buying in Florida

[Happ]

Originally Posted by dhenline

thank you

I guess I just find it "strange". When I buy a house, we use a third party escrow. when I buy and sell a Plane, we use third party escrow.
Now when I buy a boat, No third party company?
I always loved the third party aspect. No dog in the fight. Just this is what the contract says etc.
the escrow third companies also would hold and transfer title etc. but OK.

States all operate differently. There are no third party escrows in NC where I live now. Had escrow companies in Illinois and California. That’s the way it operates in Florida. If you are worried about the money disappearing it goes into an escrow account controlled by the Broker of the local office of the brokerage company. A salesperson cannot take or release the money. Only the Broker can. Keep in mind there are “Brokers” who hold different Licenses then “Salespeople.”

[DaveKurtz]

I did exactly what you are considering back in 2019 except I flew down from Michigan. The reality is that when you step on a boat to look it over for the first time, it is somewhat overwhelming. A sea trial is, frankly, overkill and just adds to the mountains of information you are already trying to process. I flew down with five boats lined up to inspect. I ultimately bought the first boat I looked at. You need to walk away from that first visit and process information or at least I did. Only one of the other four boats came close to what I wanted, but in the end, I called and made an offer 48 hours after looking at it. When I spoke to the broker, he said there were 8 others lined up behind me if my offer fell through. I was somewhat cynical, but I later ran across two of the people waiting in line for the boat. It is still somewhat a seller’s market today, although the economy is going to really crash later this year. So you have a similar situation. If you think this is the boat you want, go for it.

[openear]

[QUOTE=
4) the boat is a Knysna 500SE. Any one with any personal information on this boat?]
I have toured the Knysna factory and was impressed with the operation. Vacuum bagging, carpentry, all put the boat on my wishlist.

[timb7734]

Sounds like you are too premature even though you have found a boat that checks the boxes, it is still a sellers' market; you would be better off waiting for the coming recession, skipping months of carrying costs, and getting into a buyer's market close to when you actually retire. Big pain to have a boat all the way across the country and little time to use it.

[ItDepends]

Originally Posted by Rumrace

Paying the 10% would be a deal breaker for me. I don’t care if it’s the norm or a regional issue. If they are killing sales to legit customers to prevent the occasional joy ride they are low on people skills. It’s how the hurricane damage boats in the fleets are sold. Can’t see the boat until you have a non refundable deposit of 10%.
If I’m flying a couple thousand miles I’m a serious buying. Someone wants to put a hook in my decision process I’m walking.
As far taxes go FLA tries crap on Canadian boat purchases.
Good luck. I find a boat elsewhere

You have that quite wrong! Of course you can SEE the boat without a deposit. You can inspect it all you want. You can crawl over it, and see into every nook and corner.

What you can not do is take it out for a seatrial. If you are going to insist on a seatrial without making a formal offer on a boat you are NOT going to be buying any boats in any place I have heard of unless you find some sucker of a private seller who knows as little about the process as you apparently do.

That's exactly how the process works. You inspect and evaluate. When you find the boat you want to buy, you make an offer that is contingent on a successful seatrial, and YOU get to decide what successful is. If you reject the boat based on the seatrail, you get your money back. You are taking no financial risk.

You can sit on your high horse full of indignation about how unfair it is all you want, but the answer will still be "NO."

[merrydolphin]

I highly recommend that you have several boat to look at when you come. There are a lot of boats for sale in S FL. This is also very important for negotiation purposes. It the broker knows that you are coming all the way from Seattle to look at this boat. They will have you in a corner. On the other hand, if they are or think that you didn’t come all this way just for this boat, they know that they are competing with other boats. Now you have some negotiating power!

[bullislandken]

I am just getting over, I hope, Covid now, too. We did contact tracing and we cannot figure out how we got it (my wife, too).

A factor may be Only 57% vaccination rate here in Montana. We will never reach herd immunity so the pandemic will live on……

Keep “trying” to be safe!

[bullislandken]

Another way to avoid Florida sales tax is to hire FL workers to work on your boat or hire a FL broker to list your boat. No tax required if you are keeping some folks employed.

I hear they look pretty closely. Even walk the docks. I never had anyone inquire about my boat. But I was aware of the law or rules and I was able to avoid the sales tax for a couple years while we worked on the boat and then listed it with an incompetent brokerage. When it came time to sell the boat, I sold it myself with little effort. I am really bad at selecting brokers!

[lo2jones]

One of the things Florida boat brokers, surveyors are known for is overvaluing a boat so the buyer thinks they are getting great deal. Everyone I know in the business has the same opinion. Florida boat brokerages are a shark tank.
A customer I was working with boat a 42 ft Catalina that was owned by a broker, who claimed to be using the boat often. As it turned out, the fuel tank had serious sludge that was obviously very old. It was nasty enough to have been there for a long while. He claimed to be ignorant of it. How did the surveyor miss this? And why?

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Rumrace

Paying the 10% would be a deal breaker for me. I don’t care if it’s the norm or a regional issue. If they are killing sales to legit customers to prevent the occasional joy ride they are low on people skills. It’s how the hurricane damage boats in the fleets are sold. Can’t see the boat until you have a non refundable deposit of 10%.
If I’m flying a couple thousand miles I’m a serious buying. Someone wants to put a hook in my decision process I’m walking.
As far taxes go FLA tries crap on Canadian boat purchases.
Good luck. I find a boat elsewhere

Originally Posted by ItDepends

You have that quite wrong! Of course you can SEE the boat without a deposit. You can inspect it all you want. You can crawl over it, and see into every nook and corner.

What you can not do is take it out for a seatrial. If you are going to insist on a seatrial without making a formal offer on a boat you are NOT going to be buying any boats in any place I have heard of unless you find some sucker of a private seller who knows as little about the process as you apparently do.

That's exactly how the process works. You inspect and evaluate. When you find the boat you want to buy, you make an offer that is contingent on a successful seatrial, and YOU get to decide what successful is. If you reject the boat based on the seatrail, you get your money back. You are taking no financial risk.
You can sit on your high horse full of indignation about how unfair it is all you want, but the answer will still be "NO."

Something tells me the aforementioned member has no real experience buying a boat from a brokerage and based on their many other posts in 3 months, most of which seem to be a stab in the dark towards facts, they might be winging it.

[lo2jones]

The 10% is paid by the seller, and you can stipulate that the “Sea Trial” comes first, but it may mean that surveyor doesn’t get to come along and see the boat in full operation. If you don’t like the boat after sea trial, you get a full refund…provided it did not require a captain to be on board.
Try running an add is YachtWorld or any widely distributed publication and you’ll get the tip of the iceberg of the costs to run a brokerage. In most states the broker pays a bond ~ $25k to get started, so the state and buyers etc have some clout. I know someone who sold a boat by owner for ~ $600k! Can you imagine doing a deal like that without having your $60k deposit in a real escrow account?

[GLS]

I live in Seattle and bought a boat in FLL in July 20.We left FLL in Dec and just finished our second season in the Caribbean. I can offer my experiences with buying, brokers, storage, insurance, taxes, etc. Highly recommend Walt the Catamaran Guy as a buyers agent. PM for a chat.

[Baby tug]

Originally Posted by lo2jones

The 10% is paid by the seller, and you can stipulate that the “Sea Trial” comes first, but it may mean that surveyor doesn’t get to come along and see the boat in full operation. If you don’t like the boat after sea trial, you get a full refund…provided it did not require a captain to be on board.
Try running an add is YachtWorld or any widely distributed publication and you’ll get the tip of the iceberg of the costs to run a brokerage. In most states the broker pays a bond ~ $25k to get started, so the state and buyers etc have some clout. I know someone who sold a boat by owner for ~ $600k! Can you imagine doing a deal like that without having your $60k deposit in a real escrow account?

It would be very easy for me to imagine how to sell a $600,000 boat without a broker , what would be hard for me to imagine is paying a broker $60,000 in commissions, that would never happen

[bullislandken]

I put my cat up for sale in May last year. The brokers only brought two buyers to the vessel,that were shopping with buyer-brokers so really they never brought ANY buyers. I got out of the contract in October since they were negligent in providing me the complete contract at the time we signed. I listed it on CL, sailboatlistings, and another site and in a month I sold my catamaran myself for 300k. We closed in January and then I moved their new cat to Georgetown, Exumas with and for them.

It went quite well. We went through the boat thoroughly on their second visit. They had been working with a buyer’s broker and had never had a visit or inspection like we did on mine. Once they saw my vessel, they stopped using the broker and then after a couple more visits to for sale by owner, they came back (running) back to me and said they wanted my boat. We discussed the normal accepted procedure and we did not have a written contract but we shook hands…..I said my handshake is my word and they did, too. Everyone did their due diligence, we got hauled and surveyed (lousy surveyor), and we closed hiring a private gal (like 100 bucks) that drove TO US and handled all the paperwork except the documentation, which is easy to do by yourself (slow but save yourself 300 bucks). We did the deal basically with handshakes and eye contact……and now we are friends!

I don’t recommend that to others without knowing the situation. We assessed the buyers, they assessed the sellers (me and my wife), and everyone was comfy for the whole transaction. Your results may vary!

[smj]

Originally Posted by bullislandken

I put my cat up for sale in May last year. The brokers only brought two buyers to the vessel,that were shopping with buyer-brokers so really they never brought ANY buyers. I got out of the contract in October since they were negligent in providing me the complete contract at the time we signed. I listed it on CL, sailboatlistings, and another site and in a month I sold my catamaran myself for 300k. We closed in January and then I moved their new cat to Georgetown, Exumas with and for them.

It went quite well. We went through the boat thoroughly on their second visit. They had been working with a buyer’s broker and had never had a visit or inspection like we did on mine. Once they saw my vessel, they stopped using the broker and then after a couple more visits to for sale by owner, they came back (running) back to me and said they wanted my boat. We discussed the normal accepted procedure and we did not have a written contract but we shook hands…..I said my handshake is my word and they did, too. Everyone did their due diligence, we got hauled and surveyed (lousy surveyor), and we closed hiring a private gal (like 100 bucks) that drove TO US and handled all the paperwork except the documentation, which is easy to do by yourself (slow but save yourself 300 bucks). We did the deal basically with handshakes and eye contact……and now we are friends!

I don’t recommend that to others without knowing the situation. We assessed the buyers, they assessed the sellers (me and my wife), and everyone was comfy for the whole transaction. Your results may vary!

Same way we have sold all our catamarans. And the advantage for the buyers is they have the sellers contact info if there are any questions, a true plus for the buyers.