To answer all the "why isn't my boat selling threads"

[henryf]

I've listed it on a couple of sites and set the wheels in motion for some SEO love to get it on Google's organic results. The problem is you're sandboxed for a while with a new site.

Getting involved in the sale yourself undoubtedly improves your chances. The boat will be clean and tidy for viewings, sea trials are very easy to arrange and don't necessarily involve hefty deposits - incidentally do you think I'm right in charging £100 or so to cover my travelling, a bit of diesel and hosing the boat down afterwards?

Henry

 

[z1ppy]

if i was serious about buying the boat i wouldnt mind paying £100 for the sea trial. should get rid of some of the tire kickers. are you going to offer to redund it if the sale goes through? although suppose £100 when your spending that much is nether here nor there!

 

[gjgm]

Getting involved in the sale yourself undoubtedly improves your chances. The boat will be clean and tidy for viewings, sea trials are very easy to arrange and don't necessarily involve hefty deposits - incidentally do you think I'm right in charging £100 or so to cover my travelling, a bit of diesel and hosing the boat down afterwards?

Henry

No, I think you are totally wrong. You want someone to buy your £zillion boat, and then want to charge for car petrol?
(Dont turn up in a Porsche )

That would make me think you are a tight git and going to be a total pain to deal with.
You will probably remove the light switches after I have bought it

 

[henryf]

Hmm. 2 quite opposite views there.

I have no qualms about refunding on successful purchase though as you say ultimately you'd lose more if I dipped the tanks. They're full and you'll be getting that for free.

The only issue I have is with people who just want to know "what a boat like this" is like on the water. No intention of buying it, just a casual pipe dream or they are going to be buying something totally different and just wanted to scratch it off the list before committing to the other boat.

In some ways I'd rather pay the hundred quid because it makes me feel less pressured to buy after the trial. I've covered the bloke's costs so if I don't buy it I haven't cost him money whereas if I don't pay anything I'm sort of obliged to buy it.

Henry

 

[benjenbav]

My thoughts on the proposition are:

1 Wow, lovely boat.

2 Nice inclusive/open feel to the site - your name is there for all to see and I did wonder if it might be an idea to be able to link through to virgin911.com, not just to drive traffic that way but mostly because anyone looking at that will get the impression that you exist as a real person rather than a scammer and that you're a nice guy to do business with. That's the message that I get from your business site. The approach all seems to be, as you have said on here, that you are realistic and happy to leave some meat on the bone for the other guy. You wouldn't be giving away many secrets either because, if you google your name, 911virgin comes up at the top of the list anyway.

As a consequence, I don't think anyone with a real interest in the boat will mind the £100 seatrial charge and it might weed out the tyre-kickers as you hope. OTOH, I'm in Gosport/Portsmouth area on Friday and, waahey, £100 for a whiz round the Solent sounds like a bargain.

 

[PaulGooch]

I've listed it on a couple of sites and set the wheels in motion for some SEO love to get it on Google's organic results. The problem is you're sandboxed for a while with a new site.

Getting involved in the sale yourself undoubtedly improves your chances. The boat will be clean and tidy for viewings, sea trials are very easy to arrange and don't necessarily involve hefty deposits - incidentally do you think I'm right in charging £100 or so to cover my travelling, a bit of diesel and hosing the boat down afterwards?

Henry

If i was in the market for such a boat (i wish), i wouldn't be happy about paying for you to come to the boat to show me around. A broker wouldn't charge to show me a boat, so i don't see why you should. You're acting as your own broker, so to speak, so you should do the leg work out of the brokerage fees you'll be saving.

As for the sea trial, i'd be happy to pay for the fuel used, but would expect it to be knocked off the price if i bought the boat. As you say, the fuel in the tanks will be included in the price, so if i bought the boat, i would have done the sea trial on my own diesel

IMO

By the way, totally agree with your sentiments regarding the adverts and how poor many of them out there are. Nice job. There might be room for minor improvements as some have mentioned, but if i was looking for a P42, there's enough information and good quality pics to have me interested enough to want to contact you. Some of the ads i saw when buying previous boats were so poor i couldn't be bothered with them.

 

[gjgm]

Well, it is unlikely that any serious buyer will be new to the game, so he knows the boat buying routine. If you say £100 for spin a round the bay, you are somewhat commited to providing that service. If you dont mention it, you can make the judgement after discussions (and that is your line of work, right?).
If you think this might go all the way, I guess you arent going to risk it all by asking for a few notes;if you think the guy might be playing you along, you could offer the £100 spin, or ask for a deposit (as is normal)
Either way, you keep your options open.

 

[henryf]

Just to clarify I wasn't suggesting charging for being there to show someone round. Not at all. I was merely referring to sea trials. When we bought our Targa 35 we actually tagged along to someone else's sea trial. They talked the talk and then buggered off never to be seen again, we said nothing and then bought the boat!

With our Phantom 42 I had to put down 10% deposit and sign all the usual RYA paperwork before getting a trial.

As I said I wouldn't argue over offsetting the £100 against a final asking price, ultimately I'm not to the last £100 when sell the boat. Life's a bit too short for that, it was more a small gesture of good intention on the part of the potential buyer. With our Porsches we give test drives freely but the logistics involved are slightly different.

I just don't want to be a soft touch given the demands of most sellers.

Henry

 

[Spi D]

Depends on what you wan't to gain from demanding a deposit. You may get buyers that you don't need the deposit from if it's to ensure they are serious.

Those taking days off, spending on travelling, transport & overnighting etc. hardly come just for the ride.

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

I just don't want to be a soft touch given the demands of most sellers.

I sold my T37 privately, again with the help of a website (although on that occasion it was organic search and a boatsandoutboards.co.uk link that did the trick, not ppc). Anyway, the eventual purchaser wanted a sea trial. We were that far down the track that he felt like a well-qualified lead, and it didn't occur to me to try to recover the cost of the diesel or a washdown or my time. There's obviously an element of risk if you are going to try to sell your own boat - from my own experiences, you (a) very unlikely to have a large queue of punters lining up to get on your boat and if you do (b) it is very unlikely they are all going to immediately demand a sea trial.

Given your day job, I imagine you are pretty astute at qualifying buyers pdq. With that in mind, if in the unlikely event that it costs you a couple of dead-end sea trials to get to a sale - well, so be it. At the end of the day you might be down £300 in order to be up the thick end of £290k. The risk of making (or suggesting) a sea trial charge is that you introduce a little bit of bad faith into a transaction which represents a very high return.

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[henryf]

I think I'm in agreement with you Jimmy. To ask for money is a bit penny pinching. If I end up spending every waking moment ferrying people around the Solent then maybe a re-think is in order but hopefully that won't happen.

I asked the question on the boating section of the Pistonheads forum (somewhat quieter than here) and came to the same conclusion.

Once again thanks for helping me get my head round things. I'm really good at distancing myself from the sale in some aspects, in other areas I struggle. I'm a bit odd

Henry

 

[ari]

When we bought our Targa 35 we actually tagged along to someone else's sea trial. They talked the talk and then buggered off never to be seen again, we said nothing and then bought the boat!

Did you (or they) pay £100 for diesel, refunded or otherwise? How would you have felt had you been asked for it?

As has been said, you're saving brokers commission by doing the legwork yourself, you can hardly expect a buyer to then pay toward that legwork as well.

 

[ari]

I think I'm in agreement with you Jimmy. To ask for money is a bit penny pinching. If I end up spending every waking moment ferrying people around the Solent then maybe a re-think is in order but hopefully that won't happen.

I asked the question on the boating section of the Pistonheads forum (somewhat quieter than here) and came to the same conclusion.

Once again thanks for helping me get my head round things. I'm really good at distancing myself from the sale in some aspects, in other areas I struggle. I'm a bit odd

Henry

Saw this after posting, sounds like you've already come to that conclusion then.

Carry on, sorry to have bothered etc

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

I think I'm in agreement with you Jimmy.

One final thought on this though - if you do get a punter asking for a sea trial, and they look serious so you agree - it's worth being specific about who can come on the sea trial. Otherwise you do run the real risk of your guy turning up with all his mates, or alternatively it turns into Mr, Mrs, the two kids, and her mother, and suddenly you _are_ providing a family jolly.

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[henryf]

Wise words.

Clearly the Mrs who makes the descision will want to bring her husband along so he doesn't feel left out. I think something along the lines of not wanting to be responsible for keeping an eye on too many people and also ensuring we don't run aground will be understood.

Henry

 

[David of Essex]

Henry if you have conditions of sale in the advert that would enable buyers to know the process of purchasing your boat. The norm buying though brokers is 10% deposit subject to a survey and sea trail. If you don’t wish to go down this route then put this in your conditions of sale.
Not knowing you personally you come across as a good professional salesperson with the expertise in selling top range cars. As other peeps have said on this forum, selling boats can be a bit more of a nightmare, i.e. joy riders and people prepared to take liberties.
How you eliminate these let me know
David
Ps I met Chris Rossiter recently as a complete stranger about a AC Schnitzer BMW. He just gave me the keys and said take it for a long ride and see how it performs. You would never do this with a boat.

 

[henryf]

I've spoken with Princess today and it's going on their brokerage. I've got a good relationship with them and so in reality they're doing a bit and I'm doing a bit. Depending on where a lead comes from and how much involvement they have will determine their final fee but we won't be falling out over it.

My thoughts on using Princess were that they provide peace of mind to a would be buyer, especially a non UK resident. They confirm the paper trail, know the boat and can arrange finance if necessary.

They also have the largest selection of Princess boats for sale, certainly with my buying hat on I've looked at their site and will probably purchase through it. In fact if the boat sold tomorrow I know where we'd be heading off to for a look

Hopefully my efforts will fill in any gaps in their standard presentation, make viewings / trials a bit easier and encourage someone to take the next step.

Henry

 

[z1ppy]

Good thinking

When we sold the rib i found a website very useful for directing people to see lots of pictures and details of the boat but also some people like the comfort factor of a broker.

When we come to sell Aviator we will make another website and do the same. somehow it shows an element of commitment to selling the boat. if i looked at your website without knowing anything about the boat or you, i would think "he has taken the time and effort to put together a decent site, i will look at the boat before others" maybe thats just me.

i guess with a larger ticket item like this, the benefit of someone able to offer finance would appeal to some buyers. have always heard good things about princess brokerage, maybe one day they will have a V42 with my name on!

 

[henryf]

Or save some money and treat yourself to a new V39 !

Henry

 

[henryf]

Well, the day of judgement has finally arrived.

Some time this afternoon the man from Lombard will be forwarding Princess a big bag of Her Majesty's finest promissory notes and I will be boat less for the first time in a good many years.

The whole process has been pretty smooth sailing. In the end I gave a sea trial without request for financial contribution. As Jimmy said you know when someone is serious and if you've nothing to hide it's as quick to just pop them out of the harbour for a quick blast.

A few genuinely interested buyers and thankfully no time wasters although I must have fielded calls from half the brokers in the land but no part exchanges or offers of timeshare properties in Beirut.

The survey didn't throw up anything too drastic, the lower helm compass bubble was too big and a bonding wire had come off one of the rudders. The boat is now sitting on its mooring looking rather as it did when I picked it up. The bathing platform is bare (and huge!) and there's a big bottle of pop on the saloon table. I had also kept the flybridge promotional sales book from 2007 so that's sitting there as well.

Using Princess to broker the deal has meant the paperwork side of things has been someone else's problem. The buyer's finance provider may have struggled dealing with me directly. It's been a good partnership.

Onwards and upwards......

Henry