Kissing Frogs

pheonix

pheonix

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on a general note how many frogs does one need to kiss before finding your prince/princess, hypothetically of course.
i an in the market for a larger boat (sailing hollidays has spoiled me).
it's incredable how many people advertise their boats as in good condition or well equipped or fitted out. when the boats have been neglected and left in a dirty damp and or cluttered state and have dated minimal equipment. this seems particularly the case of boats on brokerage.
do sellers expect the brokers to clean or maintain their craft whilst trying to sell them.
just once i would like to find a boat not hyped beyond actual and at least cleaned to the point where i can see what is actually there.
do these vendors exist
would it be feasable for people to be honest before prospective buyers travel untold distances just to be dissapointed i for one would appreciate streight talking and well presented boats even in the event that the boat is overpriced "one can always negotiate on price"
/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Golly Doggy_Dave, you certainly know how to disturb a chaps life! There I was contendedly catching up on forum gossip and sipping my ouzo on the balcony when I read your post, blood pressure soared and choked on my ouzo whilst having to restrain myself from throwing the laptop over the balcony!
My old twitch has returned and the far worse nervous spasms have me spaseming all over the place...... it's a wonder I can type this posting.
Let me tell you a story which might explain this rather extreme reaction to your totally innocent (and extremely naive) question.........................

Some 5 years ago SWMBO convinced me that it was time to purchase a larger boat, one we could probably live on and sail the oceans blue guided by nothing more than our whims..... so we innocently (and naively) decided to look through the yachting press, contact a few brokers and surf the various major online brokerage boat sites. We knew exactly what we wanted, were specific with everyone we contacted and beyond our outline specs were open to suggestions and geography. We were cash buyers and not unrealistic about price and even had an extra 20% in case we were tempted by something beyond our immediate budget...... one might say we were ideal, non time wasting buyers.
Over the next 3 years we were constantly chasing brokers for info on boats we would ultimately find they had advertised and no longer had, though they would not tell us that straight away..... or we were chasing brokers who were advertising boats and when we contacted them about the boat, found that they had lost track of the boat and the owner and did not know where it was any longer, but they still advertised it!......... Or we would be contacting brokers or sellers about a boat they had advertised to register our interest and to ask certain specific questions, only to never hear from them despite many emails, telephone calls, promises to get straight back to us, etc,....... Or, in 7 cases got to the stage of arranging to view a boat, only to get there and find that it bore no resemblance to the details and photos sent to us, only to be told that those were old pictures and details! In 3 other seperate cases, the boats were far in the Med with us in the UK and so we sent a surveyor friend to give it a first time once over, only to find serious issues with the boat......... The whole exercise became an expensive and time consuming nightmare!
Finally, we decided to shelve the project and move to Greece instead and just take a break from the traumatic experience.

Whilst here, we were asked by some British friends of ours who had just sold their yacht if we would help them find another larger yacht......... again, serious cash buyers etc, only to find ourselves going through exactly the same experience for the last 2 years with these friends.

Consequently, we have all come to the conclusion that brokers are as unscrupelous as the worst of used car salespeople and that they advertise 'phantom' yachts just to get some sort of enquiries, only to ignore the enquiries or try to sell you some totally different load of crap to your requirements, which they just happen to have..... or simply don't respond for some strange reason, often despite promises to get back to you! Also that many owners who have not really decided that they really want to part with their beloved yacht, advertise it and withdraw in panic the moment somebody is interested or simply don't respond, again often despite promises to get back to you.
Finally we believe that unless somebody wants to buy a cheap mass produced round the solent boat like a Jeaneau, Benetaeu or similar, (which neither we nor our friends are looking for), in reality there are no real ocean goers in good condition to be had anywhere!

I used to run a successful new boat sales company and brokerage many years ago and am appalled at the total lack of professionalism shown by most brokerage companies.

Consequently, in answer to your question...... yes, you have to be prepared to kiss an awful lot of frogs and spend a lot of money on them with no guarantee of finding your princess!

Rant over...... soap box put away again....... new bottle of Stephanouris ouzo opened and poured......... cheers! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
My point exactly and those who are just eager to sell cannot be bothered to prepare the craft. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
kermitfrog02.jpg


Most brokers are total muppets /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Arthur Daly would be proud of them.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Can of worms this one!!

Ted.

[/ QUOTE ]

A can of worms is infinately more useful than a broker...... I can use a can of worms as fishing bait to actually catch something and end up with something decent, but with a broker................. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
 
And, given the level of commission they charge, it's a small wonder how they get away with doing nothing.
Compared with estate agents, they charge around five times as much as a percentage and do far less. I bet they are not regulated either - false descriptions etc.
 
On a somewhat different note - my wife and I fell in love with a yacht we saw advertised on Anchor Yacht & Ship Sales - in the USA! We asked for more details, got them within a day and decided to fly over on 5th Jan this year. When we got there, the yacht was even better than the pictures & description! Clean as a whistle and the inventory was 99% accurate (there were other valuable bits and bobs that were not listed). To cut a long story short, she is now ours and currently located in Gosport, Hants!

Moral - don't give up just yet! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I think with the advent of the Internet its now much easier to compare boats for sale. Last year we looked at six brokered boats in the Uk and travelled as far as Ramsgate (from Devon), none of the boats we looked at were mis represented though obvioulsy there was always a little license to be applied to the details. Strangely we ended up with a private sale from Plymouth 45mins away and spent more than we had envisaged. However we had no bad experiences and no surprises. I would say that 50% of all the brokers we had dealings with were absolutley crap and the other 50% were great.
 
Seems like Dodgy_Dave does all the frog kissing and most of the rest of us get the princesses - not mobo Princesses .

DD
 
Brokers and their tricks:

Down here in the Caribbean you get a good variety:

Brokers will put a 'for sale' sign up on a yacht that has been stored for a seaon or more. If they get a bite they will contact the owner and tell them that they have a serious buyer for their yacht!

I bought a yacht in St Martin .... some of the photographs used were not only old, but of another boat entirely. I eventually negotiated the price down to match the inventory (or lack thereof) and the condition of the boat.
 
I kissed a few Frogs while I was overe there. No princes, but I found my princess :smug:

For Doggy_Dave's benefit, happily married isn't necessarily a contradiction in terms. We'll have been doing it for 30 years in April /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
ALL VERRY WELL MY FRIEND so long as your princesses dont turn out to be as edmonds spanish princess was in one episode of balck adder "1st series" think it was called the queen of spaines bierd. most of us however would prefere the frogs.
thanks one and all for your responses to my moans seems to have opened up quite a debate i wonder when L.S. will join in as for the contradiction i have been contradicting also for 24 years but never the less a conumdrum.
/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
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