I recently made an offer on a boat a couple of States over and was going to bring a cashier's check from a large bank. The seller said he'll only accept cash ... as in real dollar bills. I told him there's no way I'm going to carry that kind of money around.

Now the seller says he'll take a cashier's check, but he'll only release the boat when the check clears. But I'm not handing over a check without the title and bill-of-sale being assigned to me giving me legal ownership.

I'm just going to walk away from this one unless I can quickly find a low-hassle solution.

So what is the common way that people make cash purchases on boats?

Call your bank before you go and tell them how much money you want them to wire to his bank, when you gett htere have it wired.

CASH in a brown paper bag or go check it out and if its a deal have your bank wire the $$$ while you wait there and hook it up and pull it home .. do it in early morning bank wires stop in the early afternoon or you may have to spend the night good luck

If the current owner owes a note on the boat make the check is made out to the lender of the loan or complete the wire transaction at the bank in order to assure the note is paid off so you can get a clear title and he does not run off without paying off the loan on the boat. Seen this before....

What JB says.

If he has a note on the boat, do the deal at his bank. When I sold my last boat I had the bank send the title to my local branch and we did the deal there, the banker signed off the lien right there.

Get the check written on a certified/cashiers check from HIS bank. Then you can walk into his bank with a check on their paper. They can verify funds, and you ought to be good.

I have done that successfully in the past, but I hear of certain banks placing three day holds on all items, including their own. (ouch.) One more reason to have a "local" banker.

Cash is king.

I had the same thing w/a Diesel Pusher I bought... Wiring is the way to go. Set it up ahead of time... go check out the boat, get all the paperwork/transfers done, make one phone call... he verifies w/his bank... done. It's real easy. Good luck!

Don't take offense to his wanting hard cash. However don't do it that way. IRS complications... Use a wire transfer if you trust him. Or just use his bank as a third party. Call and talk to the banker and have him hold the title and oversee your transfer. If if you do it over the weekend he can mail the title on Monday. The banker will not try any funny business.