Distance Buying

[ebisucapt]

So I am interested in a boat for sale in UK. I am in Alaska. Do you think I am foolish to think that I could pay a boat broker ,who has no chance of commission , to go do a walk through of this boat? Mainly I want to know if the boat is being represented as it truly is before I buy the tickets to go look myself. I think we all know how deceiving pictures can be.

This boat has yet to be publicly advertised. Hence why I say no chance for a commission for the broker.
Oh the boat is in Brighton UK if anyone from there reads this and would like to do this for me.

[14murs14]

Originally Posted by ebisucapt

So I am interested in a boat for sale in UK. I am in Alaska. Do you think I am foolish to think that I could pay a boat broker ,who has no chance of commission , to go do a walk through of this boat? Mainly I want to know if the boat is being represented as it truly is before I buy the tickets to go look myself. I think we all know how deceiving pictures can be.

This boat has yet to be publicly advertised. Hence why I say no chance for a commission for the broker.
Oh the boat is in Brighton UK if anyone from there reads this and would like to do this for me.

After several trips to find boats in horrible condition that had been misrepresented I ended up hiring a surveyor on 2 occasions to do a quick 30 min to 1 hour "walk through" taking a bunch of photos and providing a very broad description of the boat's condition. It was far cheaper and faster than flying around to look at boats, once the fun of that wore off. Most are happy to do this, it's easy money for them. I ended up buying the second boat and as a bonus I got to test out the surveyor with the initial walk through so knew he would be a good hire to do the full survey.

[ebisucapt]

Yes I was thinking a surveyor might be a better choice.

[Fore and Aft]

This marine surveyor in the UK could be worth giving a call
Yacht boat marine surveyor Chichester Portsmouth Southampton, metal yacht survey
I have never met Paul Fay but have emailed him a number of times after spotting one of his yachts here in the Gold Coast Australia. He seems to know his stuff and builds a nice yacht.
Cheers

[Mr B]

I live in Australia, Bought my Catamaran in Fiji, sight unseen off the internet,
No Broker involved,
After many exchanges of emails and lots of Piccys,
I put down a deposit on the vessel with the proviso that my own appointed surveyor would have a full sea trial and haul the boat out for a full inspection before I would buy the boat,
Also the Surveyor knew I was going to sail it to Australia from Fiji,
So the boat needed to be up to the task of crossing approx 2000 Nmiles of open ocean,
I also received pictures from the surveyor and his report direct to me,
And any problems with the boat,

First time I saw it was when I stepped onto it in Fiji as the new owner,
Very happy with my purchase,
This all took many months of too and froing with emails, and verifying the owner did exist and the boat was real,

I also bought a 36 foot RV from Texas in the USA, Sight unseen off the Internet,
Same procedure,
Driven 1500 miles from Texas to California for the conversion to Australian ADR's,
Which proved it was roadworthy and driveable,
8 months later, I seen it for the first time when it was released by Customs to me here,
It came as roll on roll off cargo,

This is not for the Faint Hearted and you really must know what your about,

Shiny pictures mean nothing to me, Its whats in those pictures that I look at,
Whats that off colour in the wall mean, Roof leaking, Stains any where, What are they caused by,
How well has it been maintained, Thats very obvious in the pictures, If you look very carefully at them,

If the piccys look shonky, The boat will be worse in real time,
They only show the best piccys, Hahahahaha
If it looks like crap, Dont even think about it,

Cheers, Brian,