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How should I sell my boat?


Dave_P

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1 minute ago, matty40s said:

You hadnt seen the state of the Dog Houses paintwork either.🙂

 

Yes, at the time I said what a good job you'd done. The scratch through the sign written name, (acquired one windy day on the Trent) was repaired particularly well when I didn't think it was possible.

 

I've lost the pics. though.

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Rugby Boats vid shows it after Matty's handywork. You can see the touched in bow flashes, the painted well deck and the hull repaint which I'd forgotten about. I think the scratch through the signwriting was on the other side.??

 

 

Edited by M_JG
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4 hours ago, Dave_P said:

I'm planning to put my boat up for sale in the spring.  I'm not quite ready to sell yet as there's some jobs I want to get done first and I'm having her painted in April to make her look her best.

 

I've never sold a boat before so I'm wondering the best way to go about it.  My options:

 

1.  Take the boat to a brokerage and let them sell it.  Pros:  It might sell quickly and I don't have to do much.  Cons:  They take a cut, but I'm not sure how much?  £1000?  £5000?  Anyone know?

 

2.  Sell it myself from my current mooring (they don't have any rule against this).  Pros:  I get all the sale price.  Cons:  I do all the selling work.

 

3.  Sell it myself from my current mooring but offer to take it to wherever the buyer is.  Pros:  I might get a higher price.  I get to enjoy one last cruise.  Cons:  Not sure?

 

4.  Take her down to that London and put her up for sale there.  Pros:  Might get a higher price.  Cons:  Time taken to get there, then I have to keep going down and moving on, unless I sell very quickly.

 

What are the wise thoughts of the forum on all this?

 

Of course, if anyone reading this is looking for a tried and tested liveaboard, let me know...

 

 

I think I would rule out option 3 and 4. Not worth the hassle and will probably not get you much extra cash in any case.  

 

If you live close to your mooring or live aboard I'd be tempted to go with option 2, as boats are still selling quite well at the moment. This will probably yield the greatest take home price for your boat. 

Rugby and ABNB will get you top dollar very quickly for your boat, but you will need to take your boat to Rugby.....as @Athy says ABNB will sell from your mooring. 

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One reason we opted not to sell from the mooring was because you still have the hassle of travelling meeting prospective buyers and showing them around. We did view a couple of ABNB boats on their mooring but they were liveaboards.

 

(The other was we reckoned a 60ft boat would stand a better chance of selling further south).

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1 hour ago, M_JG said:

Rugby Boats vid shows it after Matty's handywork. You can see the touched in bow flashes, the painted well deck and the hull repaint which I'd forgotten about. I think the scratch through the signwriting was on the other side.??

 

 

Ok well Beau's paintwork is nothing like that.  It's also partially repainted last year so really does need doing.  It's a good honest boat but the first impression of it isn't great right now.

 

 

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1 hour ago, M_JG said:

Rugby Boats vid shows it after Matty's handywork. You can see the touched in bow flashes, the painted well deck and the hull repaint which I'd forgotten about. I think the scratch through the signwriting was on the other side.??

 

 

Nice boat MJM

Just now, Jon57 said:

Nice boat MJG

 

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5 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

We sold ours privately. We decided that we would walk away with more money from the sale this way.

 

It was a relatively straight forward procedure. Advertised it on a few internet forums. We had three interested parties although only one came to view the boat.

 

The hardest part was deliberating between the three offers and deciding who was best served to proceed.

 

We agreed, as the chap who bought it didn't view the boat that we would offer to come and fix any problems that he found within the first few months. He didn't find any.

 

Price the boat sensibly and it will sell quickly and easily.

 

Personally I wouldn't bother getting it repainted. Just polish what you already have. The chances of the colour scheme you choosing being exactly what the new owners want is slim to none.

I agree with you, if the paint isnt blistered with rust I would use Owlatrol gel coat restorer it brings paint up very well with less effort than polishing

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2 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Polytrol is better.

 

I've seen Polytrol yield very good results.

However on our very faded and chalked paintwork we tried it, and it failed to improve things at all.  We have very little rusting, as well - most of the boat is covered in paint - just not shiny paint.

 

I thing there is a limit as to how grotty it has become. if Polytrol is to stand a chance.

 

It sounds like Dave's boat may well be bad enough for it to have no good outcome.

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25 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

 

I've seen Polytrol yield very good results.

However on our very faded and chalked paintwork we tried it, and it failed to improve things at all.  We have very little rusting, as well - most of the boat is covered in paint - just not shiny paint.

 

I thing there is a limit as to how grotty it has become. if Polytrol is to stand a chance.

 

It sounds like Dave's boat may well be bad enough for it to have no good outcome.

The " Fog Grouse " had a liberal coating and rubbing in of baby oil to sell it. Seriously, the shine lasts a month or two, and does protect the paint for longer.

Dominic refused to market it in the condition it arrived in, so Martin asked me to try to save the sale and trip.

I had 3 days before my next booked boat move so nipped it round to the water point at Stowe Hill.

Fixed the long leaking kitchen tap, ground out the rusty gas locker and 2 coats danboline(and no Blackrose, it wasnt to military standards) ground out the front deck and primed, 2 top coats, washed the superstructure, took back rust from large scratch marks across signwriting and front decorative cants, treated and rescued with as close a match as possible paint(hence the 4 yellow, 4 beige outers of the diamonds), emptied the bilge, and engine bay channels, cleaned the pram cover windows, and lots of other bits that needed doing. 

It worked, and the boat sold, twice. It still looked passable when we came to strip it back to metal in late 2020 for a change of colour and name.

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The biggest problem we were faced with in selling was knowing what the market would be prepared to pay, in a very different market that we had bought in less then 5 years previously. Good brokers know the current market, and can factor in the individual features and condition of each boat to set a price.

 Something  very few boat owners would  have the experience to achieve. So there is a considerable risk in accepting a lesser return then a broker, even with brokerage paid.

 

There is some market segmentation, some brokers favour the especially shiney boats, some are better with historic boats, and others better to just take the boat off your hands.

 

Have a look at the their recent listings for boats you are already familiar with or a similar to your own , their listed price, and the time taken to sell.

Face to face, you can even ask them the achieved sales price. Whatever, their response will be interesting.

 

The impressions we got from visiting brokers prior to buying were still valid when we came to sell.

.

Something to factor in though if electing to sell through a broker is the need to factor in VAT broker fees to work out their cost.

5% broker fee becomes 6% inclusive of VAT.

 

The present owner of Rugby Boats sold our well presented boat quickly, at very close to it's listed price. A price way beyond our expectation, in the then rapidly rising market.

And we feel our time spent cleaning, spot painting, polishing, and getting the manuals etc up to date was well worth our while. 

Just things like comprehensive handover list detailing where things are and where information can be found, like refer to manufacturers manual onboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by DandV
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18 hours ago, Dave_P said:

 

3.  Sell it myself from my current mooring but offer to take it to wherever the buyer is.  Pros:  I might get a higher price.  I get to enjoy one last cruise.  Cons:  Not sure?

 

4.  Take her down to that London and put her up for sale there.  Pros:  Might get a higher price.  Cons:  Time taken to get there, then I have to keep going down and moving on, unless I sell very quickly.

 

If you have time to sell it yourself the transferable mooring should command a higher price and might swing it for some first time buyers.

 

Surely you weren't thinking that leaving it unoccupied for weeks on end on the towpath in/around London is a serious option? Aren't you concerned about it being broken into & vandalised? The only sensible way to sell it near London would be to arrange to put it on brokerage. I still think selling it on your mooring would get you a better price whether that's selling it yourself or through a broker.

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5 hours ago, roland elsdon said:

Baby oil the paint work. 

polish the brasses
Paraffin rebuild the engine

clean the bilges

remove the fenders

evict the dog

real coffee aroma in the galley

 

coat of downpipe bitumen on the hold

 

Value increase 5000

time 4 hrs.

 

 

Only conduct viewings on warm sunny afternoons. 

 

Value increase: A further £5k. 

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1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

Only conduct viewings on warm sunny afternoons. 

 

Value increase: A further £5k. 

On the waterpoint in maida vale

$10000 extra.

1 hour ago, peterboat said:

I will try it, why is it better?

Do not under any circumstances put on matt or roof paints like raddle.

Made big mistake of putting on raddle grey on cabin sides this year.

Result will be earliest opportunity repaint in spring.

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16 hours ago, peterboat said:

I agree with you, if the paint isnt blistered with rust I would use Owlatrol gel coat restorer it brings paint up very well with less effort than polishing

The paint is FAR worse than just blistered with rust.  Also as said earlier, it's part repainted,  but it's also been touched up over the years with various non-matching paints. 

 

If it was just blistered with rust, I'd just polish it, definitely.

14 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

 

 

 

It sounds like Dave's boat may well be bad enough for it to have no good outcome.

I think so too.  Like said earlier, it's a sound boat.  Reliable, well equipped, in good nick inside etc.  But the first impression of it is bad.  I have an experienced amateur painter who is pencilled in to paint it for me in April (I've seen their work and it's a lot better than mine).  I've got to get the angle grinder out first though to do the prep.

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5 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

If you have time to sell it yourself the transferable mooring should command a higher price and might swing it for some first time buyers.

 

Surely you weren't thinking that leaving it unoccupied for weeks on end on the towpath in/around London is a serious option? Aren't you concerned about it being broken into & vandalised? The only sensible way to sell it near London would be to arrange to put it on brokerage. I still think selling it on your mooring would get you a better price whether that's selling it yourself or through a broker.

What gave you the idea that the mooring is transferable? 

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When we were looking to buy a boat most of the brokers just gave us the keys and left us to it. Would a broker allow the seller to accompany prospective buyers when showing people around the boat? When we come to sell our boat I'd like to show them around and tell them things like what we've had done to it and a bit more about it's history than just what the paperwork says.

 

I know it would be more hassle especially if there were a few time wasters, but I'd be quite happy to do it despite that.

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35 minutes ago, Grassman said:

When we were looking to buy a boat most of the brokers just gave us the keys and left us to it. Would a broker allow the seller to accompany prospective buyers when showing people around the boat? When we come to sell our boat I'd like to show them around and tell them things like what we've had done to it and a bit more about it's history than just what the paperwork says.

 

I know it would be more hassle especially if there were a few time wasters, but I'd be quite happy to do it despite that.

 

The last thing I want when I'm looking over a boat to consider buying it is the owner or a broker at my elbow the whole time prattling away at me.

 

 

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18 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

The last thing I want when I'm looking over a boat to consider buying it is the owner or a broker at my elbow the whole time prattling away at me.

 

 

2 boats down from me Camelot is for sale, it's a big boat 76 x 16.5 I think? Rob I think is doing what you dont like, Paul from Boatshed leaves the buyers to it but up to press neither method has got a sale

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22 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

The last thing I want when I'm looking over a boat to consider buying it is the owner or a broker at my elbow the whole time prattling away at me.

 

^^^^^^^^^^ Exactly this.

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