Selling da Boat

Boating

by boatguy Ed Donlin

When it comes time to sell your boat will it be worth what you expect? The happiest days in a boater’s life are the day they buy the boat and the day they sell it. So, selling a boat should be on every boat owners mind even if selling is in the future. One might hope that someone who just has to have your boat stops you along the waterway but that rarely happens.

What you do to your boat months and maybe years before you sell it affects the sale. Did you ever wonder why some boats sell quickly and others take a lot longer? The owners of the fast selling boats did a better job of maintaining their boat and they were able to prove it.

The difference in the selling price between two 1999 Barslammer 24 walk-around cuddy cabin boats can be significant. A quick stroll around a used boat lot will show you that similar boats might start out around the same price but one boat usually has a “motivated seller” attached to it because it has been on the market for a long time.

These consignment boat lots are experts at making old boats look good. They will upgrade a trailer or bottom paint a previously painted boat or spit and polish the boat above the waterline. The two Bar Slammer 24’s might look quite similar to the untrained eye but a closer look might reveal some additional wear and tare on one. My favorite clue to a clueless boater is gouges in the gel coat on the front of the boat where the anchor comes up.

Why, because it indicates the owner was careless or inept and that might mean those traits extend to other parts of the boat. I m not saying that I’ve never let the dangling anchor touch my boat but those minor scratches taught me to do gel coat repair correctly which is a major pain. The same goes for dock rash. If a boater doesn’t care enough to put a fender between the dock and the boat then…..

I’ve harped about hour meters before and I know they can be easily altered but they show a high level of interest by the owner. A smart buyer will have a trusted mechanic do a survey of the engine anyway and the compression check will tell the buyer a lot more than the hour meter. My point is the hour meter might get an interested party to that point quicker with one boat over another. That is part of the art of selling a boat but it has to start long before the boat goes up for sale.

The smart seller sells his boat to his boating/fishing buddy or a friend of his buddy. Who better knows how well the boat has been kept up? You can’t hide it from them. So why are their so many consignment sales lots if we are going to sell to our friends or neighbors?

They bring many different types of boats together and they present these boats in the best possible manner. In many cases they take much better care of the boats than the owners ever did. A dreamboat to them is well maintained and mechanically sound and is reasonably priced. I said reasonably priced not cheap because they make their money on commissions so the longer a boat sits on their lot the longer it takes to get paid.

One word of caution about the consignment boat yards, verify everything! Shady operators who have taken advantage of both the seller and buyer have damaged the consignment yard’s reputation. Most people wouldn’t close on any other major transaction without a verifiable contract listing all the equipment. Most sellers wouldn’t close without verifiable funds being transferred but boaters have allowed this to go on in the past and been burned by those thieves. Several of them are serving time after convincing sellers to sign the backs of their titles, selling the boat and skipping town.

It is ironic that the difference in selling prices is usually a lot less than maintaining the boat properly in the first place. And the time that it takes to sell is a lot less stressful for everyone involved. It’s the old pay me now or pay me later scenario, if you catch my drift!

Boat safe and send your comments to boatguiEd@aol.com or this publication. See you on the internetboatingshow.com