Trying to be a Reasonable Buyer

As a broker. I will chime in. The selling broker, in my opinion better go spend some serious time looking over the boat they are trying to sell. I want to know whats right and whats wrong with the boat before I list it. My time is also valuable. There is no sense in me just taking pictures, or not even taking actual pictures of the boat I am selling. What a waste for a buyer to fly in or drive for hours to look at a boat that has been represented by a marginal broker as "turn Key' knowing its not or just not knowing anything at all. So, yes there are good one and bad ones.
A little story about my last sale, because it could apply to what's happening here. My listing a 39 ft boat, priced low 100s, 2 legal owners, a man and a woman. The woman wanted to sell, the man, not so much. I know these people personally. Anyway, I get a great offer, literally within a few thousand of asking price, I present the offer and no response, I call the next day and no answer, wait till end of day and call again, still no answer. ugh!. Buyer waiting on answer ugh! buyer getting impatient. Can't blame him. Now I send a text, email and leave voicemail saying buyer getting ready to back out. They now call and say they thought they had time to think about it. I said you do, but not 3 days. After another day I convinced them this was as good an offer as they would ever get, and they should accept. 2 days later they accepted the offer, well guess what, the buyer moved on and bought another boat. I told my friends they owed me my commission ( just kiddin') but I had actually done my job and should have been paid.
So after this long babble, there could be more going on behind the scenes, Sick dog, child etc. But, there are many other boats for sale. Good luck going forward.
 
You will never get the amount to replace something old (Electronics) with brand new replacement It is unreasonable to expect. You have plenty of reason to walk away so if you cant get an acceptable price then walk away
 
Let the broker know you’re moving on and keep shopping.
 
I might have read Frank's post wrong so please correct me if so. Is this standard practice by brokers to shop an offer all over the country in hopes of beating it with another?
 
Boater420 said:
I might have read Frank's post wrong so please correct me if so. Is this standard practice by brokers to shop an offer all over the country in hopes of beating it with another?
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I have never heard of it. Unless the the offer was so low that it might be below wholesale.
 
Marc Blondin said:
You will never get the amount to replace something old (Electronics) with brand new replacement It is unreasonable to expect. You have plenty of reason to walk away so if you cant get an acceptable price then walk away
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Not true. When I bought my 320, I made one offer. It was a fair offer, but to the lower side. Reason being, the plotter was obsolete, the vhf was falling apart and it needed full canvas. All told, $5-7k in upgrades. My offer was priced accordingly. And accepted. Maybe I was the exception and not the rule, but you CAN get replacement cost for components/accessories that HAVE to be replaced to make the boat usable.
 
So, the day is over. What’s the status? We are all waitING anxiously to hear!

(EDIT: Damn auto correct)
 
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bahamabreisus said:
I have never heard of it. Unless the the offer was so low that it might be below wholesale.
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It is done all the time around here, particularly when the offer is below the seller's expectation, whether or not he is realistic.......anytime a buyer leaves a contract open with no condition of sale like "Offer is good until 12:00AM, x/yy/zz, at which time offer is recended and this contract is recended" leaves the buyer open to having his offer shopped. Also, most brokerage contracts I've seen have a provision stating "Time is of the essence" and 5 days to accept or reject is hardly of the essence.
 
So does that basically mean the broker will shop around to find another boat like the one the offer was made on? Something like my seller hasn't accepted your offer, but here is another XXX model boat that will take your offer? Just curious, all of my boat purchases have been through a dealership, not a broker.
 
My last boat was through a brokerage. I asked him what a fair starting offer would be. He used a website to see how much these boats actually sold for. (not listing price)

We started at the lowest figure. It was accepted pending survey.
 
fwebster said:
It is done all the time around here, particularly when the offer is below the seller's expectation, whether or not he is realistic.......anytime a buyer leaves a contract open with no condition of sale like "Offer is good until 12:00AM, x/yy/zz, at which time offer is recended and this contract is recended" leaves the buyer open to having his offer shopped. Also, most brokerage contracts I've seen have a provision stating "Time is of the essence" and 5 days to accept or reject is hardly of the essence.
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If the broker has time (as he apparently does in this case) why WOULDN'T he call up every recent buyer that looked at this boat or a similar one, to let them know this one was "about to get away"? While I wouldn't be happy about this if it were MY contract he was shopping, I'm not sure I understand how this is wrong? Remember, he's the SELLER'S broker and his job is to maximize the selling price.

I don't know how many brokers actually do this (So many don't even return calls or emails, where would they find the time or energy to do this?), but it's certainly a strategy. And the way to keep it from happening to you, as a buyer, is to put time clauses in for accepting, rejecting or countering offers. Even if you don't enforced those limits strictly, they will help move everyone along the negotiating path...
 
fwebster said:
It is done all the time around here, particularly when the offer is below the seller's expectation, whether or not he is realistic.......anytime a buyer leaves a contract open with no condition of sale like "Offer is good until 12:00AM, x/yy/zz, at which time offer is recended and this contract is recended" leaves the buyer open to having his offer shopped. Also, most brokerage contracts I've seen have a provision stating "Time is of the essence" and 5 days to accept or reject is hardly of the essence.
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I think what Frank is saying that the seller's broker will take the buyer's offer and "shop it around" meaning he will try to find another buyer willing to pay some amount more. Maybe someone else has looked at the boat and any amount more than the original buyer's offer is more money in everyone's pocket.

Bennett
 
BillK2632 said:
So does that basically mean the broker will shop around to find another boat like the one the offer was made on? Something like my seller hasn't accepted your offer, but here is another XXX model boat that will take your offer? Just curious, all of my boat purchases have been through a dealership, not a broker.
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Once a broker knows what you’re looking for and what you’re willing to spend he would be smart to stay in touch with you to let you know things he comes across that might be of interest to you.
That’s basically how I got my current boat. I contacted a broker about a boat, that boat wasn’t for me, but the broker was smart and aggressive and stayed in touch regularly to see how my hunt was going and to tell me about things he was coming across. About 6 months later he let me know about this particular boat and I bought it through him.
That being said: you should continue to shop around on your own rather than wait for just one source to find you a boat.
 
With due respect to the good brokers, most appear to be way to lazy to do what is being discussed. It's almost as if they expect the boats to "sell themselves."

A broker who "shops" an offer better hope he a) gets a significant amount over the offer as he only gets a percentage, and b) hope the boat buying public doesn't find out. If you "shop" my offer, I won't be dealing with you or your company.
 
Some brokers are good some not so good. When we were looking for this boat I created a list of things we wanted. I passed it out to any broker who would talk to me. At the bottom of the page in bold was If you call me and do not have the boat I want I will never talk to you again. There were many brokers that got deleted quickly. Two years after I sent out my list I got a call from a broker I did not remember. I asked why he took so long to contact me. His comment was what I had written on the bottom of the form. We bought the boat he had for sale.
 
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