Lousy Broker

[leveramikes]

I have been pursuing a sailboat for 1 month now. I contacted the broker 3 times before he answered me. I asked for a video walkthrough 3 weeks ago and just received one. Asked for a few specific pictures received nothing back. Asked a few important (in my mind) questions never got answers back. I have yet to speak to him by phone only by text. So I set up a telephone call for yesterday and I tried several times to connect but to no avail. I'm serious about purchasing this boat. Before travelling a long distance I want to make sure the boat is in the condition I require. QUESTION: Is it too late to hire a buyers broker and work with him?

[Snore]

Originally Posted by leveramikes

I have been pursuing a sailboat for 1 month now. I contacted the broker 3 times before he answered me. I asked for a video walkthrough 3 weeks ago and just received one. Asked for a few specific pictures received nothing back. Asked a few important (in my mind) questions never got answers back. I have yet to speak to him by phone only by text. So I set up a telephone call for yesterday and I tried several times to connect but to no avail. I'm serious about purchasing this boat. Before travelling a long distance I want to make sure the boat is in the condition I require. QUESTION: Is it too late to hire a buyers broker and work with him?

IMHO you have “fallen in love” with the boat you are looking at. If the broker is that unresponsive when you are looking - imagine how the actual purchase is going to go?

Time to walk away. If the boat is “such a deal” perhaps it has some glaring defects.

[Tortuga's Lie]

I would contact a buyers broker as they may have personal insights on the selling broker and/or the boat itself if they are local to the area. As a professional courtesy, the selling broker should communicate with your broker, and if not, then there is something amiss. You have nothing to lose about contacting a buyers broker.

[Fishspearit]

The broker may not believe you are serious. From my experience working as a broker for years some sailboats have a way of attracting dreamers that ask lots of questions, want lots of specific photos, and then end up offering half the asking price. Broker's will usually consider buyers from a long distance away to be dreamers. Realize the broker is working for free until you sign a purchase and sale agreement, and even then they may still be working for free. The first real sign to the broker that you are serious is when you actually want to step on the boat and see it yourself, or you hire a surveyor to do a 'pre-inspection report' to determine if it's worth your time to come see the boat. Now I know some idealistic person will want to reply to my comment with "the broker should treat every customer as if they are serious" but that's really hard to do once you've had your time wasted over and over and over. Brokers have to be selective about how much free time they're giving away, and they're always going to prioritize the person in their face over the person sending emails. If the boat is hundreds of thousands of dollars then things are a little different. Also, there is no way to know if the boat is in the condition you want it to be in until you see it. Don't trust the broker to tell you what condition it's in, not because they are dishonest but because they may have a different perspective and different sense of 'good condition' from you. If you're dragging your feet over whether or not to go see the boat, that's a signal to the broker that you may not be serious. If it's not worth going to see how is it going to be worth hauling out, sea trial and surveying the boat before you make your decision on whether or not to buy?

Going to a buyers broker at this point is a slap in the face to the selling broker, but hey, brokers get abused and their time wasted all the time like I said, they're used to it.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by leveramikes

QUESTION: Is it too late to hire a buyers broker and work with him?

no, and you don't really hire one as he gets paid as part of the sale and that commission is built into the price already since the seller has a listing broker

[Bobby Lex]

Originally Posted by leveramikes

QUESTION: Is it too late to hire a buyers broker and work with him?

Not too late, and as Sailorboy points out, in a typical boat listing situation the selling broker splits his commission with the buyer's broker, so it costs you nothing to have representation. (CAVEAT: Some selling brokers do not co-broke, in which case you would be responsible for your broker's fee).

When I was boat-shopping last year I ran into a similar situation as you -- the selling broker was only sporadically communicative. Even after I told him that I was a serious cash buyer, it typically took 3 or 4 emails from me to get him to answer a simple question.

I finally hired a buyer's broker and voila the seller's broker became easy to get ahold of, albeit with my broker as the conduit each time I needed a question answered or a photo or whatever.

It makes little sense to me that a seller's broker would act that way, because if he forces a buyer to hire a broker, then he has to split his commission instead of keeping 100% of it, but that's how some folks do business I guess.

It's still a seller's market out there as far as I can tell. So if you are serious about that boat, (rather than saying "screw you, you just lost a sale" and moving on), I'd research good buyer's brokers and pick one to represent me on this possible boat purchase.

Bob

[pcmm]

One thing you have to keep in mind is its a serious sellers market right now (craziest used boat market in decades) Brokers don't have to "work" to sell boats right now and honestly if a broker has to choose between a person asking a lot of questions (work) and someone (or multiple someone's) that are ready to sign immediately, guess what they are going to do!

[Tetepare]

My local broker doesn't even get stuff on YW. He makes a call, and boat sells, often sight unseen. He doesn't need to answer emails, nor does he have time to. He has a line of eager buyers. Anything that does get to the website/ YW is way overpriced or junk.

He USED to be very responsive to inquiries, he USED to make nice videos. Right now, he doesn't have to entertain inquiries or tire kickers. It's so bad (or, for the broker, good) right now that while our area used to be a used boat market, he's now selling NEW boats because he has no used inventory, and buyers want something NOW. As for the (low) inventory on their website/ YW, those boats are a waste of time, and get whatever leftover time he might have.

[MicHughV]

Being a broker is a tough business. Put yourself in the broker's position for a minute. Some dude calls you and starts pestering you to provide a wide swathe of information for a particular boat. Having never met each other, you don't know if the potential buyer is serious or just tire kicking and wasting your time.

Flipping back to you.....trying to buy a boat sight unseen, is iffy to my mind. Go see the boat first and then ask the questions. Up to this point, your modi operandi brands you as a newbie.

There is more to just "condition" to attract one to buying a boat. Do yourself a big favor and make plans to go see the boat first.

[Bobby Lex]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

Do yourself a big favor and make plans to go see the boat first.

How do you arrange to do that when the seller's broker won't respond to your emails or return your phone calls?

Bob

[goboatingnow]

Certainly in my experience in Europe if you hire a buyers broker you need to do it before you engage with a selling broker. Otherwise you will pay the buyers brokers fees.

Some selling brokers simply are not interested in splitting the commission and will not accept a buyers brokers commission again you’ll pay the buyers broker.

Personally for boats under 400K I’ve never seen the point

Ps Re un responsive brokers. This is nothing new ,sone brokers are good others are terrible. I’d agree that asking lots of questions , especially where the broker may not know the answer directly may result in no answer or a very delayed one.

The fact is from the selling sheet you should be able to judge whether to visit.

Personally I suck up the travel cost and burn some air miles and shoe leather , I’m my own best judge

[Rucksta]

With the market so hot what's wrong with the boat that it hasn't sold already?

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

no, and you don't really hire one as he gets paid as part of the sale and that commission is built into the price already since the seller has a listing broker

Let's assume this is the case, would you expect the Buyer's Broker to go look at the boat and make a report back to you without a cost assuming you didn't proceed with the sale?

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Rucksta

With the market so hot what's wrong with the boat that it hasn't sold already?

Think about it , if that was the case nobody be able to buy anything, basically youre suggesting excluding anything that hasn’t sold !!!, it’s the schrodinger cat conundrum of boat buying

[Tortuga's Lie]

If I were a boat owner selling my boat and the broker didn't respond to inquiries, I think I'd a bit pissed off.