boat brokers

[tzimmer]

Am I the only one who cant stand dealing with boat brokers????

[landsend]

Nooooooooooooo.....!!!

[tzimmer]

I have money in hand looking to but a $240,000 boat and they act like they're doing me a favor selling it to me!!!

[john61ct]

Not something we do by choice is it? But part of the price you pay for a boat you want.

Given how whacko some sellers seem out there it's likely an improvement at least sometimes.

But it does seem to be a rare one that actually earns their money, at least at the cheap end of the market.

Remember Doug Adams' "B Ark", a way of removing the 1/3 basically useless professions?

8-)

[Mike OReilly]

Perhaps you need to get specific tzimmer. In that end of the market brokers are usually useful and responsive … unless $250k is the low end of this particular broker’s portfolio, or perhaps they don’t believe you.

In general I think brokers are pretty useless in the lower end of the used market (where I live ). It’s simple math. A typical broker fee will be 10% of the sale price. So it’s easy to see why brokers put less into the sale of an inexpensive boat. It’s not good, but as a small business person I understand having to manage my time according to the potential income of any given project.

Unless a broker can devote adequate time to selling a boat, I wish they would avoid listing them. But unfortunately brokers have monopolized the most powerful boat selling tool, namely Yachtworld. So it’s a catch-22 for sellers.

To get on Yachtworld you have to list through a broker. But for low-end boats, brokers have little financial incentive to work very hard. So, you get frustrated potential buyers who MUST deal with a broker who can’t, or won’t, devote sufficient time to respond to all potential buyers’ queries.

When I bought boats I disliked going through a broker. The responses were hit and miss, but what was most disappointing was the level — or complete lack — of knowledge most of the brokers had about the boats I was inquiring about. I was much happier dealing directly with owner-sellers.