Average Discount to Price

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by DsquareD

My first attempt at buying a boat recently, the seller wouldn't budge on the price and it wasn't in my budget to go higher than my offer.

My most recent attempt started with a 50% offer. We settled the next day, very close (hundreds, not thousands) to my offer. We began the process on a Saturday and on the following Monday my wife closed the deal while I was at work.

You won't know unless you try. I highly recommend starting at half, especially if it has been on the market for a while. My friend had his boat listed for $20,000 and received an early offer for $10,000. He turned it down and told me a year later when it was still for sale that he wished he had taken the $10,000 offer. Then the following season (2 years on the market) he lowered the price to $18,000 and accepted an offer of $12,000. After the survey they chiseled him down a little more.

Yep, you just don't know. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
You can usually tell how it's going to go. If you offer 40% less than asking, and the sell comes back with a 3% discount, just walk away. If he comes back with a 15%+ discount, start working. Next step (if you didn't in the first place ) is to first SELL the broker why your offer is good.
-"there are 3 others listed, one is super clean and less money, but it's in Timbuktu, I'd prefer to not fly out there so trying this first"
-"the sails are serviceable but they are pretty worn, that's $15k right there"
-"the other boat I'm interested in is this xxx boat, I lean a bit toward your boat, but not willing to pay too much over the other one"

There are a million possible things to use... the key is to GET THE SELLER INVOLVED in the conversation.

[a64pilot]

I think your best deals are often in custom boats, but you really have to know a lot about boats to not get stung sometimes, and know exactly what you want.
Production boats are easy to determine their worth, based on comps. No matter how wonderful something is, or how much it cost to build, its only worth what it will sell for.
If this isn't going to be your "forever" boat, maybe stay with a production boat, based on likelihood of selling. Find a production boat that has a following, one that is well thought of by most, that one if you buy it right, you can maybe not lose too much when you sell.

I bought with the intent to sell, so I bought one that would sell as it was to be our learner boat, then armed with what we had leaned, we would then begin the search for our "forever" boat. But after owning it for a year, it seemed that it ticked all our boxes , or at least a reasonable number of them. I'd still kill for a Queen Size mattress that you could walk around, and an honest to God real shower, but you can't have everything. Truth is the thought of selling and starting the search over again, and then reworking the "new" boat is just too much.
Maybe after we have been out a few years, who knows?

[alansmith]

It is an interesting topic to my mind. There our two boats I am really interested in. One in Europe and one in Canada. Both built in the 1980's. both boats have had major restoration work. The only rub for me is they both have their original engines. So, fellas, how do you factor in an offer with such old propulsion?

[Cheechako]

Hard to say, how old, how many hours, what engines?

[sailon46]

2012 bought my present boat in Tortolla Moorings base. I put down 10% on a boat I was told by the broker I could have for 22% discount. Showed for the sea trial loved the boat but I was told by the broker that the widow of the original captain had changed her mind about my offer. While I was there another guy heard about my predicament and gave a ride on his boat exactly the same as my original choice loved it but he was asking more for his. I stuck to my original offer and got the boat for 30% discount. Its an adventure but be ready for an experience. Good luck
Ernie on the Mary Jane

[a64pilot]

My boat is an 87, engine had 500 hours on it when I bought it, I have since put another 500 on it, and it appears to be in excellent condition.
But you can find much, much newer boats with worn out engines too, you just factor in the cost to repower is engine condition warrants that.

[Cheechako]

Yeah, things happen mysteriously. I saw a Catamaran when I left my boat stored in Fl before flying home. One thing led to another and I made an offer on it over the phone after returning to the PNW during that summer. When I got back to FL there was another one at the dock I liked better. It had Yanmar instead of Volvo engines, was loaded with gear and a owners custom interior setup. Although I had a deposit on the first one, I ended up buying the other one. My only mistake was the Yanmar engines though.

[robert sailor]

There are tons of boats for sale, many of them in less than stellar condition. There a very few really well outfitted, well maintained with great reputations and these boats if priced right always sell and usually quickly. If your on the search and the boat of your dreams shows up and it checks out really well forget about 50% or 30% off the price because that's a pipe dream, you won't be buying that boat. It's easy to buy dogs for half price but if you only know a little about how far ahead you'll be financially by buying a high quality, well looked after boat you will come out so far ahead it's not worth discussing.

[Caribbeachbum]

Well, the market price for a boat is that price which will fetch only one able and willing buyer in a given span of time. And that span of time is how long you think must go by before you, somewhat arbitrarily, say the market has changed.

For me, that's seasonally. So the market price for a boat is that price I believe I could sell it for within three months.

Some sellers mark their boat to market, and those boat sell very quickly.

Others set a price they want to get and then wait and hope for the market to change. That is, they wait (and hope) for an able and willing buyer at their price to enter the market. This is how most boats are priced, and then it becomes a waiting game, dropping the price over and over until a buyer appears. The main reason for this is that most sellers haven't been boat shopping for years (they have a boat) and so they really know nothing at all about the market. But they very much have an emotional attachment to how much they believe theirs ought to be worth.

So to continue my long answer to your question, the rule of thumb you seek is highly dependent on how far away from the market price the asking price is.

Look the boat over carefully, especially the common and expensive repairs - sails, rigging, engine and drivetrain, hull, deck, and tankange. And then cipher out what you think you could get for it if you had to sell it within three months. That's what you offer.

Or not. Everything I say might be wrong.



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[Dave22q]

Originally Posted by tms

I've made a few offers at 50-60% to see if anyone would bite. I almost bought a 38' Sabre a few years ago that a doctor was selling at an amazing price. I am kind of hoping to find another such motivated seller.

I usually get either no response or a pithy comment. I am surprised the owners don't make a counter-offer at the least. I think some sellers expect way too much. If I get serious about a boat, I obviously want the best deal I can get, but don't want the seller to be offended to bitterness with a low starting number.

Maybe it's just me but if I get a low ball offer I reject it without comment. I figure any discussion is not worth my time. I might miss a serious buyer but it's not worth my time to find him. 10, 20 even 30% might be worth an initial conversation.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Dave22q

Maybe it's just me but if I get a low ball offer I reject it without comment. I figure any discussion is not worth my time. I might miss a serious buyer but it's not worth my time to find him. 10, 20 even 30% might be worth an initial conversation.

That's the beauty of treating it as a business deal. It costs me nothing to throw out a low ball offer but if you mispriced your boat, it may be a long time with you paying for upkeep all the time.

I'm fine with people throwing out a low ball offer. I can always decline an offer but no offer and you don't know where you stand.

Large boats are not like used cars (standard cars not custom, antique or other rare cars). There at often extenuating circumstances leading to owners doing crazy things.
- It may have been the guys dream so he can't let it go at market price and it sits and rots for a decade while he pays thousands per year in storage.
- It may be an ex-wife who just wants the thing gone so the first offer no matter how low gets the boat just to tick off the ex-husband.
- It may be an old guy who's loaded but his kids are telling him he can't handle it anymore so he puts a for sale sign on it to appease them.

Be polite but don't hesitate to make low offers. You can always increase the offer but it's a lot harder to lower it.

[ArmyDaveNY]

Here in the northeast (of the U.S), prices drop significantly at the end of the fall and the end of the spring. The reason is that if they don't sell it by the beginning of the next season, they have to pay another season of dock or storage fees. That can assist your negotiations quite a bit.

[barnakiel]

It think we have discussed this before.

Some nationals haggle and set prices allowing for haggling (e.g. US). Others set prices closer to the actual deals (e.g. boats in Holland or Sweden).

We bought our boat in Sweden and I was trying to haggle. I learned something new about culture gaps ;-). But the boat prove a great deal even at that 'high' price - everything onboard worked as advertised and we sailed away after simply splashing some new antifouling on her.

If the boat is not truly bristol resistor, I would pitch lower than the asking. How much lower depends only on what condition the boat is in and how much you want it.

I would pitch way below most askings for any modern plastick boat in the Med or West Indies, too.

b.

[DsquareD]

Originally Posted by Dave22q

Maybe it's just me but if I get a low ball offer I reject it without comment. I figure any discussion is not worth my time. I might miss a serious buyer but it's not worth my time to find him. 10, 20 even 30% might be worth an initial conversation.

It doesn't work with everyone, obviously. That's why you have to be prepared to walk or pay when making low ball offers. If one doesn't work, move on.

I've bought cars and houses this way. Cash is king and when making low ball offers it helps to be ready with cash to close quickly.

I've also been on the other end of the stick. I've had properties on the market for longer than I thought they would be and would have welcomed any offer. If someone would have offered half on my last property (an office building) I would have tried to get them to 75% and been happy with only a 25% loss.

Cars, boats, campers, houses, doesn't matter. I've tried making deals with people who couldn't separate their feelings from what they were selling and were "offended" by my offer. No biggie, I just take my money and move on.

Then again, there are the times when a fantastic deal presents itself and dickering could put you in a position to be passed over by another buyer. Like a previous poster said, you have to do your homework and know the market.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Dave22q

Maybe it's just me but if I get a low ball offer I reject it without comment. I figure any discussion is not worth my time. I might miss a serious buyer but it's not worth my time to find him. 10, 20 even 30% might be worth an initial conversation.

I know a lot of sellers have this attitude, but I just don't understand it. How much effort does it take to send an email that says thanks for your offer and you were looking for a starting offer that was closer to the offering price. All done in 3 minutes and it leaves the potential buyer with a way to try again at a higher price. Just ignoring them is more likely to have them assume this guy doesn't want to negotiate on anything and just go on to another boat.