Boatyard Sales Etiquette?

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Toothless.

National Liquidators
➥ http://www.yachtauctions.com/contact/

Or ➥ http://www.fort-lauderdale-marine-di...egories/86.php

[djmarchand]

Your approach will yield very few boats. Brokers have standing deals with the boatyard dock masters to give him a referral fee when he sends a customer their way.

You can find cheap boats on craigslist and other FSBO sites, but nice $50+K boats are almost always listed on Yachtworld, the MLS of yacht brokers. Just like houses, the FSBO market is a fraction of the Yachtworld market in that price range.

A few years ago I sold our condo in Southern California. It took more than 100 showings. Do you want to do that if you are a seller are do you list it with a real estate agent/yacht broker.

David

[boatpoker]

I do 3PA's (third party appraisals) for several large marinas in Ontario. Every year there a number of boats that are seized by marinas for non-payment of slip fees.

Sometimes they auction the boats, sometimes scrap them,sometimes they assign them to a broker and sometimes they are sold directly.

Make a list of marinas with focus on those with large storage or DYI yards and give them a call.... nothing to lose.

[DDabs]

The Harborage, great marina in St. Pete, with two brokers there, one of which is Massey. You could ask around there. Personally, I have been using Yachtworld and Sailboatlistings.com for the past few years to find boats.

[sailorboy1]

as a buyer there is little to be gained by by cutting out the broker, but lots of potential downsides

[Celestialsailor]

I'm not quite sure of what you are asking but I can tell you in Ca., that if you contact various harbors and ask..
1) What do you do with non-paying tenants.
2) If they seize the boats and auction them off, when is that and can you get on a contact list.

I have seen many "fair" boats go for very cheap.

[rw58ph]

No harm in asking. Most marines have boats that are for sale by owner and boats that moorage has not been paid. The best is to dinky around the marina to see what boats have for sale signs and or been neglected. The Everett marina has a storage are of boats seized and may end up being sold by the marina. Also contact banks and ask for their list.

If you do find a boat let us knew and we can help you. Remember a broker represent the seller so a seller is still on their own.

[Cheechako]

Just walk around the Marinas and look for boats FSBO. If they're not for sale now they usually will be soon!

[pistarckle]

Do not pass any money until you are sure that the yard has the title in hand . Seizing a boat and selling for storage can take months before title is clear .

[Kevin84]

Check boatyards as well. They will usually have at least one or two abandoned boats in the yard that they would love to get rid of.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[endoftheroad]

I bought my dream property (a farm with acreage) by knocking on the door and telling the people how much I have always admired the place and if they were ever going to sell could they please give me a holler.
People fall all over the place when you compliment their boat.
The trick is to to not be full of bs and try to point out something that you actually like about their property.
I just bought a Herreshoff 28 about 2 months ago and gave the retiring 71 year old English sailor $1,000 more than he was asking.
He thought I was nuts, maybe I am.

[lifeofreilly57]

It sometimes pays to ask around, many marinas that have storage will have owners who have stopped paying, if the boat is in good/ fair shape they will usually want to auction it. The reason being is it's the only legal way for them to get rid of it, still, putting up boats for auction is a pain for the marina owner and they will only usually do it if they feel the boat is worth it. From time to time they have also put me in touch with the owner to see if some kind of deal could be worked out, usually with the marina fees coming directly out of the sale, of course every owner of a derelict thinks their "beauty" is worth top dollar, so don't be offended and don't be afraid to offer a price that reflects it's current state, they may not accept it originally but you never know, it's always worth calling back at a later date, like at the end of the moth when they've just received another bill.
But beware, even if you get the bill of sale and title from the owner it can't be moved from the storage yard until the fees are paid, you might want to set up the transfer of funds to include the money owed to the boatyard. Don't get stuck holding the bag.
Also, if buying a boat through a private sale at least spend the money to hire a titling/documentation service, you will need to know if there are any other liens on the boat from either mortgage holders or insurance/liability claims against the owner/boat. If there are you will never get a title or documentation cleared. It took me 6 months to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed on one boat I bought at auction, the refurb work was done in half that time and could have been sold at that point if it weren't for the paperwork.
I've found a couple real bargains over the years just by asking.
If your checking out boatyards always walk to the back of the storage area, that's where the long term stored boats go, you'll look at a lot of junk before you see a diamond in the rough, just make sure it's a boat that just needs a little TLC, not a complete refit.