How Sellers Turn Off Buyers

Yachtjockey

If not Yachtcouncil for "Sold" data, who then? For quite some time P&MY magazine has been showing these monthly figures. I'll watch for letters to editor complaining data is questionable.

But no matter whose data, it would appear there is less than 10% overall sales vs listing per year in the $500K to $1M segment.

Sold boats

I am sorry, living in Fort Lauderdale and looking at a web site forum based in American I made the mistake of answering and not taking into account what the markets are like in Montreal or Europe.

let me try again,

Here in South Florida the market has been improving constantly over the last year and this is born out by asking if an experienced surveyor is available on short notice. If those guys are busy that tells you the number of boats being sold on a month by month basis is good or bad. A broker may sell 2 or 3 a month if they are real busy but a good survey will be doing 5 per week.

As for getting an experienced surveyor for your third or fourth boat, get one on your side before you make an offer on your very first boat.

As for commissions you may find those are very negotiable even for that price range you are talking about and depending on how much the broker has spent on advertising the vessel their profit may not be as much as you think.

Any way comparing with real estate was a mistake on my behalf as I do not see many foreign flagged macmansions with tonnage & safety inspections requiring W5's

Buyer's broker?

I've never used a buyer's broker on a boat deal, but have on all major real estate deals I've been involved in. Overall, I've felt they've earned their commission, and in many ways been more professional than selling brokers (could just be from my "buyer's" perspective).

Yachtworld and the like certainly make shopping for a boat a lot easier, and seeing things in person helps filter out the misrepresented stuff. I also think that many of the folks on this site are either professional mariners, or well above the weekend warrior level of knowledge about yachts (even though we all agree an independent survey is always a must).

So... my question is what folks have experienced in using a buyer's broker, the good, bad, and ugly!

Chuck

Based on Soldboats.com that only brokers can access I am showing 58 boats sold in January between 500,000-1,000,000.

Take away those price parameters and you get this number: 2,306 boats sold in January alone.

Now lets look at January 2012 to Current in the 500,000 to 1 Mil: 269 boats sold

Take away that price range and you get this: 11,859 boats sold from Jan 1st to Current.

I would think that the market seems very promising, I myself have had the best spring selling season I have ever had in 8 years. I feel January will always have low selling numbers, half the boating community is frozen!

Little hard to hold a sea trial when all of the boats are out of the water.

RB480 that is good news. As pointed out by others, it would seem Yachtcouncil is less than reliable data for boats sold.

Regarding buyer's brokers - in the internet plethora of data age, who needs them. Excepting the time challenged or newbie buyer who may need some help.

On very expensive or unlisted vessels that never get advertised, word of mouth often starts with a buyer's broker or a Captain asking current owners if they want to sell.

If the commissions are not in the normal commission range, buyer's broker's won't show the boat if they're from another brokerage house.

Going straight to the selling broker can "sometimes" make a deal happen. If the buyer is a little light on the price, and the seller won't budge on his price, yet it's fairly close, since the house is making a 100% commision instead of 40% selling commission, I've seen in a dozen instances where the house has eaten a 2-4 percent of their 10% commission to make the deal happen.

Keep in mind if you have a 10% commission the buyer's brokerage house is entitled to 6% and the selling brokerage house is entitled to 4%, then it is split between house and salesman(woman).

Commissions

That may be the case in smaller brokerages but alot of the bigger houses are 50/50 between themselves and in some cases they are 60/40 in their favor even if they are the listing broker only and are dealing with the smaller guys.

I wont work any co-brokerage deal unless it is a 50/50 split. Anybody asking for anything more is dreaming. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but its not happening to me!