Brokers Could Learn from this FSBO Presentation

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Crazy4Cruising

In order to not waste our time or any one else's we felt it best to give the most information possible about the boat. We realize that an interested buyer would spend a little money to come and look at the boat and should be able to make that decision based on our word. We have spent plenty of money travelling and looking for the perfect boat and worse than bad photos is lack of information and showing up to a boat that has been misrepresented.

With an attitude like that you will never make it as a Broker

[captainKJ]

Originally Posted by Crazy4Cruising
In order to not waste our time or any one else's we felt it best to give the most information possible about the boat. We realize that an interested buyer would spend a little money to come and look at the boat and should be able to make that decision based on our word. We have spent plenty of money travelling and looking for the perfect boat and worse than bad photos is lack of information and showing up to a boat that has been misrepresented.

Of course we would take the word of the seller or the broker, matter of fact a little old lady sailed this boat downwind every sunday to church and back. I am sure that the buyer does not mind spending his own money to look at many boats because he trusts the owner or broker completely.
Get real, If the buyer looks at 20 boats he has made a small investment just looking. He is not going to take your word for it.

[LazyLadySailor]

It might be a bit more difficult given the boat's location, but I have gone so far as to hire a suveyor for a "walk thru" on a boat that was more than a few hours drive away. For far less than the price of a RT ticket, the surveyor spent a half day on the boat, interviewed the owner (the boat was moored behind his home), took 100+ pix and wrote an awesome report.

I was lucky - the surveyor (who was recommended by a third party with no connection to the deal) ended up being world class and the $360 charge was quite reasonable IMHO..

[Crazy4Cruising]

This boat has been SOLD!!! Thanks for all your feedback, positive and negative! On to the next thing...

[shadow]

I've met a few that were awesome and a few that I was constantly scratching my head trying to figure out if they were human???!?! Meaning, I've never met anyone that was that lazy, uninformed about the boat that they were listing, everything they did, which was next to nothing, was made out to be an absolute HUGE favor to me... I just can't understand why they don't just leave the business as they obviously don't care about their job or people... MAN...

[DSDman]

My experience with brokers has been very bad. I tried going it without a broker myself but could never get good answers to my questions from the selling broker. So I got my own broker to ask all those questions. He doesn't seem to get any better answers than I do. Why would a broker effectively know nothing about the boat they are listing? Its all very frustrating. I mean simple stuff, like age of the rigging, condition of the sails, condition of wiring/plumbing. Date of last bottom job....nothing, and all this lack of info from numerous "brokers". Now I will be forced to spend the money and go look or just write them off. Sorry for the rant..I feel better.

[captainKJ]

one of the tricks of a salesman is to pretend to be stupid. Meaning You do not answer a question with a correct answer, you always try to be evasive, this way you can not have an answer used against you. It is easier to say I do not know than to tell the correct answer. Also by not giving the answer it helps qualify a person by getting there interest and making them want to learn more about an item. Lots of salesman talk themselves out of sales by giving TOOOOO much information to a customer.

[Mexdon]

The broker is the sellers agent....its in his/her interest to make the sale, something to do with commission. For the buyer he is nothing more than the link to what might be your next boat. Then as the buyer do your own due diligence or do your dough.