Oh joy...

B

BetweenBoats

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 Sep 2014
Messages
85
Visit site
Started the day excited about getting one step closer to owning my dream boat ... survey and sea-trial day...

Ended the day, deflated and sad, that said boat needs £25k to put right... about 15% of the purchase price, mainly through neglected preventive maintenance.

What to do... walk away or engage the seller in a programme of remediation at their cost to get the boat ready for sale - advice please?
 
What boat?

And what's the list of jobs to do? Put it up here, you might get some advise as whether it's worth fixing up, or walking away.

By any standards, £25k sounds like a LOT of work!
 
do be prepared to walk away as we all know its a buyers market at the moment I should know its taken me 12 months to sell my boat that is pristine and I had to drop the price twice, but if its your dream boat and you cant find another within the same price / condition then lean on the seller to put things right or get her at a knock down price if you are prepared to do the work, but do not be afraid to walk away and do not get dazzled with buyers dream goggles take a breath and think hard things happen for a reason.
 
1) Make sure you are confident that the problems found ARE everything....

2) Offer £50k less than the asking. If £25k is 15% then that's only around 30% (which seems a pretty common discount anyhow) and justify it by the argument that a surveyor has only probably found half of what's wrong - and if preventative maintenance has been skimped then a big bill WILL land eventually....

3) If it's refused, walk.... you can always go back - just tell them the offers on the table, there are lots of boats to buy, how many buyers do they have lined up?
 
That's a lot of cash and hassle to take on.

One assumes the vendor hadn't revealed these issues pre-survey. Are you aware of any previous would be buyers who walked when they made similar discoveries ? If so I would seriously question the integrity of the vendor and possibly the broker too as to why the boat is not being honestly offered.

As suggested reduce your price offer twice the amount. if they refuse let it be known they can contact you further if they change their minds, but be careful not to lock yourself in to that lower price. Their right to refuse is balanced by your right to rescind, and if they do come back then your previous offer is now effectively their asking price.
 
Last edited:
The three day rule - forget it for three days. Revisit with a cool head and decide if you need all the hassle or even need that particular boat.
Personally I'd walk away. How will you know about the standard of work that will be done. And even with a well maintained boat you'll still have to pay out for the odd jobs/equipment that you'll need to change. The words money and pit spring to mind
 
While I don't disagree with the general thrust of the advice given here, before making a final decision to walk away I'd want to know exactly where the £25k has come from - ie what specifically has been identified as needing doing.
 
When I bought my old boat, I was warned by the boatyard there was 10 or 15k worth of work to fix the osmosis, there were only a few small blisters and since the boat is out of the water half the year now they've disappeared.
Point being - it would be very easy to find 25k worth of work on a boat, you need to decide if it's 25k of work that needs doing or 25k to make it better than new.
Given the age of my boat, I had expected to find some osmosis and was perfectly happy to live with it, the fact it has gone away and might have been just water under the antifoul or something is a bonus.
If it's 25k to get Engines or Systems working, walk away. If all the upholstery needs redoing because one cushion is faded then decide if you can live with it.
 
Thanks for the comments all.

Totally gutted as I thought this was the the boat.

The £25k isn't cosmetics unfortunately. It's required servicing catchup and repair. Engines. Heat Exchangers. Bow Thruster. Hoses. Leaking hatches. Auto helm.

The vendors view was that the boat was perfect...
 
Much depends on how much you want that particular boat. Are there other versions of it out there? The owner needs to be made aware that it is not perfect and that every future potential purchaser will be told the same, assuming they get a survey carried out. If you really want that boat I would put an offer on the table that takes into account how much you are prepared to pay to own that boat on the water, less £25k. That is assuming the £25k is a genuine figure. My first boat had survey faults that would have cost 100% of its value to get put right at full boatyard prices. I still bought it and put the important stuff right myself and many of the other jobs were never competed despite owning the boat for 14 years. They were still there when I sold it. Not all faults found by a surveyor need immediate attention. Only you have the full facts.
 
Whitelighter said:
To offer any further advice we really need to know what faults have been identified and where the 25k comes from.

On a £500k boat £25k is anon issue. On a £25k boat it's a disaster.

Context needed
Click to expand...

The OP has said that £25k is about 15% of the asking price so its a boat in the £165k region.
 
Would not right off any boat too quickly simply because it needs money spent on on it,all boats need money spent on them to greater or lesser extent,some money may need spending urgently,some stuff may just need doing when you can be bothered or have bit of spare cash.
Probably best if the boat is well known make with a ongoing future demand for it,such as Fairline or Princess,anything oddball will not be worth the effort when you come to sell.
The fact that stuff that needs doing has been spotted by you surveyor gives you good chance to get the boat at a sensible amount and that means you will have a boat at the end in excellent working order.
Just how much you offer depends on how many other similar boats are on the market (and will wager,there are a few that have been there for ages) and if you are prepared to take the time and trouble to organise getting all the work done.
YOU need to get it done....NOT the seller.
Good time to buy .
Market is flooded with nice boats in excellent condition which are not moving,so fixer uppers in theory should be priced to sell.......However some sellers have been in a state of self denial over the last 5 or so years about boat values and fuel costs have not helped....
 
This is a very simple one:-

either seller is reasonable and wants to sell - in which case a deal can be done

OR

The seller is in denial and STILL thinks his boat is worth what he's asking - in which case it can't


I am with the others - if you get the boat £50k cheaper, and it costs you £25-30k to sort it you will have gained in two ways. You will be £20k in pocket, but also you will have a shed-load of new kit.

If part of the 25k is for new engines for example, you'll have a boat that stands you in the correct money, PLUS a receipt for the new engines so the boat will actually be worth MORE money than if the old engines had been ok as you'll have new engines not old ones....

If you listed above all the things wrong, and they all got replaced, you've got a very smart, upgraded boat with new engines, that stands you in for less than others on the market.

Surely that's a good thing.

I keep an eye out on eBay and so on for boats with failed engines for this reason - however the seller always seems to want almost the going rate for one with a knackered engine - daft.
 
I was in a similar situation many years ago.

I found a Targa 27 that I liked through Peters brokerage. The survey highlighted that both engine blocks had cracked and needed replacing amongst other stuff.

The value of the work required was approx 35% of the boat value. The surveyor persuaded me not to walk away, as I could be onto a good thing.

With his and Peters' help, the owner agreed to knock the asking price down by the cost of the proposed works.

In the end, I agreed to buy the boat at the agreed price if the owner paid for the works, knowing how costs can escalate.

The owner agreed and I got a cracking boat with new machinery etc.

When I came to sell four years later, the boat had more appeal than others due to having had recent engines etc and I got my money back in full.

The surveyor - Peter Savage - was right, and although it felt like a load of hassle at the time, I'm glad I went along with him. Top guy. R I P.
 
I thinks it has all been covered, just in the process of buying a boat myself. If you do decide to walk away at least the surveyor has saved you a fortune. I am sure a deal can be done and if not then walk away, plenty more boats in the sea :)
 
like others have said , it depends on what jobs need doing and who priced it. In surveyor speak , £25k is probably actually about £15k in the real world. On a boat of that value a discount of £25k seems reasonable in this market so you could quite easily end up £10k better off ?( rose tinted spec on)

My first boat was advertised at £95k and it needed lots doing so made mad offer and ended up getting it for £55k and spent £15k putting it right.

If its the right boat for you ( which I imagine it is or you would be at the stage of survey) , use the surveyors report as a bargaining tool and get the best deal you can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top