lazy Brokers causing depression ?

Think of selling a boat like making love to a beautiful woman. It needs to be ready to go at a moment's notice, warmed up and well lubricated. It doesn't want any grimy specks on it's superstructure and it's stern needs to be spotless.



(Swiss Tony)
 
How long does it take you to wash your boat thoroughly? x that by the amount of boats you have on your pontoon.

Its a full time job requiring a full time salary...
 
Seems to me the only service brokers offers now is accompanying viewings. They don't find potential buyers, Google does. They don't wash, maintain or store the boats, the owner does. They don't guarantee financial security in the transaction, in fact they add to the insecurity by sometimes going bust. They don't ensure all the paperwork is in order, they just say they will.

IMO they are locked in a battle with recruitment agents for the title of most worthless profession on the planet. I suppose they're still not quite as bad, as they've so far, at least, resisted the temptation to call themselves consultants ..
 
[ QUOTE ]
How long does it take you to wash your boat thoroughly? x that by the amount of boats you have on your pontoon.

Its a full time job requiring a full time salary...

[/ QUOTE ]

Spot on Richard.
 
A bit of dialogue from the film "Pretty Woman". Brokers might like to ponder on it:

Shop assistant: Hello, can I help you?
Vivian: I was in here yesterday, you wouldn't wait on me.
Shop assistant: Oh.
Vivian: You people work on commission, right?
Shop assistant: Yeah.
Vivian: Big mistake
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How long does it take you to wash your boat thoroughly? x that by the amount of boats you have on your pontoon.

Its a full time job requiring a full time salary...

[/ QUOTE ]

Spot on Richard.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not exactly. As I pointed out in this thread and the previous one last year, every used car lot employs a man who cleans and valets all the stock in rotation.

They do it because it sells cars, but for some reason it is beneath the boat industry to be seen to be engaged in any proactive work like making sure the item they are trying to sell on commission looks its best.

But, the economic downturn will sort the ones who think that brokerage means a few web and magazine ads and little else.

I was browsing some of the boats in Dickies Bangor yard the other week and even the ones they have taken in part exchange are filthy.
 
They don't even always do the accompanied viewings. The last boat I had in the UK was a Broom and I sold it through Broom's own brokerage. Every time they got a potential customer interested, they phoned me up to say that they didn't have anyone available to show the boat to the potential buyers and would I mind schlapping down to Southampton! I couldn't exactly say no. And then they wouldn't budge one cent on their brokerage fee either although to be fair it was 6% + VAT. Not company policy, I was told
 
Fair comment, I admit I was clearly wrong in assuming their duties included any responsibility for the safety of the vessel in their care .

If it was my business then I would try to direct my staff toward looking after the boats (moving a fender to replace the one that rotted off to prevent damage for instance), instead of spending time sunning themselves on the decks of new boats and drinking coffee.

I have also witnessed two and half hour pub lunches with champagne following a sale.

I drove an hour to look at a boat two weeks ago, arrived at 1630, spent a little time looking outside before a salesman came along.........to lock up before he left for the day, he didn't speak to me but I overheard him say to his mate, oh well they can come back tomorrow, well perhaps but by then I was 400 miles away.

I further believe handing keys over to Joe public while not supervised is most likely in breach of Insurance policy conditions , if the boat is driven off by joy riders , started while seacocks are closed or worse seacocks left open causing a sinking who gets the bill ?

Full time Job, I thought it was, what is the 8% + vat for.
 
Back a few years, I paid a SoF broker 10% (no VAT). The boat was sold within two weeks at the asking price.

I could have gone somewhere cheaper, waited longer, haggled on the price, lost interest on the money, paid for berthing, maintenance, etc., etc. I judged that it was worth it.
 
Let's be brutal

The credit-boom years have made the UK fat and lazy - everyone wants load of money for doing very little.

People under 35 have never experienced a recession, the good times have just rolled-on.

I agree the owners are responsible for cleaning etc, but surely in these hard times, it wouldn't kill a broker to do a quick hose down and chamois before a potential buyer arrives for a viewing?

MVP
 
Which is why when I was a broker and I had a potential punter coming down the boat was cleaned, usually by myself, otherwise it was the Saturday boy who did a maximum of about 4 smallish jobs over the course of the day.

However the owner of the boat does have a duty to keep it clean and tidy as well as the broker if he has a punter on it. (my view only)
 
[ QUOTE ]

However the owner of the boat does have a duty to keep it clean and tidy as well as the broker if he has a punter on it.

[/ QUOTE ] In most cases we live a long way from our boats.
 
For once, I find myself entirely agreeing with Daka....

8% is a good chunk.....

Yes, in theory its the owners reponsibility to keep it clean, but if brokers do nothing but accompany people on visits, bang a few boats on a website, and then a few hours of paperwork, its a pretty good rate...

Not that I have any intentions of doing so, but if I was a broker, i'd keep the darned things clean.... i'd work 7 days a week, and have a day a week cleaning... it'd make a massive difference....

Only, I suspect that the broker community (with some notable exceptions) see themselves as 'professionals' and as such, cleaning isn't their responsibility..... they need to get real in todays economic climate...

In the last 5 years, i've viewed 10 or so boats, and only been accompanied on 1 viewing... the rest I just had the keys handed to me....
 
agreed, having thought about this longer it really does depend on the outfit and whether its coastal or not and with a dedicated sales pontoon.

A sales pontoon should be kept clean and tidy, if the owner cleans it to stat with then its not unreasonable for the broker to keep it clean thereafter as well as check lines / fenders covers etc.

Then of course you have the owner who takes their boat away (usually from the sales pontoon) on the the busiest sales weekend of the year, brings it back full of beer cans and empty bottles and then moans why it has not sold in this hot weather...

If the broker has boats all over the place then it becomes more difficult and the owner needs to take more responsibility on presentation.

However as with a lot of these points I think we are only highlighting a number of bad points, there are a lot of good brokers out there that work hard for there punter and will keep the boats clean I guess there is a limit as to what they can practically do.

All of the above is based on personal experience

On a slightly different note I would like to say that it is not uncommon for the likes of Robert Braithwaite to be at Southampton Boat show at some crazy hour with bucket in hand cleaning his boats before the show opens,
 
For the last few years I think Mr Braithwaite's team has been the stand-out operation at SIBS.

For example, last summer I was a punter with a reasonable wedge to spend and my first choice was a Phantom 40. I wouldn't have bought new and, in reality, would probably have stretched to a late model 38 so maybe the Fairline sales guys made a good call when they decided to stand in a huddle on the pontoon at SIBS talking to each other and avoiding making eye contact with the passers-by.

On the other hand, at Sunseeker the approach seems to be that nothing is too much trouble. I have had senior sales personnel show me round boats even after protestations that I am almost certainly wasting their time.

I seem to recall Magnum, I may be wrong here, but think I am right, saying that he had looked at the Pred 72 as a bit of an afterthought, been bowled over by the sales team's approach and ended up commissioning his current fine vessel.

The same applies to brokerage, I believe, and brokers who won't go the extra mile are going to do less well for themselves and their clients. Whether this means wielding the chamois or chasing up leads on the phone I fear that the days of high priced luxury items selling themselves are, temporarily at least, over.
 
[ QUOTE ]
How long does it take you to wash your boat thoroughly? x that by the amount of boats you have on your pontoon.

Its a full time job requiring a full time salary...

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm with Major on this one.

Minimum wage for a 17 year old is £3.53.

I can give my boat a good once over outside in half an hour, 15 mins for a wipe around inside.

So a local school kid could clean 5 or 6 boats on a saturday for about £25.00. Do each boat every fortnight to keep on top of it and it would not exactly break the brokers budget.
 
You are a boat owning adult who has invested thousands in your own boat, a school leaver is not so who is going to clean it with "love"

Oh and I used to be a boat cleaner in my very younger years it took me the whole day to clean two Birchwood TS37's and 2 Hardys thoroughly...

See my other post in this thread re washing craft.
 
I used to do this cleaning job about 5 years ago

and a 40 footer with flybridge in our dusty marina after two weeks, will take about 5 hours to get nice, in central med winter its even worse
also on my 30 feet boat if I want perfection after a week it starts getting busy
as a broker today, what I do is to give notice to the client then its up to them to decide what to do with the boats, a clean boat is always easier to sell then a dirty one, but then everyone has a different opinion what clean really means

but then I know of many builders / dealers who have trade ins and really don't care much how is there used boat stock, then when they sell, then can give you the boat in good condition but they dont do much before that
 
Daka it is up to the owner to maintain his boat and in his interests to present a tidy boat for sale. Brokers are not owners. Also its a no sale no fee agreement, therefore say the brokers cleans the boat twice a month for 10 months replace fender ropes etc, and it either does not sell,..... or the seller gives up and keeps the boat or........the seller fnds a buyer direct,.....will the seller then pay the broker for his troubles.......erm dont think so.

If you put a for sale notice on yer car outside your house to sell it privately would you let it get dirty and the tyres go flat?

I believe the title of your thread is very wholey inaccurate and should be changed.
Brokers are not "causing depression" its the ecomony
 
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