How do you value a boat?

[Cha5]

Recently bought a 65 footer for £32k after looking at many boats priced from £90k+ to £15k. The £90k+ boats were all stunning & the $15k boats were all obviously in need of some serious attention. But there were many boats priced inbetween that I couldn't tell the difference to justify the price. So how does one arrive at a valuation ???

[BoatingLifeUpNorth2]

Age, builder, Layout, specification, condition, current market demand. Like you value most things, without going into a long list of specifics like builder, overplated, engine, electrical systems, solar.

 Location plays a part also, London location a bit more added to price.
 What year and builder was your boat?

Edited July 20 by BoatingLifeUpNorth2

[Jen-in-Wellies]

You paid £32k for it, so that was how much it was worth at the time. If someone else had bought it for £30k, or £34k, then that would have been the value. Boats are not like cars, where a model, year and history will let you accurately gauge what it will sell for. They are not even like houses, with their greater variability. A tiny market and lots of variability between boats. Supply and demand. How much does someone want that boat and how much are they prepared to part with? How keen is the current owner to sell and what will they accept? 

[Cha5]

I hear all of that. But how can basically the same 'thing' suffer a price variation sometimes as much as £50k+? OK, steel rusts, but I'm happy that my 20yr old boats hull is as good as the day it was made. I care not for superstar builders, it is aesthetically pleasing & has a layout I'm happy with. How can boats in the same or even worse condition be valued at £1000's more ???

[MrsM]

7 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

I hear all of that. But how can basically the same 'thing' suffer a price variation sometimes as much as £50k+? OK, steel rusts, but I'm happy that my 20yr old boats hull is as good as the day it was made. I care not for superstar builders, it is aesthetically pleasing & has a layout I'm happy with. How can boats in the same or even worse condition be valued at £1000's more ???

Because they are not basically the same thing, any more than an Aston Martin is the same thing as a Lada. 

[Bee]

Hard to value boats. Cars are easy, All cars of one model and one year are much the same so valuing them is easy. Family sailing boats likewise. Narrow boats and various barges are harder  Condition varies wildly, length also, amateur fit outs can be good to terrible, cruiser sterns can be OK to horrible, engines can be good to an oily heap of neglected bodges and so on.  As for hull condition anything from properly painted to a thin coat of 'Blacking' 20 years ago.

[Cha5]

2 minutes ago, MrsM said:

Because they are not basically the same thing, any more than an Aston Martin is the same thing as a Lada. 

 

My daily runner is a 2000 Jaguar XJ8. A V8 4.2l prestige car (in its day 2nd only to a Rolls Royce) that has 55 000mls, 1 previous owner & full Jaguar service history. It is in pristine condition (unlike me) & basically a brand new car that would cost £80 000 today. It cost me £2700 at a classic car auction. My best mates daily runner is a Vx Corsa & he paid £3k for it, it's a nice car but it's not a Jag is it . . . Nothing makes sense to me anymore.

[Arthur Marshall]

Boaters often have an emotional attachment to their boats and so inflate the value. And small things can make a big difference to a buyer.

[Cha5]

5 minutes ago, Bee said:

fit outs can be good to terrible, 

 

Yeah. I'm remembering the chap asking £55 000 for a 45 footer (very badly) lined out with OSB. Must have saved him as much as £200 over the price of oak faced ply 🙂

[Tonka]

7 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Boaters often have an emotional attachment to their boats and so inflate the value. And small things can make a big difference to a buyer.

Every time I see a post on here with a boat and the price, my boat goes up in value

[Cha5]

2 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Boaters often have an emotional attachment to their boats and so inflate the value. And small things can make a big difference to a buyer.

 

My boat was a distress sale. Chap is terminally ill, lived on it for 10yrs but now has a few short months before entering a hospice. He's actually quite famous in our world, a songwriter & musician that has worked with many well known bands & solo artists. I will be moving my boat from its current location to closer to my home & he will be a pampered guest for the whole 12 day cruise. I'm going to change a few things to stamp my persona on the boat, but I will keep the "chandalier" that is his pride & glory.

 

It is not his boat anymore, now it is mine. Emotional attachments are not worth £1000's in anyones world.

[MtB]

4 hours ago, Cha5 said:

Recently bought a 65 footer for £32k after looking at many boats priced from £90k+ to £15k. The £90k+ boats were all stunning & the $15k boats were all obviously in need of some serious attention. But there were many boats priced inbetween that I couldn't tell the difference to justify the price. So how does one arrive at a valuation ???

 

I think the problem you are having lies in your definition of the word "value".

 

These boats you have been looking at for sale are not listed by "Market value", the are listed by "asking price". Two different things. 

 

 

Can you expand on what the "value" means to you please?

 

 

[Cha5]

1 minute ago, MtB said:

 

I think the problem you are having lies in your definition of the word "value".

 

These boats you have been looking at for sale are not listed by "Market value", the are listed by "asking price". Two different things. 

 

 

Can you expand on what the "value" means to you please?

 

 

 

Value means to me exactly what it means to you & everyone else in this world. It is what I am prepared to pay.

 

I bought my boat for £32k, I viewed boats from £100k+ right down to £15k & there is a price range within that range with "wild" variations which I just cannot make any sense of.

 

I bought my boat for £32k, is that what it is worth? IMO it is a much better boat than boats I looked at for very many more £1000's. This very weekend a few boats will have been sold . . . For prices that beggar my belief . . . !

[Mike Tee]

You will probably only get a definitive answer when you come to sell it!

[Cha5]

1 minute ago, Mike Tee said:

You will probably only get a definitive answer when you come to sell it!

 

I sweated my balls off for 25yrs before retiring. If I can make £50k+ per year by buying & selling narrowboats then my whole working life has had no meaning.

[Tonka]

3 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

 

I sweated my balls off for 25yrs before retiring. If I can make £50k+ per year by buying & selling narrowboats then my whole working life has had no meaning.

You should have been a breakfast presenter on radio 2. You would have been paid £700,000 a year.

David Beckham could have been a brain surgeon if he had a brain but he became a footballer and got paid more.

I know someone who worked at Shell for 23 years. He died just before retirement and he died knowing that his job was not being replaced so he had wasted 23 years

[Peanut]

7 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

 

 If I can make £50k+ per year by buying & selling narrowboats then my whole working life has had no meaning.

You might be better off selling other peoples boats, taking a commission. Less sweat, less risk, none really, and not your capital,

[MtB]

39 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

 

I sweated my balls off for 25yrs before retiring. If I can make £50k+ per year by buying & selling narrowboats then my whole working life has had no meaning.

Plenty around who do this. It’s more work than you’d think!
 

Do you have say, £100k in cash to get started by buying say, three cheap boats like yours to sell for £50k each? And somewhere to moor them? 
 

 

[MrsM]

43 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

 

I sweated my balls off for 25yrs before retiring. If I can make £50k+ per year by buying & selling narrowboats then my whole working life has had no meaning.

Only 25 years you lucky thing! My o'h - and so many like him - will have been hard at it for 51 years by the time he can retire at 67. 

[Cha5]

56 minutes ago, Tonka said:

You should have been a breakfast presenter on radio 2. You would have been paid £700,000 a year.

David Beckham could have been a brain surgeon if he had a brain but he became a footballer and got paid more.

I know someone who worked at Shell for 23 years. He died just before retirement and he died knowing that his job was not being replaced so he had wasted 23 years

 

Radio 2 died for me along with Wogan, God how I miss Janet & john. Becks is a genious (like me) only his speciality is the football & not math . . . Come to think of it they're basically the same thing. Math dictates how hard & where to kick the ball to get it in a given place . . . So how come I'm no good at football but I can write the software that all of todays cash machines work on ??? I wrote software for 25yrs & it served me well, but there was no one at my retirement party . . . 

 

30 minutes ago, MtB said:

Plenty around who do this. It’s more work than you’d think!
 

Do you have say, £100k in cash to get started by buying say, three cheap boats like yours to sell for £50k each? And somewhere to moor them? 
 

 

 

A bit of DIY is not hard work in anyone's book & if I bought 3x boats then I'd be looking to make £150k+ per year, I'm not. I reckon £50k per year would pays for my hobbies & my winters in Thailand.

33 minutes ago, MrsM said:

Only 25 years you lucky thing! My o'h - and so many like him - will have been hard at it for 51 years by the time he can retire at 67. 

 

Then he is & always has been in the wrong job. Probably too late for him now, but I could point him in the right direction. What do you do BTW ?

[Slim]

3 hours ago, Cha5 said:

I hear all of that. But how can basically the same 'thing' suffer a price variation sometimes as much as £50k+? OK, steel rusts, but I'm happy that my 20yr old boats hull is as good as the day it was made. I care not for superstar builders, it is aesthetically pleasing & has a layout I'm happy with. How can boats in the same or even worse condition be valued at £1000's more ???

Question. If I wanted to buy your boat and you wanted to sell your boat how much would you actually sell it for? That's it's value. You could start off asking far more than I would pay and I might be willing to pay more. Where those two figures agree is it's value. 

[Tonka]

When you bought your boat did you have a survey ? Didn't the surveyor tell you what he thought the value of it was?

[EventualBoater]

It is an interesting topic. 

I agree with the "it's worth what someone is willing to pay" argument. 

I feel, for me, this is more of a "how do I put a monetary value on my boat?" Which i am fascinated in. 

Age, boat build, engine etc etc yes they are key. But how do you decide that this 1988 boat is worth 3k less than this 1990 boat. Why that engine is worth more than the other. 

I know once you have a boat there is a bonus of, I bought this for X, owned it for Y, spent Z on improvements. That can be used.

I think it's more my over thinking brain. I just like to know the detail.

[Cha5]

1 hour ago, Tonka said:

When you bought your boat did you have a survey ? Didn't the surveyor tell you what he thought the value of it was?

 

On the basis that I cannot make any sense on how a boat is valued. If surveyors are the answer then does it depend on what mood they in ???

[MtB]

6 minutes ago, Cha5 said:

On the basis that I cannot make any sense on how a boat is valued.

 

You seem to think there is some external value that every boat has. There isn't. The value is a matter of opinion and nothing more. 

 

And that value varies according to opinion of the person valuing it!