Where To Find Boats For Sale By Owner?

[ssullivan]

What is the best source for boats that are for sale by owner?

I recall several great little paper magazines/booklets in Ft Lauderdale and sprinkled throughout the Caribbean. Does anyone recall the names of those?

We are trying to find old boats anywhere from Trinidad and Tobago to Maine. $50K and under asking price... negotiable and in need of massive cosmetics. (37-45ft)

[Benny]

Sean - There is a brokerage in St Martins called Simpson Bay Boats or Bay boat brokerage - something like that. You can look them up on Yachtworld for brokers in St martins. They seem to have alot of listings from time to time that are steel and in need of repair etc. This is usually after an active hurricane season - no luck there this year but maybe in the fall. I almost bought one for 16K - 39 ft steel centre cockpit about 3 years ago.

Have a look and good luck, Randy

[GordMay]

Try a Google on:
boat for sale by owner

[ssullivan]

Thank you, Gord. Some things in life are not always best done online... sailing for instance.

The internet is highly commecialized and you find links to brokers even with searches like that. Very few leads on good boats turn up using that technique. Real people on the ground have better leads.

[Benny]

Sean - I know these boats are listed by brokers but there looks like some might interest you. There are over 40 steel sailboats boats and all under $50,000

YachtWorld.com Boats and Yachts for Sale

[Gulfcoastbreeze]

Boats Used Boat Sales - boats.com

TraderOnline.com Classified Ads

GCB

[cferger]

Sean,

There was an article in good old boat about a guy and his brother who regularly buy boats, fix them up. Some of the suggestions, as my imperfect memory recalls, were to not purchase from adds within the industry. So no yatchworld.com no local sailing rags. They had best luck with for-sale adds in local newspapers. Estate sales etc. I have also heard asking around at Marinas is good way to find a cheap boat. Leads like "oh yeah Old Capt. Sullivan's health is failing and hasn't been able to keep his boat up."

good luck.

[sailorgal]

You can try looking on Craigs List. Here is a link where you can search any or all areas at once:

crazedlist.org : search craigslist like a madman

You can select a particular area or city, then put in a key word, under "select category"just select sale/wanted and another option pops up where you can select "boat".
I found that if you select to search "all" areas, it can get hung up, so try to break it up into geographic sections.

Hope this helps. Good luck

[ssullivan]

Thank you guys so much!

I definitely appreciate the ideas. I had never heard of that Craig's List site and that was something I was really looking to do. Also, you're definitely right. I can't go through brokers for boats like this, since they don't sell and brokers don't want to list them. Also, many brokers have commission "floors" that don't allow them to touch boats of little value without eating up half the sale price in commission fees.

Benny: That's a nice list. I've been looking at some of those. Still shopping around a lot though. I was hoping to get a hold of Louis Reil who has put together a lot of great boats of the type I'm looking for. Don't seem to be able to raise him on any of the boards he frequents.

Thanks again for the inputs. I'm playing around with Craigslist right now and will be hitting the marinas too.

I have a feeling most cruisers I'm looking for will be in FL or the Caribbean.

[charley]

Sean,

Craigslist is the place to look for that kind of boat, you can even list what you are looking for free. Also I did see a few like what you are looking for on the sailboatlistings.com. I am sure you know bout this site as you did have a boat listed on there before. You may want to check out USauctions.com they have a lot of boats on there being sold by insurance companies and salvagers. Alot less $ than most for sale by owners but much more work to be done. Good luck in the search.

Charley

[Weyalan]

It is probably not relevant for your particular circumstance, but here in Australia, the 2 best sites (by far) for finding a boat are The Yacht Hub and Boatpoint. Both of these sites list boats from both brokerages and owner-sold.

I should add that there is nothing illegal about finding a boat on the net, finding it on the water, finding the owner and missing out on the broker (and associated costs). I know, because that is what I did. It saved me 15% or so on the purchase price!