swap 2 sheep and ex wife for a macgreggor 26

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a3xloser

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ok not really swapping the ex and my sheep, but i do want to know when buying a boat how much do people expect to be knocked down on the price, i mean if someones advertising a boat at £16,000 what ball park price would you expect to be handing over at the shake hands moment?
ps if anyone is sad enough to type the words " long string is how piece a" in any order i will come to you boat and garrote you with the aforementioned undefined twine
 
Varies with how desperate the seller is, known them to go for less than half, others won't budge. Always worth an ask. Sellers are liars, Buyers are triers.
 
If it's the only one on the market - or the best one on the market - there may not be much give - trying pitching 10-15% low, and be prepared to come up a bit. If there's a glut of them, then go as low as you dare.

One thing though, if you do pitch low, don't be so unpleasant in your attitude that the buyer is never going to come to a deal. Happened to me when selling the Twister - a guy made a ludicrously low offer and quoted all sorts of imaginary things that were wrong with the boat. I wouldn't have sold her to him after that even if he come back and offered me a pot of gold and unlimited use of his first born daughter.
 
a3xloser said:
ok not really swapping the ex and my sheep, but i do want to know when buying a boat how much do people expect to be knocked down on the price, i mean if someones advertising a boat at £16,000 what ball park price would you expect to be handing over at the shake hands moment?
ps if anyone is sad enough to type the words " long string is how piece a" in any order i will come to you boat and garrote you with the aforementioned undefined twine
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For a Macgregor that seems unreasonably high. You'd have to pay me to take one.
 
When buying my previous boat (many moons ago) there were two boats that I fancied, one just about affordable the other too expensive. I offered the expensive boat about 25% less than the asking price and he said no. The less expensive boat we agreed a price about 15% less than asking and I got it.
A couple of weeks later the expensive guy came back and asked if I'd still pay what I offered. Obviously I had to say sorry.
As it turns out, I think I got the more enjoyable boat for our purposes, the other boat, though more modern and luxurious, would have been a bit of a plodder.
 
It never pays to over-extend finances on a boat purchase, there's ALWAYS something else required be it equipment, lift in /out, mooring / berthing, tender, club membership etc.

I could go on any boat at a show and no matter what the price tag, generate an expensive shopping list; it's a talent I could well do without !
 
a3xloser said:
if someones advertising a boat at £16,000 what ball park price would you expect to be handing over at the shake hands moment?
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If your user name is '%*#*boats' about £300.

Many of us I expect around 15k, as long as it's not a complete shed and in line with others advertised at similar money.
 
I was told by a broker about a sale of a sadler 29 a few weeks ago, after paying for repairs, being knocked down and paying the brokers commission, the owner walked away with £5,000
 
Zorro,

that must have been some serious repairs and / or a remarkably 'good' broker !

Sadler 29's ( I'm particularly thinking of the twin keelers for Solent use ) are admirable sailors' boats and are not cheap...
 
From the opinion of someone who HAS owned a macgregor, albeit the 26C (sailing version).

They are NOT as bad as people make out. I come from a dinghy background and really enjoyed the Mac, It wasn't fast and it wasn't designed for heavy seas... BUT

It has virtually nothing to go wrong. It feels clean, it has a 2 double berths and does sit very nicely at anchor. It never needed loads of winter maintenance as it didn't have every wood trimming from the Ikea catalouge.

Most boats that people are throwing at you are "serious" little boats. The will take you across the channel and quite likely across the bigger pond. The mac won't and you have to realise that but they are still amazing for pottering around the coast, just nipping down to sit in the cockpit for lunch under the sun and best of all, beaching! The mac comes into it's own on that front. There is nothing better than watching the emmets trying to tell you to turn away as it is too shallow, only to put the bow on the beach and jump off for lunch, leave the water tank open as you can then float her off in inches of water.

You aren't making a mistake, if you realise it has limitations, but far more opportunities to discover areas others can't!
 
a3xloser,

the really saddening thing is that people who are very obviously inexperienced get suckered into these things...

Did I mention my car can fly too ? All you need is a steep cliff, and would you mind paying before you try it out please...

BTW the glide ratio is on the steep side, but then Harriers do vertical landings all the time, it's very trendy you know !

Would anything make you reconsider and, in a perfect world, spend a season or two in dinghies ( they don't have to be fast ) to learn sailing properly?

Or at least do a sailing course and try actual sailing boats ?

I'm normally of the type to say 'anything which gets one afloat must be good', but I make an exception for these things...
 
a3xloser said:
ok not really swapping the ex and my sheep, but i do want to know when buying a boat how much do people expect to be knocked down on the price, i mean if someones advertising a boat at £16,000 what ball park price would you expect to be handing over at the shake hands moment?
ps if anyone is sad enough to type the words " long string is how piece a" in any order i will come to you boat and garrote you with the aforementioned undefined twine
Click to expand...

My views on macgreggors are exactly the same as those of Seajet. Maybe if you buy one you will become four time loser?
To go back to the offer question, I was told years ago that the first offer sets the level of negotiation. If the asking price is £16,000 and you offer £15,000, you will be negotiating over £1,000. If you offer £12,000 it will be £4,000. I once saw a Dragons Den program, in which a girl was negotiating the % of her company she would give away. She said 20% they said 30%, she went up to 25%, they then said "will you meet us halfway" instead of saying "I just did", she just said yes! Start with big numbers and stick at the bottom.
Allan
 
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