Where best to sell a boat?

[timmygobang]

Hi,

I'm looking to sell my 28ft Salty Dog next year as I'm doing the ARC with a friend next November, after the trip I know I'll want to upgrade...

So at the moment my boats currently residing in St Katharine Docks, London which is more known for its banking community than its sailing community.

I want to make sure I have the best opportunity to sell it so my thoughts were to take it down to the South Coast perhaps Hamble around April time.

Does this seem like a logical idea? if this seems like a good idea, any recommendations for cheap mooring?

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

Thanks

Tim

 

[Tranona]

Not sure location is that important. It just needs to be accessible to potential buyers. Biggest problem will be finding a buyer - wherever you are, so advertising it to the widest audience is a starting point. The market for low value boats at the moment seems pretty slow as the economic uncertainty is squeezing discretionary spending.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I don't think you would gain anything by moving your boat to South Coast as, although there may be more potential buyers there, there are also more sellers there. As previous poster says, the bottom end boat market is very depressed right now so i would advise you to:-
1. Make sure your boat is clean, tidy and generally well-presented
2. Advertise widely especially on free sites
3. Price reasonably and realistically and be prepared to negotiate
4. Find the cheapest place you can to store it until it's sold

 

[V1701]

Present your boat immaculately and ready to sail, build a web site with Moonfruit or another free hosting service with lots of info & photos. Link to your web site from Boats & Outboards & Apollo Duck (if you don't do this nobody will find your web site). If there's other Salty Dogs on the market, undercut them. If you do the above you stand as good a chance of selling as you'd have by any other method but probably not for as much money as you'd like. Worked for me, boat sold in less than 2 weeks...

 

[KenMcCulloch]

Recognise that your boat may well be worth less now than when you bought it. Some older boats have recently been sold for 25% less than they changed hands for say 5 years earlier. You may well be able to sell your boat if you are prepapred to be realistic about the price.

 

[shaunksb]

build a web site with Moonfruit or another free hosting service with lots of info & photos. Link to your web site from Boats & Outboards & Apollo Duck (if you don't do this nobody will find your web site).

See (soon to be changed) signature below


__________

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Recognise that your boat may well be worth less now than when you bought it. Some older boats have recently been sold for 25% less than they changed hands for say 5 years earlier. You may well be able to sell your boat if you are prepapred to be realistic about the price.

Mine sold for more than I paid after 6 years ownership + I got the Monitor wind vane from her before selling. http://sailingscotty.com/ I did have to put a new engine in but the overall loss was acceptable.
Take all the advise from above posts and you'll be giving yourself a good start.
best of luck
S.

 

[SolentPhill]

I was helping a mat who was selling a boat, I paid £37 for an advert on appolo duck very slow and nothing in a week. Then boat shop paid £22 never had a call. Then eBay paid £11 and phone didn't stop. Buyer from there bought it.

Boat was in the £30k bracket.

What did help was I went on to one of the free web sites and created a basic web page where I put loads of pics. That did help.

 

[wiggy]

I put together some photos and videos and posted it on u-tube with contact info and a video name the same as the boat type. Got lots of hits and saved sending pictures to potential buyers.

 

[ukmctc]

Hi,

I'm looking to sell my 28ft Salty Dog next year as I'm doing the ARC with a friend next November, after the trip I know I'll want to upgrade...

So at the moment my boats currently residing in St Katharine Docks, London which is more known for its banking community than its sailing community.

I want to make sure I have the best opportunity to sell it so my thoughts were to take it down to the South Coast perhaps Hamble around April time.

Does this seem like a logical idea? if this seems like a good idea, any recommendations for cheap mooring?

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

Thanks

Tim

Location isn't the problem, its access for the buyer and price, it is a buyers market no matter what anyone says. And it will be for a couple of years to come.
So ask a realistic price, thats one usually 30% below the one you think its worth!
Give the boat away as is, don't remove anything, if its on the boat in the Arc it should be on when you sell it.
Takes lots of pictures, inside and out, and a couple under sail.
Don't knock an offer, think about it seriously, people will offer what its worth to them not you.
If your lucky it will sell no matter where you are, people will travel. NI is a good place to sell, boats hold there price.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

Price will be the determining factor.

The economic situation will have greater impact next year, so prepare to sell at a very low price; however, be prepared to buy another boat at a much much lower price too.

 

[PCUK]

I've had many more enquiries from Ebay than any of the brokers I am also with. (circa £60,000) Ebay Classified ad' £15 for 28 days.

 

[rotrax]

Hi,

I'm looking to sell my 28ft Salty Dog next year as I'm doing the ARC with a friend next November, after the trip I know I'll want to upgrade...

So at the moment my boats currently residing in St Katharine Docks, London which is more known for its banking community than its sailing community.

I want to make sure I have the best opportunity to sell it so my thoughts were to take it down to the South Coast perhaps Hamble around April time.

Does this seem like a logical idea? if this seems like a good idea, any recommendations for cheap mooring?

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

Thanks

Tim

Good idea-St. Kats. might produce time wasters-all those merchant bankers...........

 

[aluijten]

When preparing the information package think about what the potential buyer wants to buy and not what you want to sell.
In other words, try to understand the selection criteria the buyer will use to select from all the boats on offer your boat to have a look at.
As said before, keep the price realistic, but also not too cheap (there must be something wrong with that boat effect).
And like others say, good, clean and many photo's. Make an effort. If the buyer senses you were committed to the boat it'll sell easier. I'm still puzzled by advertisements for boats with hardly any picture and a scary price ticket.
Not having any feeling about good places to keep the boat for sale in the UK, I'd say St. Kats has at least the advantage of being very accessible for a large group of people. It's London after all, there are quite a few people living there...

 

[nauticalnomad]

I don't think you would gain anything by moving your boat to South Coast as, although there may be more potential buyers there, there are also more sellers there. As previous poster says, the bottom end boat market is very depressed right now so i would advise you to:-
1. Make sure your boat is clean, tidy and generally well-presented
2. Advertise widely especially on free sites
3. Price reasonably and realistically and be prepared to negotiate
4. Find the cheapest place you can to store it until it's sold

Id take it north to Scarborough, atleast then youll get people from the midlands, and newcastle and norwich if need be, The solent will be full of boats looking to be sold keeping the prices down,
I used to reside in Hartlepool marina and there were a few people there that would travel to the solent and buy boats and resell them above the Leeds to Scotland etc and make an alright little cash flow.

 

[bammylovechops]

Often wondered, is it best to leave boat in or out of the water when selling???
Obvious positives for both options, but which has the initial best pulling power?

 

[timmygobang]

Thanks very much for all your advice.

I didn't think about putting a website together so that'll be my first port of call, and I'll give ebay a punt going on SolentPhill and PCUK's experience.

I definitely take onboard (excuse the pun )all the above comments about making sure its in tip top condition and that I should be realistic about its value.

I have to move out of St Kats for the Olympics so might start advertising from Feb as if everyones like me they'll be scrimping through January

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

I didn't think about putting a website together so that'll be my first port of call, and I'll give ebay a punt going on SolentPhill and PCUK's experience.

If you want a basic website like mine http://sailingscotty.com/ and need someone to set it up for you, I think my daughter would do it for a basic fee.

She is a sailor but recovering from ME and is using her time doing websites etc to keep an active mind.
PM me if interested,
best of luck
S.

 

[Nicholas123]

Hi,

I'm looking to sell my 28ft Salty Dog next year as I'm doing the ARC with a friend next November, after the trip I know I'll want to upgrade...

So at the moment my boats currently residing in St Katharine Docks, London which is more known for its banking community than its sailing community.

I want to make sure I have the best opportunity to sell it so my thoughts were to take it down to the South Coast perhaps Hamble around April time.

Does this seem like a logical idea? if this seems like a good idea, any recommendations for cheap mooring?

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

Thanks

Tim

I have been looking to buy a boat for some time & have seen interesting boats I would'nt mind looking at down in Cornwall & places like that (I am in Portsmouth Harbour) but in this weather traveling far,staying in hotels & all that is just to much bother.
There seem to be plenty of boats round here stuck on the market with no one reducing prices.A bit of competition would'nt do any harm!

 

[V1701]

I think also leaving a boat on the market too long is not good, all the more reason to start off at a fair price and not refuse a reasonable offer. When I was looking this time last year there was one boat I looked at that was presented badly, they were asking £10.5k & I offered £8k. The broker & seller didn't consider it a reasonable offer, their attitude was that it would sell when the season got under way. It's still for sale, the mooring fees for the year will have had to be paid and the asking price is now £8.5k, I don't doubt that now they'd be more than happy to accept accept £8k...