Not again :-(

As mentioned,check out Cranchi Zaffiro 34 / Smeraldo 37. Cracking boat and as an owner of both and also having owned a Sealine, I much prefer the Cranchi
 
russ said:
Correct.
I was there to look over the boat whilst still owned by the previous owner, I was present at the survey, I was there the weekend after to talk over a deal. I offered a deposit but was told to wait until they get an invoice for the work. I also requested first refusal once done but the brokers in the office obviously don't communicate with each other. I agree I wasn't keen on the £5k extra but was willing to discuss this after the work done. What more could I do?
Click to expand...

So the broker had one person (you) who was 'willing to discuss' the price and another that was prepared to buy it and take it away. If it had been your boat for sale and the broker had turned an actual buyer away because someone was 'willing to discuss' the price, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that that you would have felt that that was wrong too.

Ultimately, if something is for sale and someone rocks up and wants to buy it, they're not going to say 'sorry sir, you'll have to wait till everyone else who has looked at it has made up their mind first'. They're going to say 'thank you very much sir, sign here, pay here'.
 
ari said:
So the broker had one person (you) who was 'willing to discuss' the price and another that was prepared to buy it and take it away. If it had been your boat for sale and the broker had turned an actual buyer away because someone was 'willing to discuss' the price, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that that you would have felt that that was wrong too.

Ultimately, if something is for sale and someone rocks up and wants to buy it, they're not going to say 'sorry sir, you'll have to wait till everyone else who has looked at it has made up their mind first'. They're going to say 'thank you very much sir, sign here, pay here'.
Click to expand...

Deposit was offered but declined until serviced.
 
A deposit on what? You hadn't agreed a price, there was no deal.

If you had put a 10% deposit down and then had failed to agree the price, would you have been happy for them to keep it or would you have wanted it back?
 
Buying a boat is more akin to buying a house. Can be a messy drawn out business. Have to say though that I am on my 5th boat in 12 years and have few problems buying and selling.
 
russ said:
Deposit was offered but declined until serviced.
Click to expand...
A deposit is not an offer to purchase, even if subject to survey, especially if subject to further 'discussions', what ever that means. It seems at the time of this survey that you had no contract and therefore no commitment. You clearly mention wishing to 'discuss' the purchase after survey, whereas a Sale Contract would clearly define your rights to accept or reject the boat and repudiate the contract.

This requirement to 'Discuss' is simply part of any pre offer negotiation, nothing more, with no commitment on you whatsoever. I would have sold to the person with the cash. That said if there is no queue of willing punters any vendor will of course entertain your whims, but that's all they are.
 
Indecisive buyers will always have tales of woe when up against a decisive buyer .

A decisive buyer is a sellers dream .

I imported a rare Ferrari from Switzerland to the U.K. in the late 90 ,s LHD of course .
9 years later I put it on the U.K. market pitching the asking price below the equivalent RHD versions .
I had 4 interested parties ring up and enquire .
Arranged the viewings as the enquires came in .
First guy wanted it for his Villa in Spain , hummed and arrh ed ,talked about arranging a marque specialist ,which kinda new some folks would want that security and he waffled on getting back in touch and went away to arrange .
He wanted to leave a deposit ,but I declined and said I have 3 more viewings and he was the first .
Later that day , I herd the sound of a 355 pull up .Out popped a couple of blokes , the next prospect with his mate .
They had come up to Yorkshire from London by train and told me they had just picked up this one in the morning and tee d up my viewing while they in the area .
Only took 5 mins of looking round and quick rummage through the file of docs etc for one guy to pull a case of over £50++ k cash out of the boot of the 355 .
Off we toddled to a bank , I drove one guy in mine a Testarossa the 355 followed .
Parked outside went in .Much to annoyance of the staff they counted it out and of course accepting it was not fake paid in into my account .
Then we swapped seats and the guy drove me home , dropped me off and off they both went .Presume back to London .
That was it .
Transpired it went to Moscow being a LHD and theses guys were hoovering up F cars any F cars to feed that expanding market.

I had two more viewings next day so I rang them and cancelled .
Mean while a few days later the first guy rings up to say he’s arranged an inspection it a local F dealer so they can get up on a lift etc and can I take the car , a 120 mile round trip He would not be present and was planning to await the report then would make an offer based on that . He also muttered on about arranging a transporter to collect it a few days after said inspection to ship it Porto Banus , he’d been in touch with a few and enquired which day would suit me next week to be home to help load it etc .

He wasn’t very happy when I recited the above .

Similarly with the current boat 2 for sale one in Naples other in Athens .
I knew the first Naples one was the one as walked up the jetty , just hoped it was ok at close inspection , it was and remembering what happened when I sold the F car , deposit was in the brokers bank by close of business , 2 weeks later I sailed away .
Sure there were some let’s call it Neapolitan business traditions when I came to paying the agreed balance , plenty of barriers / reasons to run but ......
They are rare Itama 42 / 48 ,s less than 20 made very few come up on the market . Who’s was to say the Greek “business traditions “would be any different .

You have just gotta make it happen sometimes .

Plenty of wider and thirstier V8 engined 46 ,s , always a choice if you are buyer so you can umm and arh but not with the rarer I6 42/48,s
 
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Furthermore I have had people cold call on the berth in the SoF and ask is it for sale , they want to buy it .
Not suggesting Russ cold calls but it kinda justifies my initial appraisal of the how to handle the market at the time I was in it .
 
Your cold call suggestion is bang on PF. I recall a few years ago a smart Windy Ghibli which was not for sale changed ownership following a cold call approach from the buyer. Boat never got near a broker.
 
Portofino said:
Indecisive buyers will always have tales of woe when up against a decisive buyer .

A decisive buyer is a sellers dream .

I imported a rare Ferrari from Switzerland to the U.K. in the late 90 ,s LHD of course .
9 years later I put it on the U.K. market pitching the asking price below the equivalent RHD versions .
I had 4 interested parties ring up and enquire .
Arranged the viewings as the enquires came in .
First guy wanted it for his Villa in Spain , hummed and arrh ed ,talked about arranging a marque specialist ,which kinda new some folks would want that security and he waffled on getting back in touch and went away to arrange .
He wanted to leave a deposit ,but I declined and said I have 3 more viewings and he was the first .
Later that day , I herd the sound of a 355 pull up .Out popped a couple of blokes , the next prospect with his mate .
They had come up to Yorkshire from London by train and told me they had just picked up this one in the morning and tee d up my viewing while they in the area .
Only took 5 mins of looking round and quick rummage through the file of docs etc for one guy to pull a case of over £50++ k cash out of the boot of the 355 .
Off we toddled to a bank , I drove one guy in mine a Testarossa the 355 followed .
Parked outside went in .Much to annoyance of the staff they counted it out and of course accepting it was not fake paid in into my account .
Then we swapped seats and the guy drove me home , dropped me off and off they both went .Presume back to London .
That was it .
Transpired it went to Moscow being a LHD and theses guys were hoovering up F cars any F cars to feed that expanding market.

I had two more viewings next day so I rang them and cancelled .
Mean while a few days later the first guy rings up to say he’s arranged an inspection it a local F dealer so they can get up on a lift etc and can I take the car , a 120 mile round trip He would not be present and was planning to await the report then would make an offer based on that . He also muttered on about arranging a transporter to collect it a few days after said inspection to ship it Porto Banus , he’d been in touch with a few and enquired which day would suit me next week to be home to help load it etc .

He wasn’t very happy when I recited the above .

Similarly with the current boat 2 for sale one in Naples other in Athens .
I knew the first Naples one was the one as walked up the jetty , just hoped it was ok at close inspection , it was and remembering what happened when I sold the F car , deposit was in the brokers bank by close of business , 2 weeks later I sailed away .
Sure there were some let’s call it Neapolitan business traditions when I came to paying the agreed balance , plenty of barriers / reasons to run but ......
They are rare Itama 42 / 48 ,s less than 20 made very few come up on the market . Who’s was to say the Greek “business traditions “would be any different .

You have just gotta make it happen sometimes .

Plenty of wider and thirstier V8 engined 46 ,s , always a choice if you are buyer so you can umm and arh but not with the rarer I6 42/48,s
Click to expand...

Point taken. Probably too much procrastination on my part.
 
Portofino said:
Indecisive buyers will always have tales of woe when up against a decisive buyer .

A decisive buyer is a sellers dream .

I imported a rare Ferrari from Switzerland to the U.K. in the late 90 ,s LHD of course .
9 years later I put it on the U.K. market pitching the asking price below the equivalent RHD versions .
I had 4 interested parties ring up and enquire .
Arranged the viewings as the enquires came in .
First guy wanted it for his Villa in Spain , hummed and arrh ed ,talked about arranging a marque specialist ,which kinda new some folks would want that security and he waffled on getting back in touch and went away to arrange .
He wanted to leave a deposit ,but I declined and said I have 3 more viewings and he was the first .
Later that day , I herd the sound of a 355 pull up .Out popped a couple of blokes , the next prospect with his mate .
They had come up to Yorkshire from London by train and told me they had just picked up this one in the morning and tee d up my viewing while they in the area .
Only took 5 mins of looking round and quick rummage through the file of docs etc for one guy to pull a case of over £50++ k cash out of the boot of the 355 .
Off we toddled to a bank , I drove one guy in mine a Testarossa the 355 followed .
Parked outside went in .Much to annoyance of the staff they counted it out and of course accepting it was not fake paid in into my account .
Then we swapped seats and the guy drove me home , dropped me off and off they both went .Presume back to London .
That was it .
Transpired it went to Moscow being a LHD and theses guys were hoovering up F cars any F cars to feed that expanding market.

I had two more viewings next day so I rang them and cancelled .
Mean while a few days later the first guy rings up to say he’s arranged an inspection it a local F dealer so they can get up on a lift etc and can I take the car , a 120 mile round trip He would not be present and was planning to await the report then would make an offer based on that . He also muttered on about arranging a transporter to collect it a few days after said inspection to ship it Porto Banus , he’d been in touch with a few and enquired which day would suit me next week to be home to help load it etc .

He wasn’t very happy when I recited the above .

Similarly with the current boat 2 for sale one in Naples other in Athens .
I knew the first Naples one was the one as walked up the jetty , just hoped it was ok at close inspection , it was and remembering what happened when I sold the F car , deposit was in the brokers bank by close of business , 2 weeks later I sailed away .
Sure there were some let’s call it Neapolitan business traditions when I came to paying the agreed balance , plenty of barriers / reasons to run but ......
They are rare Itama 42 / 48 ,s less than 20 made very few come up on the market . Who’s was to say the Greek “business traditions “would be any different .

You have just gotta make it happen sometimes .

Plenty of wider and thirstier V8 engined 46 ,s , always a choice if you are buyer so you can umm and arh but not with the rarer I6 42/48,s
Click to expand...

A shorter version. I was selling a boxter. Guy called giving it large. Trader etc. Made an offer unseen no.

Few days later sold to someone round the corner.

Other guy calls back. Tell him sold. The range of abuse and expletives that came down the phone was amazing. You c&£@ should have called me I would have given you more. I hung up unsurprisingly.

My father was involved in ba peters fairline. Before money laundering regs stopped it they regularly ( really regularly ) used to have people with £700k in a suitcase buy boats. The former joy of a cash business.
 
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I sold my last boat to a chap who paid in full without ever seeing the boat. (Working in Asia for a few months)

Lots of pictures, previous survey, few video calls onboard, exchanged ID’s and boat docs etc.....

Turned up a few months later and off he went. Still in touch now and he couldn’t be happier.

I then in turn bought my current boat unseen. Bought from boats.co.uk who were amazing and completely honest, surveyed, negotiated, paid in full, local engineer in their yard did works I wanted sorted, transported to North West, dropped in and home I went!

I would buy something needing work with budget to spare Russ. Then you know things are right
 
russ said:
Point taken. Probably too much procrastination on my part.
Click to expand...

I think procrastination is okay, I know I've procrastinated plenty in the past when boat buying. It's a huge decision and massively important to get right.

But I think you do need to accept that if someone rocks up who isn't procrastinating and you don't have a deal in place, they're going to sell it to him (I would).

I also think that when the right boat at the right price turns up you'll know it, and you'll be that second guy who goes for it and wins the day.

Good luck! :)
 
ari said:
I think procrastination is okay, I know I've procrastinated plenty in the past when boat buying. It's a huge decision and massively important to get right. But I think you do need to accept that if someone rocks up who isn't procrastinating and you don't have a deal in place, they're going to sell it to him (I would). Good luck! :)
Click to expand...

+1

I think the faults made it difficult to make an offer,. Someone else less prudent took a chance at a premium price . Good luck to them, but I wouldn't beat yourself (or the broker) up over this.
 
FlowerPower said:
Russ, you are doing this all wrong.

I, on the other hand, have got this process down to a tee, as Mrs FP pointed out the other day.

My process goes like this:

1.) I see a boat at Wuton Barters that I like.
2.) I put in an offer - my existing boat with almost no issues is p/x'd for tens of thousands of pounds less than I paid for it.
3.) The survey throws up a long list of issues with the potential purchase.
4.) I manage to negotiate almost nothing off the price to fix those issues.
5.) The newer boat is purchased, and the issues are resolved by me spending ££££.
6.) I see another boat that I like, go to Step 2, rinse and repeat.

:ambivalence:
Click to expand...

So it's not just us then!
 
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