Bear warning signage went up around town, we already knew. Dexter has a little more confidence going outside, except when it's really dark. What a fierce pit bull we have.
We are also starting to throw out some offers on boats, and see what kind of response we receive. Sure they may seem low, but what a holiday gift to be able to get rid of the boat that you have been trying to sell for two years and have spent 20k on during that time, and yet it has still gone down in value. Here's hoping. Oh we are also hoping that someone wants to buy our condo soon, the market dropped off here during September and October, but it appears to be picking up at least from the point of view at the bank.
A side note on boat ownership including the entrance and exit of this foray. There is a saying that the two best days in a boat owner's life are the day you buy the boat and the day you sell it. Those same people probably represent the 50% of the population that gets divorced.
The day you buy a boat is a very intimidating day, all of a sudden you have a great responsibility and endless work. The day you sell it, you leave something in which you grew with. You need to firmly make the decision that it is time to sell or buy, and live with that. None of the emotions of the purchase can compare with the first time you put the rail in the water, or a nice sunny day with 15knots on a beam reach. However, some people take buying and selling to heart. From our previous experience you really need to be rational, and very few are. My suggestion if you are an emotional buyer or seller is to get a broker otherwise you may have a heart attack from the stress. We had a gentleman call us stupid cause after our initial query into his boat he gave off the impression that he was not very interested in selling his boat, he wanted to get his money back that he "invested" into it, and that he was not going to budge on his price. I just sent an email back saying hey buddy, it appears any offer I give you will be taken as an insult, good luck. He never did ask what our offer was, and he may not ever get that price for his boat.
Some tips:
To Sellers:
-No emotion, if you want to sell a boat you have to take what the market will give you
-boats are not an investment, you will lose money, and it is worth it
-at least get offers, and start bargaining, the first one will always be the best one in the end
-Price your boat just under the rest of your type in the category you will get more interested people looking at it and traffic is key.
-if you price to high no one will look, if you price to low, you need to have more than one bidder to get the best price, and that doesn't happen often with boats
-all that extra work you put in will make people want to buy it, but the price will not go up
-understand your carrying costs (moorage and upkeep) and average days on the market you will have to drop by this much immediately upon negotiation
-you will probably feel screwed over by the buyer, but now you can move on with your life, and do move on
To Buyers
-When buying offer low, you can always go down, but it requires sound reasoning
-There are tons of boats out there, you should be aware and so should the seller, if they don't want an offer they're not really into selling their boat.
-if the seller is insulted by your offer, leave. They will be twice as bitter when you return in 6 months with a fatter wallet and offer them less which they will probably have to take or their wife will divorce them
-Try to talk to a reasonable party, if it's a couple get to the one who wants to sell
-offer what you feel it's worth and justify the price with financial reasoning $$$$$ (start with the survey estimated market value and go down by costs, just use a few so you have more for counter offers)
-if the seller won't provide you with their survey and answer all you questions sincerely, just walk away
And the biggest negotiating power that makes it a buyers market all the time, boats cost money to keep. As a buyer you can always walk away until ownership changes; as a seller you can't walk away.
A side note on boat ownership including the entrance and exit of this foray. There is a saying that the two best days in a boat owner's life are the day you buy the boat and the day you sell it. Those same people probably represent the 50% of the population that gets divorced.
The day you buy a boat is a very intimidating day, all of a sudden you have a great responsibility and endless work. The day you sell it, you leave something in which you grew with. You need to firmly make the decision that it is time to sell or buy, and live with that. None of the emotions of the purchase can compare with the first time you put the rail in the water, or a nice sunny day with 15knots on a beam reach. However, some people take buying and selling to heart. From our previous experience you really need to be rational, and very few are. My suggestion if you are an emotional buyer or seller is to get a broker otherwise you may have a heart attack from the stress. We had a gentleman call us stupid cause after our initial query into his boat he gave off the impression that he was not very interested in selling his boat, he wanted to get his money back that he "invested" into it, and that he was not going to budge on his price. I just sent an email back saying hey buddy, it appears any offer I give you will be taken as an insult, good luck. He never did ask what our offer was, and he may not ever get that price for his boat.
Some tips:
To Sellers:
-No emotion, if you want to sell a boat you have to take what the market will give you
-boats are not an investment, you will lose money, and it is worth it
-at least get offers, and start bargaining, the first one will always be the best one in the end
-Price your boat just under the rest of your type in the category you will get more interested people looking at it and traffic is key.
-if you price to high no one will look, if you price to low, you need to have more than one bidder to get the best price, and that doesn't happen often with boats
-all that extra work you put in will make people want to buy it, but the price will not go up
-understand your carrying costs (moorage and upkeep) and average days on the market you will have to drop by this much immediately upon negotiation
-you will probably feel screwed over by the buyer, but now you can move on with your life, and do move on
To Buyers
-When buying offer low, you can always go down, but it requires sound reasoning
-There are tons of boats out there, you should be aware and so should the seller, if they don't want an offer they're not really into selling their boat.
-if the seller is insulted by your offer, leave. They will be twice as bitter when you return in 6 months with a fatter wallet and offer them less which they will probably have to take or their wife will divorce them
-Try to talk to a reasonable party, if it's a couple get to the one who wants to sell
-offer what you feel it's worth and justify the price with financial reasoning $$$$$ (start with the survey estimated market value and go down by costs, just use a few so you have more for counter offers)
-if the seller won't provide you with their survey and answer all you questions sincerely, just walk away
And the biggest negotiating power that makes it a buyers market all the time, boats cost money to keep. As a buyer you can always walk away until ownership changes; as a seller you can't walk away.
We are trying to think of ideas for our blog, let us know if you know of anything neat.
No comments:
Post a Comment