Tips For Selling Your Boat: How To Get a Quick Sale and Good Price

Here are some tips to help you sell your boat a quickly as possible for the most money. The majority of people seem to use brokers these days but these tips are also useful if you are selling the boat yourself.

Find a good broker

Using a local broker is usually best as they have easy access to the boat. Most brokers have websites which show their listings and recent sales. You can monitor how many boats they are selling over a few months.

You can get valuations from several brokers and evaluate them. Use a broker that has similar boats to yours for sale. Ask around and get recommendations. It may be advantageous to list with an additional broker if your boat is popular in another area. Listing with multiple brokers should be avoided however as the brokers tend to spend more energy and advertising dollars on sole listings. Also it smacks a bit of desperation.

Advertise At A Reasonable Price

A broker will give you his opinion on the market value. You can look on the internet at similar boats. Remember how much you paid. To get people interested in your boat it must be attractively priced. If it’s perceived to be too expensive the market will ignore it. Often people who do look at an “overpriced” boat don’t make offers as it seems too much more than they are willing to pay.

Take Care With The Presentation

The better the boat looks, the more attractive it is to prospective buyers and the more likely it is to fetch a good price. Prepare your boat for sale. Clean, polish, paint and repair. If you are living on board it is preferable if you move off and remove anything that is not included in the sale from the boat.

Choose The Best Location To Sell

Make your boat accessible. Unless you have something special that is highly sought after the vast majority of people are not going to spend time and money going to look at one boat in woop woop. Take your boat to an area where there are plenty of similar boats, preferably at your brokers marina or moorings.

Provide Enough Information

The more the better. Prepare a full inventory. List all the major work that has been done on the boat. Write a brief history of the boat if appropriate. Provide registration documents, import papers etc.

Let The Broker Do Their Job

Don’t accompany the broker on inspections. They want to talk to the prospective buyers frankly about your boat and find out if they like the boat. Your presence can inhibit this. Almost all buyers will want further inspections once they have found a boat they are interested in buying. At this stage your presence will be useful as you can answer questions and show how thing work etc.

Understand The Costs Involved

Brokers charge commission which varies with the value of the boat. GST is payable on the commission. In some states you have to provide a Gas safety certificate.

Finally

It’s a numbers game. The more people look at your boat, the better your chance of selling.