Buying Repo worth the risk? Any experiences?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Sea Frog

Wow, thanks a lot folks! So it is not that difficult after all.

Buying a boat is easy, sometimes too easy

[Sea Frog]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Buying a boat is easy, sometimes too easy

Yeah. It's buying a good boat cheap that is tricky

[b_mac]

Thanks for all the replies! Helped me out to read other's perspectives.

[rmw2007]

I was wondering if anyone who "won" a boat at auction proceeded with out surveying the yacht
Ross

[dohenyboy]

The most difficult part of buying a repo boat is not having access to any kind of history.
I bought two boats from National Liquidators. One was a good buy the other not.
Later I was in the same office building as another of their offices.
The federal marshal auctions usually get you a better deal. The banks are usually too concerned about losing money, so harder to deal with. That is the general rule, I was told.
No reason you cannot survey if you are local.


Why can't things remain where i carelessly left them?

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

Can you get a haulout and survey contingincy or is it where is as is?

This is the dilemma. In a normal purchase, you have the chance to look over the boat, no strings attached, then if it looks good you put in an offer contingent on a survey and if the survey comes up with major problems, you can walk away.

With a repo, it sounds like you either buy sight unseen or you pay for a survey before you find out if you've won the bid.

You can easily double or triple the cost of a cheap boat if it needs major work just to get it in usable.

For example, we looked at a boat this weekend that looked good in the ad but when we got there, they had replaced the outboard rudders with outboards. Fine when you are motoring but not so great when sailing. We walked away without putting an offer in and no cost for a survey.