Part of a yacht broker’s job is to ensure that the buyer and seller involved in a boat sale both get the value they’re looking for. Our job will take different paths depending on whether we’re representing the buyer or the seller. One thing those two paths have in common, however, is that the journey actually starts long before a surveyor is hired to evaluate a boat.
For this article, I spoke with fellow brokers at Latitude Yacht Brokerage, who offered the views that follow based on decades of experience. Here’s the kind of guidance you can expect from a good broker.
For Boat Sellers, Before the Survey
When representing a seller, it starts with the broker reviewing the boat with the owner and making recommendations on getting the boat ready for sale before posting a listing. Many things we recommend will be cosmetic: paint the engine mounts, clean the bilges, make sure the canvas is repaired, etc.
More importantly, what are the known electrical, mechanical, and structural issues with the boat? It’s a used boat, so there are ALWAYS issues. And these need to be addressed up front because they’re going to come up at survey anyway.
We talk with the owner about the nature and severity of the issues, and if they can be cost effectively addressed prior to listing the boat, we will usually encourage that. Much like a house, if you put money into repairs beforehand, you’ll almost always get that investment back and then some when the boat is sold.
One of my colleagues once worked with a buyer who went to survey with a 15-year-old production sailboat. The seller had disclosed on the listing that there were some “soft spots.” Once the survey began, however, things kept getting worse; more and more moisture and other problems were uncovered that the seller either didn’t know about or didn’t disclose. The buyer eventually backed out.
Two months later, with all issues disclosed in advance, my colleague sold the same boat to a different buyer. The point here for sellers is that full transparency on all issues doesn’t lessen a boat’s salability; it just changes who your buyer is. In this case, the buyer knew about the issues up front and chose to look at the boat anyway as they found them acceptable.
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