Boat Broker vs Do-it-Yourself

[Richard Jordan]

...at which point you will discover that your list of Brokers shrinks rapidly. possibly down to zero as reality collides with planet Broker...........
@David good analogy! Zero or maybe some cosmic constant.

Like others have said it is just like real estate.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Fishspearit

I think you have some serious misconceptions about a buyers broker, but then you admit that you've never used one, so I wonder why you feel your opinion is an informed one?

I've never put my knob into a food blender - but nonetheless feel that I have an informed opinion.....

As for the rest, probably a lot more truth in all that pre-internet - but that was 20 odd years ago now.

FWIW am thinking of going down the Broker route (if I can weld it onto a couple of other things / can be ars#d) - just need to learn how to write my name in crayon .

[Richard Jordan]

I ain't got no probl'm gettin a crayola en paper...wat u say'in?

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by jordanship

I ain't got no probl'm gettin a crayola en paper...wat u say'in?

Crayons! - my twelth favourite subject

I originally developed "the Crayonic Solution" for a (now former) Director of a mid sized European Bank, now much smaller - and which failed to succeed (I left him alone to handle the Crayon for 6 months - upon my return he had instead spent £60k making the problem worse .....3 guesses who told him the cost ).

I then created "the 2CS" specifically for the head of Compliance at a financial services company. The fundamental change for 2CS was that I would operate a second Crayon , so it didn't really matter WTF he did (or mainly didn't do) .........in the event I did not even have the confidence to deploy 2CS on the basis that the risk he would eat the crayon or put into his ear was too great. Honestly.

In many ways I quite admired his many innovative approaches to f#cking up everything he touched

No one should underestimate the power / uses of a well deployed Crayon


I hope no one really thinks the financial services industry is now fixed

Apologies to OP for the thread drift.........onto Crayons

[Surfer Girl]

Unless I missed it somewhere, no one has mentioned the importance of getting the boat surveyed! This is the most important thing when buying a boat - getting an independent professional survey.

Sellers, brokers, etc, have a vested interest in selling the boat, the surveyor doesn't - they are working for you. When you're about to spend thousands of dollars on a boat you wanna be damn sure what your getting into. Obviously, you have to do your homework and find a qualified surveyor who is independent (i.e. not friends with broker), has references and knows the construction material (GRP, Steel, Wood, Alloy, Ferro-Cement) but they can save you from making a big mistake or confirm the boat and all it's systems are sound. When they find some items needing attention (and yachts always have items needing attention LOL), you can use that to negotiate the price down.

It's false economy to think you can do it yourself and if you've already fallen in love with the vessel, then you will overlook things. A surveyor won't. And you may be capable of sussing out the condition of the spars and standing rigging, etc - but are you also a diesel mechanic, ship builder, electrician, rigger?

Get your shortlist; narrow it down to the boat you really want; tell the broker/vendor you want it surveyed before signing anything (look into their eyes when you do, if they're hiding something you'll see it then); use your head not your heart (that's the hard part LOL).

You'd be crazy to spend upwards of $30000 on a yacht without a survey....

[Dkdoyle]

Just a thought. If you work with a broker then they will steer you to brokerage boats so he can get a commission. He won't be showing you the for sale by owner unless he can talk the seller into accepting his fee.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by CapTim

I just went through that whole 'buy-the-first-big-boat' process, and ended up not using a broker.

..., it took me about 5 or 6 months to find "the" boat, and I probably stepped on .. oh.. more than 50 and less than 500 boats along the way. I really spent a lot of time looking online, driving around (we put about 8000 miles on our car, considering an acceptable travel range to be anything under 500 miles from the house).

I suppose it stands to reason that a broker might have saved me that time... on the other hand, every time I looked at a boat, I learned something about what kind of boat I wanted, and also how to look at boats to judge their condition.

!

That's the kind of experience you cannot buy.

Suryeyors are problems too.