how best to sell a boat these days?

[Birdseye]

I've sold 3 boats before now, the last in 2006. All have been private sales and all have been adverised through the yachting mags. But if I look through the little booklets that pass for YM and PBO these days, there are few private adverts. The trade has clearly gone elsewhere.

I dont want to use a broker - the fees are ridiculous I M O. So where do I advertise nowadays? The boat in question is likely in the £50k range and its currently cardiff based.

Is it worth setting up a website with lots of piccies or is it OK simply to compile an email to send to enquirers?

 

[capnsensible]

You can start by sneaking in an advert on a yachting forum disguised as a question about selling a boat.

Oh, wait a minute.........

 

[NotBirdseye]

Unfortunately, I trust private sellers as far as I can throw them...and their boat. If I buy from a dealer and it's faulty in some way (not as described) I can take it back to get it fixed (Consumer Protection Act rather than Warranty) or heck send the whole thing back and get a refund. Can't do that with private sellers. Dealers will typically (the good ones) have a look over the boat and do a survey, the fees are there to cover their costs and get them a little profit.

 

[jordanbasset]

If it helps I am just in the process of selling my boat, a 2013 Bavaria 33 based in Greece, have used ebay and Apollo Duck. It's been on the market for three weeks and have had lots of interest and enquiries and 4 (lowish offers) off the ebay advert
As it is not even ready for viewing until next week am quite happy with the level of interest so far

 

[prv]

Is it worth setting up a website with lots of piccies or is it OK simply to compile an email to send to enquirers?

How are the enquirers going to know to enquire? There obviously has to be some kind of initial advert.

That advert (or other resources that people can easily and instantly access from it) has to contain enough information to get people to put your boat on their list of possibles before they'll take additional steps like emailing for more information. Different people have a different information threshold for that, but since you don't want to lose any possible buyer you need to cater to most of the range - including people who will only make contact for a boat they're already seriously, not just speculatively, considering based on information available to them by self-service. These people aren't going to contact you based on one smudgy photo and 40 words unless it's a very niche boat that they specifically want and that ad is one of only three they've seen anywhere.

This is a long-winded way of saying that, yes, you need a website with lots of pictures. Whether that's your own dedicated site or a page on a general listing site that lets you upload a reasonable number of decent photos and some text, I don't think is important.

The idea of a pre-prepared sales pack that you email out to people who email you and ask for it, basically casts yourself in the role of not-very-good very-high-latency webserver with a non-standard request interface. Don't do that, use an actual webserver, it's what they're for.

Pete

 

[capnsensible]

The idea of a pre-prepared sales pack that you email out to people who email you and ask for it, basically casts yourself in the role of not-very-good very-high-latency webserver with a non-standard request interface.

Pete

Blimey, do you have to learn computer nerkspeak as well?

I just used a broker last time.

 

[Cantata]

I've always sold privately, the first one was through an ad on Autotrader which had a boat section at the time, the second was through Apollo Duck, the third was an ad on the owners' association website. In each case I insisted that the transaction was carried out using the RYA-provided form of contract.

 

[prv]

Unfortunately, I trust private sellers as far as I can throw them...and their boat. If I buy from a dealer and it's faulty in some way (not as described) I can take it back to get it fixed (Consumer Protection Act rather than Warranty) or heck send the whole thing back and get a refund. Can't do that with private sellers. Dealers will typically (the good ones) have a look over the boat and do a survey, the fees are there to cover their costs and get them a little profit.

I don’t think there are many dealers selling second-hand yachts, though. Seems to be slightly more common in the motorboat world, but still the vast majority of professionals will be brokers acting for private sellers, not dealers selling on their own account.

Pete

 

[NotBirdseye]

That's gonna screw me up then! I'll figure something out I'm sure.

 

[Birdseye]

Unfortunately, I trust private sellers as far as I can throw them...and their boat. If I buy from a dealer and it's faulty in some way (not as described) I can take it back to get it fixed (Consumer Protection Act rather than Warranty) or heck send the whole thing back and get a refund. Can't do that with private sellers. Dealers will typically (the good ones) have a look over the boat and do a survey, the fees are there to cover their costs and get them a little profit.

I think you are misunderstanding the legal position. If you buy from a dealer then you are right, but the dealer actually owns the boat ie he has taken it in in part exchange or its a new boat. Most second hand boats are sold through a broker acting as the agent of the seller so you are buying privately but the transaction is organised by the broker. You can only go back legally if the seller ( ie the owner) has made misrepresentations as to the condition etc of the boat via the broker. CPA doesnt apply. Your contract is with the seller himself.

I might be wrong but I dont think I am.

 

[NotBirdseye]

I think you are misunderstanding the legal position. If you buy from a dealer then you are right, but the dealer actually owns the boat ie he has taken it in in part exchange or its a new boat. Most second hand boats are sold through a broker acting as the agent of the seller so you are buying privately but the transaction is organised by the broker. You can only go back legally if the seller ( ie the owner) has made misrepresentations as to the condition etc of the boat via the broker. CPA doesnt apply. Your contract is with the seller himself.

I might be wrong but I dont think I am.

I've tried to do some research as to whether you are or are not correct, but I won't be buying through a broker from the looks of things when it comes to buying (not without speaking to trading standards and so on first). I can't confirm if you are correct or not at the moment (but what I have found leans towards your position). Instead I'll prefer to purchase through a dealer (i.e. a company that owns the boat outright).

So that's another type I need to exclude from my Buy from list -_-.

I do refer to dealers as dealers rather than brokers, it wasn't a distinction I was however previously aware so thanks for that.

 

[prv]

I do refer to dealers as dealers rather than brokers, it wasn't a distinction I was however previously aware so thanks for that.

I think everything you said was correct, it's just that if you only want to buy from a dealer then you exclude practically the entire second-hand yacht market, and substantially limit the second-hand motorboat one. You can of course buy new on those terms.

Pete

 

[Praxinoscope]

Sold my last boat and bought my present boat on privately on Apolloduck, no problems and no complaints, my boat was sold very quickly and the buyer didn’t even bother with a survey, my present boat I had a survey which picked up on a couple of small items I had missed but basically confirmed what I saw during the viewing.
In both cases we used the RYA documentation.

 

[NotBirdseye]

I think everything you said was correct, it's just that if you only want to buy from a dealer then you exclude practically the entire second-hand yacht market, and substantially limit the second-hand motorboat one. You can of course buy new on those terms.

Pete

This too I have noticed :/. It's an odd situation where buying a car is safer than buying a boat, because if something went wrong rather sharpish after buying it, I'd expect to be able to return it for a refund.

 

[pagoda]

This too I have noticed :/. It's an odd situation where buying a car is safer than buying a boat, because if something went wrong rather sharpish after buying it, I'd expect to be able to return it for a refund.

Perhaps so? Very few car purchases involve a purchased survey (kick the tyres?)
Private sales are usually done with a "as seen and approved" signed by the purchaser so no real comeback.
Caveat emptor.

 

[NotBirdseye]

My car involved a paid survey from the RAC and I purchased the car from a dealer rather than brokerage (the invoice has their name on it). I might not recommend the RAC for surveys mind you. This means I'm also protected under the Consumer Protection Act, my credit card (section 100?) protection and if something went wrong, I could possibly claim from the RAC. Belts n Braces.

None of this answers the Ops question though and the boat market is weird. >_>

 

[daveyw]

When buying a boat privately, how do you check if there is a mortgage on said boat?

 

[NotBirdseye]

When buying a boat privately, how do you check if there is a mortgage on said boat?

https://www.rya.org.uk/sitecollecti...ts/Members Advice/Title Check/TITLE CHECK.pdf

That any use to you?

 

[shan]

We used Apolloduck to sell our boat. Loads of photos and detailed information. Within a month we had 3 offers and we had been in Portugal for half of that time, so we honestly weren't trying all that hard to sell it. Boat was surveyed and we used the RYA contract. Process was quick, easy and efficient.

We also found our next boat on Apolloduck. It was advertised by a broker.

 

[Neil_Y]

This too I have noticed :/. It's an odd situation where buying a car is safer than buying a boat, because if something went wrong rather sharpish after buying it, I'd expect to be able to return it for a refund.

But you could only do that when buying from a business that owns the vehicle, a private sale for boat or car is the same. There's some risk and it's mostly the buyers. Funny thing is even with house buying there is no protection as to the details of what works and what doesn't such as heating or alarm systems as solicitors statements or sellers question sheet is always written as "as far as we understand" or "to the best of our knowledge" Which means we don't promise anything works. What sells a boat is how tidy it is and how much useful kit it comes with. So far I haven't had any surprises but I do spend much of my time working in or around boatyards.