Fender Kickers, yacht sales experiences, get it off your chest here...

[sigma38dave]

Never discount offshore workers...

I hadn’t and appreciate it reads like that. I was referring to Baddox’s post referencing 3 slightly suspicious enquiries that all turned out to be legit.

I’m an equal opportunities seller, I don’t care where you work!

Hope your viewings go well.

 

[sigma38dave]

Well, for anyone interested it’s now sold, took just over 4 months which surprised me. The buyer was the second viewing, he came with his partner and spent a good hour or so on board before making an offer, I rejected the first and he came back with something more sensible after a week.

He was painless to deal with so we offered to help deliver her, we took him to Dover on it yesterday, which went really well. One of his mates is helping middle of next week when NE wind arrive to get him to the Solent.

12 enquiries received in total via Apollo Duck, last 6 all from overseas, Netherlands and Germany. I had a slightly angry message from someone after I’d listed it as ‘sale agreed’, he was planning on coming in a few weeks but hadn’t actually confirmed, apparently I should have waited for him to schedule something.

Some of the UK ‘buyers’ out there frankly need a slap round the ear. Endless emails asking for details clearly stated in the advert, cancelled appointments at the last minute and one bloke that lived just over an hour away, wittering on about the trip here from Eastbourne like it needed difficult planning.

Someone else calls and leaves a message about viewing, I ring them back within 1/2 an hour and suffer a monologue of , ‘what boat was that, I’ve called about so many today I don’t remember it, where is it, what make was it, I’m so busy looking at boats this week and next I don’t think I can come and look at it’.

I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a yacht broker!

 

[SimonX]

I hadn’t and appreciate it reads like that. I was referring to Baddox’s post referencing 3 slightly suspicious enquiries that all turned out to be legit.

I’m an equal opportunities seller, I don’t care where you work!

Hope your viewings go well.

My boat was bought by said offshore worker. Only the second person who viewed it.

 

[SimonX]

Well, for anyone interested it’s now sold, took just over 4 months which surprised me. The buyer was the second viewing, he came with his partner and spent a good hour or so on board before making an offer, I rejected the first and he came back with something more sensible after a week.

He was painless to deal with so we offered to help deliver her, we took him to Dover on it yesterday, which went really well. One of his mates is helping middle of next week when NE wind arrive to get him to the Solent.

12 enquiries received in total via Apollo Duck, last 6 all from overseas, Netherlands and Germany. I had a slightly angry message from someone after I’d listed it as ‘sale agreed’, he was planning on coming in a few weeks but hadn’t actually confirmed, apparently I should have waited for him to schedule something.

Some of the UK ‘buyers’ out there frankly need a slap round the ear. Endless emails asking for details clearly stated in the advert, cancelled appointments at the last minute and one bloke that lived just over an hour away, wittering on about the trip here from Eastbourne like it needed difficult planning.

Someone else calls and leaves a message about viewing, I ring them back within 1/2 an hour and suffer a monologue of , ‘what boat was that, I’ve called about so many today I don’t remember it, where is it, what make was it, I’m so busy looking at boats this week and next I don’t think I can come and look at it’.

I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a yacht broker!

Congrats on the sale. I also had a lot of enquiries from mainland Europe, asking if I’d accept Euros, deliver to them and if it met latest EU regulations ( a 24 year old US built boat).
With my buyer’s head on I have enquired about probably 30 boats, viewed 7 in the UK and 5 in the Netherlands and am flying there tomorrow to view a sixth which we will almost certainly buy ( it’s already been viewed and approved by the other members of our partnership and I have seen by video).
Most of the brokers have been good to deal with although there was one in the UK who was pretty clueless and one in Netherlands who was pretty arrogant.

 

[benjenbav]

Well, for anyone interested it’s now sold, took just over 4 months which surprised me. The buyer was the second viewing, he came with his partner and spent a good hour or so on board before making an offer, I rejected the first and he came back with something more sensible after a week.

He was painless to deal with so we offered to help deliver her, we took him to Dover on it yesterday, which went really well. One of his mates is helping middle of next week when NE wind arrive to get him to the Solent.

12 enquiries received in total via Apollo Duck, last 6 all from overseas, Netherlands and Germany. I had a slightly angry message from someone after I’d listed it as ‘sale agreed’, he was planning on coming in a few weeks but hadn’t actually confirmed, apparently I should have waited for him to schedule something.

Some of the UK ‘buyers’ out there frankly need a slap round the ear. Endless emails asking for details clearly stated in the advert, cancelled appointments at the last minute and one bloke that lived just over an hour away, wittering on about the trip here from Eastbourne like it needed difficult planning.

Someone else calls and leaves a message about viewing, I ring them back within 1/2 an hour and suffer a monologue of , ‘what boat was that, I’ve called about so many today I don’t remember it, where is it, what make was it, I’m so busy looking at boats this week and next I don’t think I can come and look at it’.

I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a yacht broker!

Sounds like the buyer was good to deal with. Shows that there are still some like that.

As to the weird ones I guess that there’s also folks who just look at ‘for sales’ as a hobby in itself, plus the bad actors and the dreamers. I guess that filtering these and generally acting as an intermediary is where brokers really earn their money.

 

[SimonX]

Sounds like the buyer was good to deal with. Shows that there are still some like that.

As to the weird ones I guess that there’s also folks who just look at ‘for sales’ as a hobby in itself, plus the bad actors and the dreamers. I guess that filtering these and generally acting as an intermediary is where brokers really earn their money.

I admit to having been guilty of that, particularly over the past month or two when we had decided we were going to buy in Europe but still went to see a few boats in UK just to get the feel of a particular type.
Having been in sales ( cars and then vans) I had got used to the type myself and tried to be as honest as possible.

 

[doug748]

Yes the dreamers, sometimes you have to protect them from themselves, or try. This was the gist from last autumn:

"Can I live on it?"

"Yes, you could live on it, it's a very roomy boat, but it's only 26ft long...."

"Is there a mooring with it?"

"Boats don't usually come with a personal mooring but yes, it's on a club swinging mooring till the spring - paid for"

"So I could live on it and use my dinghy to go to work?"

"Not really, it's a big river and in winter storms it would be a terrible business"

"So one minute you are telling me I can live on it and the next I can't, which is it..........? Etc, etc.


.

 

[sigma38dave]

Sounds like the buyer was good to deal with. Shows that there are still some like that.

Quite, I think we'll probably keep in touch occasionally regarding the boat.

Yes the dreamers, sometimes you have to protect them from themselves, or try. This was the gist from last autumn:

"Can I live on it?"

"Yes, you could live on it, it's a very roomy boat, but it's only 26ft long...."

"Is there a mooring with it?"

"Boats don't usually come with a personal mooring but yes, it's on a club swinging mooring till the spring - paid for"

"So I could live on it and use my dinghy to go to work?"

"Not really, it's a big river and in winter storms it would be a terrible business"

"So one minute you are telling me I can live on it and the next I can't, which is it..........? Etc, etc.


.

He's definitely doing the rounds on Apollo Duck!

 

[Ribtecer]

Quite, I think we'll probably keep in touch occasionally regarding the boat.

Nice

 

[PabloPicasso]

I sold myself. No broker. Helped by me living only 20 minutes away from the boat.

Advertised online. 3rd Buyer couldnt get a surveyor so bought "on trust" . Paid the full asking price.


Later the new owner told me he had to get a survey for his insurance, and the only thing highlighted was the fire extinguishers were out of date.

A refection of all the good work I'd put in ovee the 18years I owned her. And he gets the benefit

 

[pretzel_logic]

Having just bought our boat in Greece a month ago, the owners who were a lovely couple - we had a lot in common - dropped the keys off yesterday along with loads of other stuff as they are giving up sailing. We both agreed that the broker, who was a guy from Athens, was a joy to deal with from both buying and selling.

Interestingly he mentioned that the broker had spoken to him after we'd viewed and said that he thought we were 'serious buyers', as we'd asked the right questions. Few people do this apparently and just ask inane rubbish - one viewer asked 'has it got it a toilet'? Go figure?

We'll send them some photos of her once we've launched as I think they were quite sad as they'd owned her from new.

 

[toothless]

I got so fed up when trying to sell my contessa a while back that I ended up keeping her.... I got messed about mercilessly with no shows and attempted scams. I had one guy in particular that seemed keen but then said he could see from my profile that I had sold a few boats before and therefore I was either a scammer or a dealer and got really nasty. He couldn't seem to understand that I was up sizing each time. Ahh well his loss.

So now I have two boats. Still, love my contessa.

 

[sigma38dave]

I got so fed up when trying to sell my contessa a while back that I ended up keeping her.... I got messed about mercilessly with no shows and attempted scams. I had one guy in particular that seemed keen but then said he could see from my profile that I had sold a few boats before and therefore I was either a scammer or a dealer and got really nasty. He couldn't seem to understand that I was up sizing each time. Ahh well his loss.

So now I have two boats. Still, love my contessa.

You expect that sort of behaviour selling I don’t know, a motocross bike on FB Marketplace not a Contessa.

I mentioned to one of my hopefuls that I couldn’t do a viewing one weekend as we were delivering our new boat to get some work done on it. He got quite confused and suggested I was a boat trader buying boats cheap and selling them on for a profit.

When I said there’s no business model for flipping boats and making money he got even more confused.

I think there’s ‘buyers’ out there that don’t realise the extent of the costs involved, even if you buy a well maintained boat it’ll still need your ££’s on a regular basis.

There’s certainly some strange people around.

Two boats eh?!

 

[mrming]

If only there was some sort of forum on the Internet where people thinking of getting into boats could ask questions and get advice on what’s involved…

 

[westhinder]

If only there was some sort of forum on the Internet where people thinking of getting into boats could ask questions and get advice on what’s involved…

That would only confuse them, I’m afraid

 

[BobnLesley]

So now I have two boats. Still, love my contessa.

A man with two boats has at least one too many.

 

[BobnLesley]

There’s certainly some strange people around.

To be fair, if you try buying a boat you'll come across some weirdos selling them
A particular favourite of ours was the German chap we encountered in Greece who'd chopped out a Westerley's chart table and a section of the saloon berth to install a full sized 240V domestic cooker and fridge, something he was adamant should increased its value/price

 

[arc1]

I got so fed up when trying to sell my contessa a while back that I ended up keeping her.... I got messed about mercilessly with no shows and attempted scams. I had one guy in particular that seemed keen but then said he could see from my profile that I had sold a few boats before and therefore I was either a scammer or a dealer and got really nasty. He couldn't seem to understand that I was up sizing each time. Ahh well his loss.

So now I have two boats. Still, love my contessa.

I get in enough trouble with my n+1 model for bikes. Think if I tried it for boats I wouldn't see the day out!

 

[newtothis]

A man with two boats has at least one too many.

The correct number of boats is N+1, where N = the number of boats you already have.
or
The correct number of boats is N-1, where N = the point your spouse divorces you.

 

[SimonX]

To be fair, if you try buying a boat you'll come across some weirdos selling them
A particular favourite of ours was the German chap we encountered in Greece who'd chopped out a Westerley's chart table and a section of the saloon berth to install a full sized 240V domestic cooker and fridge, something he was adamant should increased its value/price

Used to get that with cars, particularly Golf GTis and Rs.
"The lowered springs and fancy alloys with fat tyres have devalued your car, not added to it"
"Oh, you've chipped it as well? Thats another reduction."