Is it s good time to sell?

[CreakyDecks]

I expect a lot has to do with value of the boat compared to its mooring costs. If it's on a trailer and costing you nothing to keep then it's a different story to it being in a marina. Buyers will look at it the same way, why would anyone pay £1000 to store a boat they won't use for six months unless it is a real bargain?

 

[salinia]

We're thinking of moving up from out little 21.7 to something with enough space to spend the odd night on, is this time of year a good time or will I just get a load of people offering me silly money as they'll think I want to shift it before the winter sets in.

There is no time like the present and any offer is a good offer to be declined or accepted with good grace. The more people that contact you the better chance of selling it. We purchased our current boat last October and sold our previous boat in November. Have all the detail ready and loads of pics, get their e-mail details hit the send button sit back and have a cuppa while waiting for replies. You never know there may be someone just like you were waiting for the right 21.7 to appear on the market.

 

[Colvic Watson]

Three brokers I spoke to said the late autumn is a far busier time than the spring.

 

[ghostlymoron]

There's two aspects to this.
1. Seasonal
2. Economic

On the first aspect, many buyers prefer to buy in the autumn/winter so that they can do any necessary upgrades during the winter out of season. The downside of this is that they have to pay winter storage charges. This could depress the price but from the sellers point of view, it means that they can possible avoid paying the charges themselves.

On the second, I am told that prices in general are up to 25% down so you could benefit if you are up sizing or buying for the first time.

 

[thomshap]

Thanks all, I'd like to think my boat is a little sort after as we found it hard to find one, I'm not desperate so my have a go and see if there is any interest but not greedy either so will stick it on for a realistic price.

 

[Alfie168]

I recently advertised on eBay an "8 foot fibreglass dinghy". The only question I got through the eBay system was to ask what size my dinghy was.

I didn't reply. Someone that dense would only be a hassle to deal with if they won the auction. I didn't want to encourage him.

(It did sell, for a good price, to someone else.)

Pete

Go on then, don't keep us in suspense...how long was your 8 foot fibreglass dinghy....

Tim

 

[NickRobinson]

A vote for Ebay

Forget ebay.
Stick it on Boats and Outboards and Apollo Duck.

Don't be greedy.

If it doesn't sell, try again later, but be aware that at present you'll be the cherry on the cake. In spring you'll just be part of a fruit salad.

Personal experience-

I posted on Boats and Outboards and Apollo Duck and got two inquiries in three weeks.

I used the same text and some more pics on Ebay and got 3000 hits and 300+ watchers and sold successfully.

Nick

 

[Jim@sea]

one person even asked if we could store the boat for them for 6 months.

Stu

Whats wrong with that. Sometimes in order to get a sale you have to lean over backwards. Especially with first time boaters. Perhaps on reflection you wished you had taken the deal where you had to store the boat for 6 months (if sold) as perhaps as you still have the boat for sale you are storing it anyway.

 

[stownsend]

We still use her on a regular basis and are looking to get an another one once she has sold. Her mooring can't be sublet, club rules, so passed on contact details for a number of commercial moorings which do short term lets so she could be stored there,

Cheers

Stu

 

[Lakesailor]

Whats wrong with that. Sometimes in order to get a sale you have to lean over backwards. Especially with first time boaters. Perhaps on reflection you wished you had taken the deal where you had to store the boat for 6 months (if sold) as perhaps as you still have the boat for sale you are storing it anyway.

I sold Feckless and let the buyer leave the trailer in my garden for as long as it took to sort out a storage space in his own village. No skin off my nose and he got something arranged in about 3 months.
The upside is he gave me a set of keys and I can use the boat anytime he isn't.

(yeah, of course I'll do the odd bits of maintenance for him, but that's my nature)

 

[Boo2]

(yeah, of course I'll do the odd bits of maintenance for him, but that's my nature)

Any news on your move to Shoreham ?

Boo2

 

[TimBennet]

If you're trading up in the boat world then anytime is good to do it as the 'upgrade price differential' is fairly constant as the boat market as a whole go up and down. However, if you want out of the boat world altogether, then obviously the best absolute price is important.

So don't sell until you have another to buy, ie do both transactions in the same part of the boat market cycle. Don't sell low and buy high!

Then to ensure you sell your current boat, WORK HARD at it. Remember Ted Turner's maxim - Early to bed, early to rise, polish it like hell and advertise. So if it's a small boat (<35ft or so), don't even think of using a broker (just chucking money away - you're better off discounting it by 8%) but get it listed in every place you can including having your own website. Have lots of pictures of it looking at its best but describe it accurately so people coming to view it won't immediately be pissed off that it's wilfully misrepresented. Get a true friend to critique both your description and its presentation. Then get it even cleaner and smelling better with everything looking like you are still in love with it. It you don't love your boat why should anyone else?

You only need one person to want to buy your boat for it to sell and there is always that person around, whatever the state of the market. But if yours is only the 20th best presented example of your type of boat on the market, then you will need 20 people desperate to buy one now before anyone thinks yours is a good buy. Well presented boats sell to the first viewer every time because 95 percent of everything in brokerage is damp, smelly mouldy, poorly maintained, un-loved heaps of ****. Even at the Ancaster Used Boat Show, most sellers couldn't be bothered to present their boats in a way that didn't have you trying to wipe your feet and wash your hands after a viewing. Saloon tables with rainwater puddles on them, personal effects in lockers and food left laying around do not sell boats. Boats seem to be the only 'big ticket' items in life that people think will sell themselves without being presented well. Boats are no different to cars or houses. It beggars belief that people will spend thousands to keep a boat for years waiting for it to sell, are prepared to give 8 percent to a broker, but won't spend anything on getting it clean, empty and dry.

When buying and selling remember not all boats of the same model and age are worth the same where ever they are in the country. Don't just look through the classified ads, find a couple of similar boats and list yours at the same price. Boats are worth the sum of their parts. There's lots of boats under £30000 where if you list all benefits of one example (for example things like new engine, rigging, recent electronics, liferaft, renewed seacocks, ground tackle, new sails, spinnaker gear, upgraded cooker, ports, hatches, winter cradle, dinghy etc), it can make the other without these benefits almost worthless. That is, the money needed to bring the poorer example up to the condition of the better one, is more than the asking price.

So be realistic - a boat with a good reputation that is attractively presented and at the right price will always sell.

 

[ghostlymoron]

If you're trading up in the boat world then anytime is good to do it as the 'upgrade price differential' is fairly constant as the boat market as a whole go up and down. However, if you want out of the boat world altogether, then obviously the best absolute price is important.

So don't sell until you have another to buy, ie do both transactions in the same part of the boat market cycle. Don't sell low and buy high!

Then to ensure you sell your current boat, WORK HARD at it. Remember Ted Turner's maxim - Early to bed, early to rise, polish it like hell and advertise. So if it's a small boat (<35ft or so), don't even think of using a broker (just chucking money away - you're better off discounting it by 8%) but get it listed in every place you can including having your own website. Have lots of pictures of it looking at its best but describe it accurately so people coming to view it won't immediately be pissed off that it's wilfully misrepresented. Get a true friend to critique both your description and its presentation. Then get it even cleaner and smelling better with everything looking like you are still in love with it. It you don't love your boat why should anyone else?

You only need one person to want to buy your boat for it to sell and there is always that person around, whatever the state of the market. But if yours is only the 20th best presented example of your type of boat on the market, then you will need 20 people desperate to buy one now before anyone thinks yours is a good buy. Well presented boats sell to the first viewer every time because 95 percent of everything in brokerage is damp, smelly mouldy, poorly maintained, un-loved heaps of ****. Even at the Ancaster Used Boat Show, most sellers couldn't be bothered to present their boats in a way that didn't have you trying to wipe your feet and wash your hands after a viewing. Saloon tables with rainwater puddles on them, personal effects in lockers and food left laying around do not sell boats. Boats seem to be the only 'big ticket' items in life that people think will sell themselves without being presented well. Boats are no different to cars or houses. It beggars belief that people will spend thousands to keep a boat for years waiting for it to sell, are prepared to give 8 percent to a broker, but won't spend anything on getting it clean, empty and dry.

When buying and selling remember not all boats of the same model and age are worth the same where ever they are in the country. Don't just look through the classified ads, find a couple of similar boats and list yours at the same price. Boats are worth the sum of their parts. There's lots of boats under £30000 where if you list all benefits of one example (for example things like new engine, rigging, recent electronics, liferaft, renewed seacocks, ground tackle, new sails, spinnaker gear, upgraded cooker, ports, hatches, winter cradle, dinghy etc), it can make the other without these benefits almost worthless. That is, the money needed to bring the poorer example up to the condition of the better one, is more than the asking price.

So be realistic - a boat with a good reputation that is attractively presented and at the right price will always sell.

Agree absolutely! My boat was well presented, realistically priced and sold within hours. I have dragged myself all over the country looking at 'well-presented' boats only to find a musty wreck which needed alot more than TLC before SWMBO would set foot on them. My advice is to:-
a) present the boat as well as possible - clean and tidy
b) describe it accurately in any advertisements
c) price realistically
d) wait for the offers to come in

 

[contessaman]

We're thinking of moving up from out little 21.7 to something with enough space to spend the odd night on, is this time of year a good time or will I just get a load of people offering me silly money as they'll think I want to shift it before the winter sets in.

Just a thought. Im sure its not this simple, but boat prices are down generally due to recession. So if you sell your smaller cheaper boat at say two thirds of its former worth and buy your bigger more expensive boat at two thirds of its worth, then now is surely a good time to buy/sell assumming you are moving up the food chain. To somebody downsizing the opposite would apply and it would therfore be better to ride out the recession.

seems to make sense in my mind. I have just bought and sold in the last 4 months. Mine was a lateral move - boats of roughly same value and size. I have however made a swap and its cost me nothing.

re: selling techniques I would only ever use a broker. yes it costs you but I would have spent far more in fuel (and time even at minimum wage!) if I drove to the boat every time a would be timewaster fancied a day out on my boat.

The droves of clowns, dreamers and penniless timewasters out there is incomprehensible.

I have always done well selling boaty junk on ebay but wouldn't stick an actual vessel on there.

all my humble opinions by no means correct...

 

[Tranona]

So if it's a small boat (<35ft or so), don't even think of using a broker (just chucking money away - you're better off discounting it by 8%) but get it listed in every place you can including having your own website.

Very simplistic - and dogmatic. The choice of whether to use a broker or not depends on many factors. The notion that you can sell at 8% less (of what?) ignores many things - for a start most brokers do not charge 8% (although they would like to) and as you say yourself, values of seemingly similar boats vary so there is no fixed price. So how can you say you will be better off by discounting by 8% - and spent time, effort and money trying to do what the broker does within his commission.

Selling privately or through a broker can be equally effective - but if you are doing it yourself you need to have the time, money and expertise that a broker has. Many people are just not in a position to market their own boat effectively and see value in paying somebody else to do it for them. Equally some buyers prefer to deal with an intermediary rather than messing with a private owner.

There is clearly a role for brokers otherwise they would not exist.

 

[Lakesailor]

The droves of clowns, dreamers and penniless timewasters out there is incomprehensible.

I've not had any problem like that. It's the same as selling a house or (particularly) a business.
Talk to them on the phone. Establish if they have any money at all or any idea what they are looking for. Then offer to show them the item, if you are satisfied they are not knob-heads.
You may miss the odd genuine one, but if you chat to them properly they will need to actively be hiding their true worth to be dismissed as a time-waster.

 

[PeterGibbs]

We're thinking of moving up from out little 21.7 to something with enough space to spend the odd night on, is this time of year a good time or will I just get a load of people offering me silly money as they'll think I want to shift it before the winter sets in.

Loads of good advice above. One further consideration - almost a betting question: do you think the economy and propensity to buy a boat will be more, same, or less in 2012 than this year?

Thought so. Go for it.

PWG