HELP and Advice Please

[sidney]

Looking at buying my first river cruiser. Have found a couple of boats that I am interested in through brokers. How can I tell if the price being requested is reasonable? Unforttunately apart from the boats I have found - both same age I have no other way of telling. Does a boat lose a certain %age each year? If it was a car, then there is What Car, or Glass's Guide. Aplogies if this question is naieve, but.... Many thanks .

 

[VicS]

Welcome to the forums.

First bit of advice: give posts a title in the subject line that give bit of a clue what the question is about.

About all you can do is compare prices for similar boats but also ask around and try to get some idea of what % of the asking price people actually get. It depends on the class of boat but in some cases the amount realised is a lot less than the asking price.

Some boats appreciate, at least popular ones can.

 

[sidney]

Re: HELP and Advice Please - Re Buying a Boat

Thank you for the tips and welcome. Appreciated

 

[William_H]

Re: HELP and Advice Please - Re Buying a Boat

Boats are not like cars in terms of resale price. A fibreglass hull which is essentially the boat will last very well for a long time. However the engine electrics sails and rigging may not last so well. So you tend to pay for condition. Of course some more modern boats are better in design but this is not always significant. Of course for a boat type where there is a lot available there is a reasonable price. Otherwise you just look for what you get and what you want for your money.

Most sail boats around here have doubled their value in the 25 to 30 years since they were built. You don't get that with a car. olewill

 

[RobBrown]

If it's not too much grandma & eggs, one of the easiest things you can do if you have details of a couple of specific boats is to Google for the particular make and especially if you get links to the bigger Internet sale sites, like Boats & Outboards, you should soon pick up a general sense of usual price ranges/conditions for the marque, at least if it is reasonably common. However, as Vic says, the price asked is not necess the price achieved. For eg, may get lower price in private sale to reflect no broker commission, but in any event, in my actual purchase, I ended up paying 20% less than advertised sale price. I am pretty sure part was probably already built in "concession", but part was definitely result of items picked up on survey and I would personally not consider a boat purchase without getting one done.

 

[sidney]

Again, very helpful many thanks. I had tried Google and various boat web sites but the make seems pretty uncommon although gets v good write ups and reviews - quality, saling etc. Asking price after six years is still 80% of new boat price, which seemed high to me, but I am more used to cars than boats!

 

[Richard10002]

[ QUOTE ]
Unforttunately apart from the boats I have found - both same age I have no other way of telling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Give us a clue - what make and model are the boats? Somebody here may be an expert, the dealer, merely or have one.

My own view is that if you are buying your first boat of any kind, it should probably be a fairly common make and model, both in terms of advice, repairs and parts.