Listing with a Broker Pro's & Con's?
 

What are the pros and cons of listing with a broker in your home town. I've never really done this and my boat has been for sale in boat trader online and I was called today from a local broker. He is sending me the contract to read over.

He seems to be able to reach farther out with his listing than my boatrader add.

thanks, Mike

Mike

Did you try the OSO classifieds ?

LS

Cons he probably gets 10%.

This does not seem to be the fish boat type of crowd. I did sell my 29 Fountain years ago from OSO.

Mike

Give it a shot....Ya never know who is looking for what, or they may have a friend looking for that kind of boat.
Its a lot of bang for the buck.

Steve

I just sold mine and all it took was a week.............

What are you asking for it?

The pro is you find a broker that knows his clientele and has a list of people they think might be interested in mind.

Con the guy who wants a listing to boost their inventory and is greedy. Like my current real estate agent! :drink:

call scott Ryerson www.suncoatspowerboats.com rattle his cage for a little.

Mike, First of all I want to asy that the Fountain TE is a sweet ride! I checked one out at the Tampa show this W/E. That boat is huge! The good thing about a broker is they handle all of the BS calls and more importantly they make sure all of the finances are in order starting with the deposit. Sometimes it is worth the 10% for them to deal with all of the hassle. The Cons: Dealing with a broker :D

They all think they are pro's and most of them are cons!:p Stick with the guys that are well known in the biz. Stick to a broker that specializes in your type boat. Too many horror stories out there!

Well said :D

List it in the oso classifieds; it works...

Mike:

The oil can man has given you great advice. My opinions are biased since I own a dealership in Florida. So, take them for what they are worth.

1. our best source of buyers comes from the traffic that drives by our facility. We have 60,000 cars per day go by. Most have more than one adult in the car. I would recommend that you choose a broker that has a physical location with high traffic.

2. Our next best source is our internet advertising. We employ a reasonably sophisticated search engine optimization, coupled with keyword pay per click. So, in addition to a high traffic location, choose a broker with internet advertising savvy.

3. Buying season is just about to begin in Southwest Florida. Your market is not all that different than ours. Once you have nailed down #1 and #2 above, give it some time to work.

Best of luck in your sale. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Tom

Good one!

Thanks everyone for the advice...just what I was looking for. My boat is at the dealer getting the stereo repaired and new throttles from Lavorsi because some type of brown electrical grease stained the white throttles...plus a full polis-wax and detail. I will pick it back up this Sunday and take pictures in detail and do the OSO classified add again.

I love the Fountain 38TE...awesome boat but my interests have changed and I just do not want a boat this expensive anymore. My wife and I want to downsize and get back to the size of our last boat which was a 33/36 Concept. I'd get another Fountain in a heartbeat but they do not make anything in this size with a cuddy. Thinking about the 35ZF Donzi or something even smaller 28-32' CC.

Only sold a boat once and it was with no broker.

Based upon my experience as a buyer I would say that a broker has more cons than pros.

Pros
They do all the work for you
They may be able to get you a higher price


Cons
Most brokers really don't know that much about the used boat they are selling. The don't ask don't tell BS is way out of hand. Most brokers I talk to don't tell me anything about the boat except for the mere basics. As a buyer I call that a red flag. When I see a boat for sale I automatically assume the worst until I hear otherwise. If they don't tell me anything then I assume that theres nothing good about the boat and I'm on to the next one.
Lots of brokers are crooks. It doesn't take much reading on OSO to figure that out.
The 5-10% commision sucks.
I'm guessing that the broker will not take as good of care of your boat than you will and if the boat sits on his lot for a couple months.

Selling on your own
Cons - sometimes it takes up a lot of time dealing with test drives and phone calls. If your a busy person you may not have that kind of time.
Tirekickers
You have to do everything
You have to pay for everything

Pros
You get to inform your buyers of everything good about your boat.
Always fun to meet another powerboat enthusiast.
You get to keep driving your boat when ever you want.
The boat stays clean and in ship shape.

If you want something done right - do it yourself.

Mike's boat is a 10 out of a 10 - Guaranteed - we all know how picky he is.

List it yourself. You have to either raise your price to cover their 5-10% or take less then you wanted. Either way it raises the price in the eyes of the prospective buyer. Before I bought my Apache I tried very hard to make a deal on a brokered boat but the price was just a little too high. If I could have delt with the owner I would have bought it. Also broker was not very good with communication. And I will not mention any names but he is supposed to be a "respected" broker in the eyes of a lot of oso members:rolleyes:

Thanks again for all the advice. The boat will stay with me at my house. No way it is going on some brokers lot. I would put it on a boat dealers lot whom I trust and was getting my new boat from but I have not really found a dealer yet.

Mike:
If you decide to list your boat with a broker give him your NET figure that you want in your pocket after commissions. That way if a customer makes an offer, the broker can choose to do a short deal to make it happen. You will get some low-ball offers that will only make you angry. This way you can tell the broker to not bring you any offers that don't net you what you want. Good Luck either way.

Selling your boat
 

Mike,

I was about to give you the same advice as Tom gave you. He is 1000% correct about location and drive by, along with the dealer's reputation.

Without the boat on a lot for the touchy feely you will have to rely on the internet. Remember a lot of the boats we sell were not always the boat they were after but saw this "perfect" one. That is why we stock 11 million in inventory.

If you price it right and it is truly clean it will sell and should sell in a month or so. If not your price is too high. September is always slow with the kids going back to school. Not just boat sales but everything. It will kick up big time after Ft. Lauderdale. Your market will be down here as most up north are putting everything away for the winter.

Good luck,

Carl

I am selling a bot in the classifeds now for a friend. He has done me some big favors, so it is my turn to repay the favor.

I get lots of hits, I am confident it will sell soon, one is a broker. He is offering $5000, list on the boat is $8500, and book is $12K. He has been hounding me and the seller. I have been an ass in returned messages.

Last message was "It is not my problem your buyer wants to spend a ton of money moving a boat. All you have shown my so far is when it comes time to sell my boat, you do not have buyers willing to pay what it is worth. If you want it the price just went up".

You can contrive the rest of my thoughts. I am sure all brokers are not like this one, but this is the real time, real life experience I am having.

I've been talking to alot of brokers over the last 60 days. Out of 30 or so, one or two weren't entirely worthless. Most took multiple e-mails and calls to get ahold of and almost all new little or nothing about the boat I was inquiring about. None followed up on additional information I asked for unless pressed multiple times and 2/3rds still didn't. This includes some of the guys whos names you see mentioned in threads and in classifieds on this site. The best of them basically told me in polite terms they knew little and that was it. Granted, I'm looking at boats +/- $75K price range so nobody's going to put their kid thru college on me. What really irked me is that on follow-up calls the next day, they didn't even recall who I was or the context of my calls. And here I thought it was a buyer's market.

So, that's what you can expect when you list your boat with the "average" broker.

It used to be, the broker weeded out the tire-kickers, assembled the deal for the buyer and secured financing if need be.

Here's how I see it-

Everyone who's looking visits yachttrader, boattrader & ebay. It's not hard or expensive to make your boat visible. Banks and brokers are everywhere so financing isn't an issue that it once was. So the barriers a broker used to help a buyer get over aren't as significant as in years past. Now, you still have the tire-kickers. In my case, they had a cash buyer looking for a boat and nobody would get me basic information- even on boats in their possession. If that's the job the broker you end up with does for you, are you really better off?

Mike,

As a dealer and broker here in NY we offer to broker your current boat at no commission if you are buying a new boat (ordered or in stock). We also do international sales as well as domestic. This benefits the consumer in two ways. 1. He gets top dollar for his current boat and pays zero commission. 2. It runs through our books at point of sale giving you the tax credit on your new purchase. If it is a straight up sell only broker deal then we would pull a commission for the sale. As an example if you were interested in a Carrera Sport Fish we could make it happen. We can also get some lines we do not stock as well. We also take trades if you wanted to go that route, also giving you the tax break on the new purchase but of course you get let money for current boat. Another benefit mentioned above we can secure financing and insurance for the buyer of your current boat to make the transactions seamless and painless.

If you have any questions give us a call (631) 724-8707.

Paul

Mike, OSO also has another site call Anglersonly try posting there as well.

Mike I can tell you from first hand personal experience trying to sell my 38 Open, Fountain sales seem to me to be a numbers game.

Biggest problem is the 38 is a popular SKA boat and Fountain sells the SKA boats to the fisherman below dealer cost. Therefore destroying the re-sale market for people like myself and you.

You will see SKA boats selling with a couple hundred hours on them one year old at almost 40% off retail. Therefore setting the stage for all the other used boats on the market.

Fountain also has creative dealer and consumer financing so sometimes buying a new boat makes more monthly sense to the buyer.

What I am saying is selling your boat regardless of how clean it is will be a numbers game and I can tell you that its probably worth a lot less than any book says it is or what you think it is worth.

Also remember that the market is very slow this time of year and it picks up after the Lauderdale boat show. Fell free to send me the specs and info on your boat and when I drop the 10's of thousands of flyers I plan on dropping on the city for my 38 for sale during the boat show, I can drop yours at the same time.

When the potential new boat buyers see the retail at the show and then the used discounted boat on the flyer perhaps they will make a buying decision before they do the research and find out the SKA special pricing.

My boat will be on display on the side of the road with decals and pricing during the show as I live less than a mile from the shows entrance.

I can also tell you that I have not had much action from my OSO classified even at the low price I have mine advertised at.

Lets face it, when you are dealing with the manufacturer with the best marketing moves you have to try some of you own.

Well said Steve. Number 1 reason we would not take on the Fountain line because of what happens to those customers when they do that.

Thanks Steve, I will call you during work hours tomorrow and get you what you need for the flyer. I truely appreciate that and all the advice I have received here.

I will be happy to give you the SKA pricing, dealer cost, and everything else I have learned about the sale and resale of these boats so you can try to move yours as well. I will be in all day 954-463-1101.

Hey, give old Beav Boats a call - heck, he's probably already got your boat listed! :D

This thread has also turned into an education. A few good pointers to make to my sales staff.

Good luck with the sale Mike.

Tom