Tips on selling

M

MonkeyNuke

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May 23, 2007
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26427
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Looking for friendly advice on selling a boat. I just recently posted my 25' SeaRay in the classified section.
How are pics uploaded to this forum?

I am considering posting to something like "usedboats.com" or "boattrader.com". Does anyone have any experience with dealing with web sites as these?
Is there a recommended site to post boat listings?

Anyone wanna buy a boat?

Thanks,
M.Nuke
 
Having sold four boats in the last six years here's what I do.

(1) Most marinas have a pinup board that you can post things on. Make a color sheet with all the perticulars about your boat with tear offs of your telephone number. Do this within a 25 mile radius of your boat. Note that you should always use a number that can get you nearly 100% of the time. Most people do not call back if they reach an answering machine, no pickup, etc.

(2) Most areas have some sort of LOCAL marine magazine with a used boat section. We have several here in the PNW. Place an add in them.

(3) If all else fails use a broker.

(4) Make sure your boat is clean and spotless!!!!! Many people buy a boat on how it looks as compared to how wells it's constructed. Fix anything that does not work.

(5) Don't take anyone on a sea trial unless you have an agreement to buy. There are many people out there that just want a free boat ride.

Hope that helps and good luck.

Dave

Faster now but still steady
 
Agree with Dave but also, in this market, price it for what you will actually take (i.e., adverstise a low price) and then stick to it. You'll get a lot more people looking.
 
CraigsList.com

Sold three boats on it, within a week of posting. Free. Best results are posting pictures with additional link.

-Greg
 
Beat you all-sold 8 boats in 10 years all within a week. Follow Mike's advice and forget about 'book' values. Price it under market and wait for the calls.
 
I'm with Jeff and Mike....price it really right and you will stick to the price.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Wingspar
(5) Don't take anyone on a sea trial unless you have an agreement to buy. There are many people out there that just want a free boat ride.

Click to expand...

Dave, what do you consider an agreement to buy? Is this written, verbal?
 
I frankly had little luck with boattrader.com...what I did get from it was lots of people who e-mailed questions, had a couple that came in with really lowball offers..in the end mine sold via the local paper, it was also a SR...and that seemed to me from my experience having paid for both a paper boattrader and online boattrader listing to be a much better value....but with the online listings you get people sending questions because it doesnt cost them anything to ask lots of questions, with a newpaper ad they have to call and if you feel they are not serious you can cut the conversation short rather than responding to endless e-mail questions.
 
I had my Wellcraft listed for a year on boatrader w/ no offers, went to a broker, had two offers that were ridiculous, I know its a bad market but fair is fair. I ended up selling it by word of mouth to a local for a price we were both content with. IMO, when push comes to shove, even though there is a "great deal on the internet", people really dont want to deal with the hassles of a long distance purchase. When someone says to you they saw one cheaper on boats.com, ebay, etc., just say , " Oh, really? Where in the country is it?" That usually gets the point across that if its such a great deal, Why are you here looking at my boat?
 
I paid over $1500 in advertizing in my local paper, boattrader, boats4sale, soundings and the local boating paper. While the most traffic came from the local papers, I ultimately sold the boat to someone who was driving by and saw the sign on the boat.

Curb appeal and a good visual location were key for me. The foot traffic was greater and more interested than what was generated from the papers. I was lucky that my yard location is very good and they placed the boat in a very visible location for my dry winter storage.

Craigs list and ebay only produced a few really lowball offers from people looking to pick up something for nothing.
 
As a fellow boater told me, you have three options:

#1) Fastest Way – put it in eBay as a 10 day auction with no reserve.

#2) In this market – take what you think the boat will sell for, take another 20% off then put it for sale in all the free places like Craigslist and BoatUS and BoatFix and two of the paid places like boats.com and boattraderonline.com

#3) Price it ‘at the market price’ and wait,……and wait,……and wait,….until you come to the realization that the boats you looked at to determine your fair asking price are all still for sale and you decide to change to the above #1 or #2 ideas.

Small trailer boats are selling fine. Large expensive yachts are also doing OK - soft but OK. Mid size express cruisers in the 20’s and 30’s foot sizes, well, the market is flooded with used ones, far more sellers then buyers and the price of gas is not helping matters.

The used express cruiser boat buyer in this size market tends to be a value seeker. I know, I am one now.

In my opinion, the market is going thru a correction on used boat prices and we are not at the bottom yet.

We sold our boat last Friday, less then 1 month after listing it, using #2.
 
*********Dave, what do you consider an agreement to buy? Is this written, verbal?***********

I,___________________ agree to buy ______________ for $$$$ subject to sea trial and survey.

Dave

Faster now but still steady.
 
quote:
Originally posted by mx8

IMO, when push comes to shove, even though there is a "great deal on the internet", people really dont want to deal with the hassles of a long distance purchase. When someone says to you they saw one cheaper on boats.com, ebay, etc., just say , " Oh, really? Where in the country is it?" That usually gets the point across that if its such a great deal, Why are you here looking at my boat?

Click to expand...


I sold one boat that went to MI from NY (drove in a towed it home-a salt boat to a FW state!) from Ebay, one sailboat went to MD from NY(ebay again) and a third, a woody, went to MA from NY which I got from CT. And my 27 Carver went to FL form NY but in all fairness, the guy is a boat transporter...
 
quote:
Originally posted by Wingspar

*********Dave, what do you consider an agreement to buy? Is this written, verbal?***********

I,___________________ agree to buy ______________ for $$$$ subject to sea trial and survey.

Dave

Faster now but still steady.

Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
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