying to an email?
I haven't phoned - partly because of the possibility of a language barrier but also because on most of the broker's sites it says that if you are interested in any of the boats then to fill in the contact form, which I perceive as a first step towards establishing a dialogue.
We did manage to contact one broker back in Sept and actually went out to Greece but they couldn't accommodate any viewings for at least two - three weeks so we didn't get to view any.
Having just bought and sold a house, the estate agents are falling over themselves to communicate with you and conduct viewings. I guess the 1% agent's fee is not quite as valuable for a £50k sailing yacht than for a £500k house. (I have no idea what commission yacht brokers get).
It's very frustrating. I'm glad I'm not trying to sell a boat in Greece!
Any advice to get ourselves taken a bit more seriously?
Any advice? We are serious purchasers having recently sold a share and now want to commit to our own boat and have cash but it seems that we are being ignored. I'm guessing £50k is seen as pretty small fry so it's not worth them spending three minutes replying to an email?
I haven't phoned - partly because of the possibility of a language barrier but also because on most of the broker's sites it says that if you are interested in any of the boats then to fill in the contact form, which I perceive as a first step towards establishing a dialogue.
We did manage to contact one broker back in Sept and actually went out to Greece but they couldn't accommodate any viewings for at least two - three weeks so we didn't get to view any.
Having just bought and sold a house, the estate agents are falling over themselves to communicate with you and conduct viewings. I guess the 1% agent's fee is not quite as valuable for a £50k sailing yacht than for a £500k house. (I have no idea what commission yacht brokers get).
It's very frustrating. I'm glad I'm not trying to sell a boat in Greece!
Any advice to get ourselves taken a bit more seriously?
ProDave
Well-Known Member
I'll give you my take, from the buyers point of view.
We had decided on what boat we wanted and it narrowed down to 2 specific make / model of boats, we had viewed and sailed on one locally but it was not for sale but confirmed that was the boat we wanted.
There were 2 for sale in the UK at the time, one with a broker in North Wales. I sent an enquiry "Is is still for sale, if so can you give me an idea if it is ready to sail for a sea delivery or could you advise on a transport company?"
It too them 2 WEEKS to reply "yes still for sale" no other details.
The other was for sale privately, the seller was easy to contact, we went to view it, it needed some work and was not ready for a sea delivery so we agreed a price to reflect the condition and bought it, with road transport. Have been sailing it for 3 years now.
I feel sorry for the first bloke with the lazy broker and wonder if he ever did sell it.
We had decided on what boat we wanted and it narrowed down to 2 specific make / model of boats, we had viewed and sailed on one locally but it was not for sale but confirmed that was the boat we wanted.
There were 2 for sale in the UK at the time, one with a broker in North Wales. I sent an enquiry "Is is still for sale, if so can you give me an idea if it is ready to sail for a sea delivery or could you advise on a transport company?"
It too them 2 WEEKS to reply "yes still for sale" no other details.
The other was for sale privately, the seller was easy to contact, we went to view it, it needed some work and was not ready for a sea delivery so we agreed a price to reflect the condition and bought it, with road transport. Have been sailing it for 3 years now.
I feel sorry for the first bloke with the lazy broker and wonder if he ever did sell it.
mrming
Well-Known Member
If you haven’t already, try giving Williams & Smithells a call. They’re a UK brokerage who sell boats in Greece. I have no connection, just noticed that their boats are often well presented and described.
pretzel_logic
Member
Thanks. Yes they were the ones who did respond. Unfortunately, in Sept they were very busy so were unable to agree any viewings at all. I'm hoping that this time of year they might be less busy.
Frogmogman
Well-Known Member
I’m finding this level of indifference too in my quest for a replacement boat. It occurred to me that everyone who contacted me about my boat when I was selling got a reply one way or the other within a few hours at most.
Had I agreed to put my boat on brokerage (which incidentally, over here they were going to charge me a fee of 8%) would my buyers have been as well served? My view was that I would try and sell it privately first, and then if I failed to find a buyer by the end of the summer, I would put it in hands of a broker.
A good test for someone selling through a broker would be to email them through a different account to see what sort of response they get.
xyachtdave
Well-Known Member
We did the same with our new boat, decided on what we wanted then went shopping.
There were 7 for sale in the UK at the time. 3 ex school boats with too much work required not reflected in the asking which we viewed, one in Scotland and one in Eastbourne that had been modified heavily unfortunately not to our taste so we didn’t view those 2.
There were two in the Hamble within 100 metres of each other and we didn’t even bother to look at one of them as it was at least £20k over the market rate with no real work done to reflect the very optimistic pricing.
We bought the nicely presented, realistically priced example after viewing with the owner for a couple of hours.
He was a really decent bloke and I think from the outset we all knew we weren’t wasting each others time. Viewed Saturday, paid Tuesday, hand over following weekend.
Mark-1
Well-Known Member
Call Sail Ionian direct.
ProDave
Well-Known Member
Sound advice.
And if they don't respond to your "test" enquiry, tell them so and tell them you have deciided not to use them to sell your boat as their service is not up to standard.
Baggywrinkle
Well-Known Member
I have bought 2 boats in Croatia, (at least 1300km round trip to view) experience was as follows .... names removed to protect the guilty.
Experience in 2011:
Broker X replied to my E-Mails and said he had a few boats that might interest me. There were photos available but they were modified to remove boat names etc. and blur backgrounds. I asked for detailed photos and didn't get them. Went to see a few of his offerings and he was extremely secretive about where they were actually based ... gave me meeting points and when I turned up, I was asked to sign a contract which basically said if I bought any of the boats he showed me then he was entitled to his commission. Once signed, he took me to the boats. None were suitable so didn't proceed, got serious hassle from him afterwards in terms of pressure to come and see "bargains" that would certainly be gone if I didn't view ASAP. Not a great experience - was useful to see different models and layouts, but I would have been seriously worried about paying any money to him should I find something I liked. Some of them had obvious accident damage which was poorly repaired.
Bach Yachting was fine, none of the nonsense like the other broker, viewings arranged, boats were genuine, broker seemed professional and honest, but he had nothing that appealed.
I ended up buying directly from a charter company, which went fine in the end - agreed to a week long charter of the boat I was interested in, with a refund if I bought it. While I had it on charter I poked around in every nook and cranny, took up floorboards and thoroughly inspected and photographed everything - I even lifted it out to inspect the hull with the agreement of the charter company. I put down a deposit with collection at the end of the season, and gave a detailed list of all the things they needed to fix. End of season came, the items were fixed, but someone had run it aground, cracking the internal grid structure. After initial denial, they accepted my photographic evidence and I was given a sister ship from their fleet at the same price - but with better equipment. Had a few sleepless nights during the process though. Turned out OK in the end, had over a decade of fun with the boat, no major problems but a catalogue of bodges which I fixed over time.
Experience in 2024
This time I wrote to all the charter companies directly, some responded, some put me onto their broker who they used to shift their charter fleet. Collected a list of 8 boats to view and arranged viewings over a long weekend. Also had one boat offered by the broker who sold my last boat, pictures looked good, so I added it to the list. Long story short, my broker came up trumps, boat was a one owner boat, never chartered, in exceptional condition at a reasonable price - was interesting to see the charter boats as a comparison. I was prepared to settle for a well-worn ex-charter having done it once as you can get a lot of boat for the money - and my last one lasted me over a decade. The one-owner boat was gorgeous in comparison so I went with that. This time round, all the brokers involved and the charter companies were honest and straightforward ... it's the luck of the draw at the end of the day.
I have a friend who bought direct from Sail Ionian and he was very happy with his purchase.
Old and new in the same pic ... with the help of Photoshop
Experience in 2011:
Broker X replied to my E-Mails and said he had a few boats that might interest me. There were photos available but they were modified to remove boat names etc. and blur backgrounds. I asked for detailed photos and didn't get them. Went to see a few of his offerings and he was extremely secretive about where they were actually based ... gave me meeting points and when I turned up, I was asked to sign a contract which basically said if I bought any of the boats he showed me then he was entitled to his commission. Once signed, he took me to the boats. None were suitable so didn't proceed, got serious hassle from him afterwards in terms of pressure to come and see "bargains" that would certainly be gone if I didn't view ASAP. Not a great experience - was useful to see different models and layouts, but I would have been seriously worried about paying any money to him should I find something I liked. Some of them had obvious accident damage which was poorly repaired.
Bach Yachting was fine, none of the nonsense like the other broker, viewings arranged, boats were genuine, broker seemed professional and honest, but he had nothing that appealed.
I ended up buying directly from a charter company, which went fine in the end - agreed to a week long charter of the boat I was interested in, with a refund if I bought it. While I had it on charter I poked around in every nook and cranny, took up floorboards and thoroughly inspected and photographed everything - I even lifted it out to inspect the hull with the agreement of the charter company. I put down a deposit with collection at the end of the season, and gave a detailed list of all the things they needed to fix. End of season came, the items were fixed, but someone had run it aground, cracking the internal grid structure. After initial denial, they accepted my photographic evidence and I was given a sister ship from their fleet at the same price - but with better equipment. Had a few sleepless nights during the process though. Turned out OK in the end, had over a decade of fun with the boat, no major problems but a catalogue of bodges which I fixed over time.
Experience in 2024
This time I wrote to all the charter companies directly, some responded, some put me onto their broker who they used to shift their charter fleet. Collected a list of 8 boats to view and arranged viewings over a long weekend. Also had one boat offered by the broker who sold my last boat, pictures looked good, so I added it to the list. Long story short, my broker came up trumps, boat was a one owner boat, never chartered, in exceptional condition at a reasonable price - was interesting to see the charter boats as a comparison. I was prepared to settle for a well-worn ex-charter having done it once as you can get a lot of boat for the money - and my last one lasted me over a decade. The one-owner boat was gorgeous in comparison so I went with that. This time round, all the brokers involved and the charter companies were honest and straightforward ... it's the luck of the draw at the end of the day.
I have a friend who bought direct from Sail Ionian and he was very happy with his purchase.
Old and new in the same pic ... with the help of Photoshop