Sea Ray value

[Poseidon]

Good day fellow Sea Ray owners.
I'm looking for some advice.
I have been in talks with a dealer looking to trade my 310 for a 370.
Other dealers I have dealt with you can compare nadaguide and whatever nada says for average retail that is what I get for trade and that is what I pay on the new boat.
This other dealer doesn't seem to be doing that. I look at average retail on my 310 and it is just under $90K they are offering 70K for trade.
When I look at the 370 on nada it says $98K for average retail and they are wanting just under $100K.
Can anyone offer up advice as to what should be going on?
Do most dealers do a retail for retail trade but others give you nothing and expect retail for theirs?
Any thoughts are welcome.

Jeffrey

 

[fwebster]

This is not likely than answer you were looking for, but its the way the boat business works.

If you are looking at a one year old boat, perhaps pricing guides are meaningful, but on older boats there are several reason that the price guides don't work. Some dealers only use them religiously, otheres do not. The reasons that published guides are not accurate has to to with the fact that 1.)there isn't enough data for the information to be statistically accurate......how many 370's are sold in a month in that market? 2.) boats are worth different amounts in different markets because the demand is different ...for example you cannot give an aft cabin away in our area, yet on some lakes they are very popular. 3.) condition means everything in valuing a boat. I have seen a 50% swing in value between two of the same model boats in the same market....one was very nice, the other had been well used and was not immaculate.

Rather than getting exercised about the price guides and wholesale/retail, spend your effort finding the nicest, best kept boat you can then negotiate the best deal you can on it. It looks to be a buyers market right now, so if you have money to spend on a boat, forget who said the boat was worth x or Y and make a fair offer based on your own research and finances.

A better guide for pricing is to look at yachtworld for the 2 boats. Throw out international listings and those whose prices are no more than wishful thinking and figure the selling price to be about 90% of the listing price. On the wholesale side, figure the dealer has some risk and will have to make a profit so adjust the price by 15-20% for the wholesale side.

Good luck with it...........

 

[Dave S]

Speaking purely from my limited experience after buying one used and two new Sea Rays thru my current dealer, I have always been quoted wholesale on my trades. As a result I either use their brokerage service and pay a fee which still nets far more than the trade in price or I sell it myself. As far as the fair price of a used boat you may consider purchasing, I would certainly use NADA as a baseline and I would also check as many other sources as I could to get listing prices on simillar boats to the one I want to buy. Then I would negotiate the purchase price on that basis. Remember too if the used boat you are considering is a brokerage boat and not actually owned by the dealer, the owner has set the price not the dealer.

 

[fwebster]

But if you use the NADA guide for a basis in negotiating, you probably will be out of the money and dissappointed on the few pristine boats there are out there. The price guides are based on reported average sale then mathmatically manipulated for options, lack of data, etc. by extrapolation.

I guess you have to use something, but use the guide for negotiating a boat deal like you would a car is a mistake because there are no wholesalers or auctions for balancing inventories and selling off low demand product and there is inherent inaccuracy in the boat price guides.

The one area in which a price guide may be helpful is at the dealer who really does not want the trade and low-balls the value of your boat. You mat keep him honest, but the result may be that he just tells you he does not want your boat instead of raising the wholesale value. At least you would have the facts......

 

[370Dancer]

Good day fellow Sea Ray owners.
I'm looking for some advice.
I have been in talks with a dealer looking to trade my 310 for a 370.
Any thoughts are welcome.

Jeffrey

Most dealers (or any sales person for that matter) are compensated to sell you what they can for as much as they can, and give you as little as they can for what you have. It really doesn't matter what business we're talking about, even yours. It is YOUR job to set the boundries for your sale. You can only do that respectfully through "due dilligence" of the current market, vs. what you are trading, and by understanding the true motivation of the seller. If that criteria is not important to you, or worth your time to research and verify, then trust a dealer who's been around for a while. They can't do bad deals very long without collecting a reputation.
Side note: You're gonna love the 370 - Biased opinion

 

[WFYB]

It is interesting because here is So. Florida a wholesale market has developed for boats. Some wholesalers are exporting, some are buying and re-selling. This has resulted in a floor price being established. My experience is the same as Dave S. You will only receive wholesale for your trade. You may be shown another figure but the difference is unrealized savings off list or unrealized rebates etc. Now the question becomes how do I find the wholesale value for my boat. The only way I know is to establish a relationship with a broker. Good brokers are in tune with the market and can tell you what the bottom price is for your used boat. I also think Frank is correct, pricing on boats is highly local. To me NADA has little value as far as determining real price in your exact location.

 

[370Dancer]

The only way I know is to establish a relationship with a broker. Good brokers are in tune with the market and can tell you what the bottom price is for your used boat. .

As a broker, or part of a broker organization, you can subscribe to the "underworld" of Yachtworld.com Through that subscription, you can see what boats actually sold for, not listed for and get all kinds of data views for analysis. This of course depends on completing the information after the sale. The data you get thru that subscription is what you are looking for. It's similar to what goes on in MLS, or JetNet. Make a friend in the police department, and you can get a plate run. Make a friend in the yacht business, and you might get a TMV for your trade.

 

[Dennis Hoaglin]

In reality, any trade is only worth wholesale. Yet, I get to the bottom line then bargain for the highest dollar on my trade 'cause you don't pay taxes on the value of your trade-in. So, when I traded in the old Crownline on my 270, I got more than retail for it. I figured that was worth 7% of the extra $5K I got for the Crownline to me. Maybe the dealer comes out ahead 'cause he paid high dollar for my trade but then turned around and sold it for about $2K less than he paid me for it. So, he took a loss on the sale of the Crownline for his tax purposes yet sold it for the same retail he would have sold it for if he had given me wholesale for it.

I think I have my ownself confused. Normal.

Dennis

 

[gregrowe]

When I was looking for my 370 in Florida a few years back, there was a huge difference in the overall condition of the various boats we drove to see. Of course all were rated as "8's" and "9's" when talking to the seller's broker, but once on the boat it was obvious that some were never maintained. I was really looking for diesels in the 370 and zero maintenance on diesel engines can drastically change the worth of the boat. We looked at one within the NADA price range, but the engines were shot to the point that oil was all over the bilge. Rebuilding/replacing diesels is an expensive proposition and the selling price should have reflected that. I used BUCValu's personalized evaluation once I found a boat I was interested in. It's fee based, but it's based on a lengthy evaluation on the boat you have to fill out. I then had something in hand to start negotiating prices.

Greg