Presentation of boat for sale.

[chris-s]

Ok, so being in the position to soon be selling our boat, any tips?

We started with putting a little video together that links to some photos…

 

[penfold]

Don't say new, my first reaction to that is always "new when?"; say what year something was fitted. No pics or video of the inside? Nice video though.

 

[Deleted member 478]

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[andsarkit]

A few years ago we (Yachtsnet) sold a Contessa 26 for well above that £19,500 asking price, but it really was immaculate. Perhaps £10-12K if you were lucky for that one, which does have some tolerably recent stuff aboard. Maybe less as she's in Oban.

Some people spend crazy amounts on their 26s sending them back to Jeremy Rogers for a complete rebuild. A £40k bill is not exceptional.
This one Meow had in the region of £100k spent on racing gear and carbon fibre modifications.
A sensible price is around £10k give or take a bit depending on condition.

 

[doug748]

Ok, so being in the position to soon be selling our boat, any tips?
.....

Looks like you are off to a flyer, excellent.

On the website. I am not sure about the policy of holding back on the Autohelm, if there is clearly provision for it on the boat it can look a bit cheap, esp if you are asking top dollar. The other extras might not be mentioned either, to maybe discuss later, when you get a serious party interested - else it can look like you are keeping the best stuff for your next boat.

On the subject of price, a lot of people will be put off getting in touch if you don't list it. If it's expensive you can always point out that most everyone agrees that the best way to buy is spend more on a good boat, rather than less on a poor one. Personally, when I see no price listed for sale items I move on and forget about it.
Even people who are priced out will remember your boat when they see poor examples and may well be drawn back.

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[chris-s]

Looks like you are off to a flyer, excellent.

On the website. I am not sure about the policy of holding back on the Autohelm, if there is clearly provision for it on the boat it can look a bit cheap, esp if you are asking top dollar. The other extras might not be mentioned either, to maybe discuss later, when you get a serious party interested - else it can look like you are keeping the best stuff for your next boat.

On the subject of price, a lot of people will be put off getting in touch if you don't list it. If it's expensive you can always point out that most everyone agrees that the best way to buy is spend more on a good boat, rather than less on a poor one. Personally, when I see no price listed for sale items I move on and forget about it.
Even people who are priced out will remember your boat when they see poor examples and may well be drawn back.

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We aren’t quite ready to list it yet as I need to refit the rudder after replacing the bushes, but it won’t be listed for anymore than £5k as no matter what you do to her, she is still just a 23ft mid-eighties boat. The rigging and sails are 2021 and very little is more than three years old.
We aren’t sure about including the 2021 cruising chute, 2021 ST2000, five month old £500 B&G vhf (would swap it out for a perfectly good older icom) or the similarly aged Rocna (again, replace it with the original perfectly good anchor). We could reuse most of those on a new boat. If we were to include them then that would have to be reflected in the price and I feel that would make her appear too expensive for what she is. It’s tricky!

 

[Tranona]

Agree. Don't mention the stuff you are keeping. The boat stands on its own as well above the norm for this type of boat (age, size, style). £5k seems low to me!

 

[oldgit]

Boat yards and many clubs are full of semi abandoned craft where the actual value of the boat is of little importance.
Boats are put on the market because those eventually landed with looking after them want simply to see them gone.
Those in the boatyard or club have watched the boats used less and less and eventually , rarely even visited.
If it goes ashore the day can be put off, if afloat at some point, somebody has to take action.
Many really should have been sold years ago when they still were in servicable condition.
In an expensive marina the mooring charges usually will bring things quickly to a head, this is rarely the case with clubs and boatyards.
In the beginning if a boat does have some value but is overpriced than the price can be dropped until a buyer hoves into view, left long enough, it may be very difficult to get anything at all for it.

However this can be an opportunity , sometime ago large modern motor cruiser on our moorings was sold at a bargain basement price after its previous owner past away and the family had to dispose of it. Boat had not moved/servived/slipped for many years prior to that and was in pretty sad state.
It has recently returned after major a serious major refurb and now looks virtually as good as new and real credit to its new owner.

 

[srm]

We aren’t quite ready to list it yet

Decide what you are keeping and remove it before photographing along with any tell tale fittings. If there is anything on board that you know needs attention or will require replacing clearly state it in the details. Then present the boat on the basis of everything on the boat goes with the boat.

I find things like "xxxx available by negotiation" extremely annoying, especially when its an item (say a tiller pilot or dinghy) that can reasonably be regarded as part of the boat's equipment.

When selling my last boat I sent a pic of her under sail for the broker to use, but had to carefully erase the radar and liferaft from the pic as they were moving to the new boat.

 

[jamie N]

I'm not sure, but believe that the Contessa 26 featured is 'the' original Contessa: #1.