Latitude Scuttlebutt

A first-rate boat, priced right, with a motivated seller, always sells first. With procrastination comes a reduced inventory, and your selection may be limited to boats that can be overpriced, don’t show as well, or have more underlying concerns. Also, many buyers do not want to purchase new boats due to the huge depreciation drop once taking ownership. In many markets, new boat sales have been very soft since the recession in 2008. As a result, these new boats have not been placed into the aging fleet, as they have been in the past. It is very rare to find a high quality, used boat that is 10-15 years old, largely because it was never built. If you are looking for a pre-owned boat, it is wise to find the help you need and begin the process early. So, how do you get the best boat for you and your family?

Build your relationship with your yacht broker now. Do not wait until the spring. Begin your homework, review various boats online, and get out there to see them early. Inventory level is prime in the late fall and early winter. It may be challenging to handle the cold and the shorter days, but it will pay off in the end with the ideal boat.

Winter boat shows are a great place to meet brokers who know the local inventory. Interview them and select the broker you like best. A talented broker will not only be familiar with their own inventory, but will also have knowledge of the entire market segment of available boats. Challenge your broker to offer you several boats to consider, and scrutinize them, informing the broker of your wants, needs and requirements. If, in the end, the broker finds two or three boats that meet the mark, they have assisted you through the first step.

Don’t look at one boat at a time with every broker in the state. Make use of your own broker, and schedule a day to look at 4-6 boats. The details of each will be fresh in your mind as you go from one boat to the next. This is the most efficient use of time and resources to progress towards finding the perfect boat. But, once you find her, it is not yet over. Now, you bring in the human element of the sales process. Through your broker, make an official offer, with dates, contingencies and a deposit. Without these details, in black and white, there can never be a deal. Experienced brokers have assisted in the sale of hundreds, if not thousands, of boats through their careers. Without a doubt, good brokers make deals happen. During the fall months, time is on your side. There is a huge advantage for the buyer that can be leveraged in fall and early winter. If, due to fall or winter weather constraints, a deal cannot be finalized, you may continue to look, or wait it out and come back to her. However, the closer you get to spring, buyers come out in droves and you are now competing with other buyers who are looking at the same inventory of boats. There is nothing worse than going through the entire selection process, finding the boat you love, and discovering that she is Sale Pending!

You have agreed on a deal. The boat is out of the water and hidden behind other boats waiting to go in the water in the spring. How do you find out if she is in good condition and her systems work? Major investigation can still be made while she is out of the water by an accredited marine surveyor. All major structural components, 12V and 110V systems can be tested and turned on at this time. A detailed Decommissioned Systems Escrow Document will protect you and the seller for systems that could not be fully tested. Ask your broker for details on this document and how it has worked for years, protecting buyers and sellers in the Northeast and in cold climates.

Congratulations, the purchase of your much sought after boat is now a reality. All of the holiday presents can now be purchased for her! It makes the winter go by faster, your spring is more enjoyable, and a summer season on the water is guaranteed. It doesn’t get any better than that!

So you’ve decided to buy a boat or sell the one you have. So what’s your first step? If you’re buying, you probably start on one of the many yachting websites and start searching for boats. It can be super overwhelming, especially if you’re not sure what you’re looking for. 

Of course we are experts at helping boat buyers and sellers, but we’ll talk about that in another post.  What I want to talk about here is your first exposure to a boat that you’re looking at – the listing.

At Latitude Yacht Brokerage our basic rule of thumb is that a good listing answers almost all of your questions.  It may sound simple, but you’d be surprised at some of the listings we’ve come across over our 15+ years. Here are some examples:

-Yachts listed for $700K+ that don’t list their engine hours;

-Yachts listed, showing a location of the boat that is incorrect by hundreds of miles;

-Crappy pictures with junk in them. Like this one:

-Pictures of a bunch of strangers on board sitting in the way of stuff you’d like to look at (I wonder if they have enough lifejackets on board?)

-No specific manufacturing names/model numbers of equipment on board;

-Crappy pictures of something nobody cares about, like this:

-The Drone shot.  Cool and probably took a lot of effort, but it doesn’t really tell you much about the boat

I could list dozens, maybe even hundreds of other examples.

At Latitude, we take a very thorough approach to putting our listings together.  Once you’ve decided to list with us, we will meet you at your boat and usually spend 1-2 hours or more going through everything with you from transom to bow.  Makes/models of equipment;  what’s new or has been replaced and when/why? Have there been any issues? (might as well get that on the table now because it’ll come up at survey).  Service history, engine oil test results, engine hours, generator hours, anything that will tell the story of your boat. 

And believe me, all used boats have a story!

Next we’ll do a photo walk-through, making sure the pictures are well-framed, not cutting the tops of things off, and clear with good lighting.  If the lighting isn’t good we’ll come back another day.  We will also do a video walk-through as well.

Once we get the listing finalized, it goes up on our site as well as all the sites (and in many cases more) than any other broker nationwide lists on. 

So as a seller, when you are trying to choose a broker, make sure you look at some of their other listings.  Do they answer more questions than they ask?  And if you’re a buyer, look at our listings as well.  If we find a boat that you like but the listing is incomplete, you can be sure we’ll ask all the right questions before you have to spend time looking at her.