How Much to Offer in a Boat Yard?

[bigmack]

Hi All - you see a boat in a yard and you like it, its in good shape and will suit for fishing and family. How much would you offer - have you got a personal yard stick for this sort of thing? Without being silly of course...

Your thoughts - just interested in previous experience or actual experience in todays market with economics as it is.

thanks
PD

[PADDLES]

it's easy mack, you make a reasonable offer based on what the market is paying. bear in mind that the boat yard does this for a living, and they will only let it go for what the market is paying, and they definitely know the market. anything less and you will be wasting your breath.

[levinge]

Do your research, look at boatsales and boatpoint, they will give you a ball park figure.

Look at age of the motor, codition of prop
Condition of boat and trailer, service history...

Alloy look for damage/repair welds
Fibre look for cracking

Everything looks good until you really start to look closer, don't be fool by the shiney stuff.

remember if you buy in haste, you may leak in the bank balance trying to correct problems.

Pester the hell out of them with any question you can think of and then when your satisfied, go below the market price, you can always go up...

Another big tikker is, how long has this boat been in the yard!!! The longer its been there, the bigger chance they will want to move it and you have a little more in the bargaining stakes.

[bigmack]

thanks guys - good advice.

cheers

[Noelm]

pretty hard to make any sort of offer because like (say) a 100,000 dollar boat, you might get a few grand off, but a 1,000 dollar boat, you will be lucky to get anything off, it is a very open ended question you asked with too mnay variables.

[Braddles]

As for wasting your breath re/- making offers.. You have nothing to loose mate! If you really do want the boat - dont show that to the sales person - they ARE salesmen afterall - and are no different to used car sales persons.

No yard can sell at a loss - thats just not business sense - UNLESS they are in trouble, and need some urgent cash float (relatively common in this industry now) - OR the boat is taking up space / not the type of boat they are used to dealing with (a trade in say) - and may just want it gone.

If a boat has been sitting in a yard for a long time - either its there for a reason, or all boats will be stagnated in that yard - another reason to ask questions - why isnt the yard moving boats at all.. Maybe they are all overpriced or maybe dodgie reputation in local area...

To give you some idea, my last wave runner when traded, I got 9500 for it (best deal around), and they sold it for 11990! Thats a mark up of 2500. I suspect for a 10-15K craft thats about what they operate on.

Remember to store a boat in the yard costs them money, and then all the costs of running a business. I suspect if you offered 13000 - 13500 on a 15K boat, you would get a good deal - and the dealer would be still making a very modest margin.

I hope that is of some help to you :-P

[cormorant]

IS it on consignment?

Lots of different strategies and depends on the dealer and the way he does business.

After the boat is fully checked out you need to put a value on it. Sounds like the dealer has it priced close as you are interested at the sticker price.

Positive things you can do to get a better price

- Have money ready
- confirm you are ready to do a deal
-confirm you are ready to drive away if you can sort out price detail.
- suggest you have another option offering good value as well. No need to lie as there is always a nother boat of a different style avaliable.
- If price is unmovable see what it is missing be it services or safety equipment , service and spare parts, and have those added to close the deal. Things such as bimini or canvas work many dealers have blokes thet will do stuff at good rates ad good standard. Better than you buying retail in a months time.
- get extended written warranty


They want to turnover sock as long as they can replace it of freshen up their line up so there is always some negotiation room.

If it is on consignment and you ae a valid buyer get him to contact the seller while you are there as often a seller will give in to get a quick confirmed sale.


Like with all purchases of boats if you don't have the skills and knowledge yourself to check out teh trailer, accessories motor and hull have a professional do it and take it for a test run on water as a condition of sale. many a dog is discovered on a test run. Small discoveries of electrical faults quickly lead to looking at how professionally and how old wiring and accessories have been fitted.

There is a couple of blokes on here who's profession is repairing and inspecting boats and they could possibly also offer advice on the dealer and pricing as many of them now each other.

Good luck - negotiate hard but fair as dealers deal with nobs all day so a honest approach that you are ready to buy but have limits will be a better approach

[Goldfinch]

Go in hard mate. It's a buyers market and every sale is money in the bank for any business right now. I knocked almost $10K off both the boats I bought in the past 3 years and they were in the $60 to $70K price range. Also push for big discounts on any extras you want as well. You never know how cheap the yard bought the boat secondhand until to put in a crazy offer. They all have margins but they all want sales.

Cheers
dave

[Steeler]

IS it on consignment?

Lots of different strategies and depends on the dealer and the way he does business.

After the boat is fully checked out you need to put a value on it. Sounds like the dealer has it priced close as you are interested at the sticker price.

Positive things you can do to get a better price

- Have money ready
- confirm you are ready to do a deal
-confirm you are ready to drive away if you can sort out price detail.
- suggest you have another option offering good value as well. No need to lie as there is always a nother boat of a different style avaliable.
- If price is unmovable see what it is missing be it services or safety equipment , service and spare parts, and have those added to close the deal. Things such as bimini or canvas work many dealers have blokes thet will do stuff at good rates ad good standard. Better than you buying retail in a months time.
- get extended written warranty


They want to turnover sock as long as they can replace it of freshen up their line up so there is always some negotiation room.

If it is on consignment and you ae a valid buyer get him to contact the seller while you are there as often a seller will give in to get a quick confirmed sale.


Like with all purchases of boats if you don't have the skills and knowledge yourself to check out teh trailer, accessories motor and hull have a professional do it and take it for a test run on water as a condition of sale. many a dog is discovered on a test run. Small discoveries of electrical faults quickly lead to looking at how professionally and how old wiring and accessories have been fitted.

There is a couple of blokes on here who's profession is repairing and inspecting boats and they could possibly also offer advice on the dealer and pricing as many of them now each other.

Good luck - negotiate hard but fair as dealers deal with nobs all day so a honest approach that you are ready to buy but have limits will be a better approach

Hi

Without a doubt one of the more sensible posts i have ever read on this forum regarding interaction between buyers and dealers.

Very easy for a seller to work with a person committed to purchase on the right deal.

Also easy for a buyer to work with a seller if they have demonstrated that they are a committed buyer once the right deal can be found.

Cheers

Steve

[finga]

Be rude.
They're rude when you ask for a reasonable trade in valuation.

[Steeler]

Trade in valuations are based on the wholesale value of your boat or vehicle.In the event the dealer can't shift it in good time ( generally 90 days ) he can call upon his nearest auction house or brokerage to come take it away at the same value he traded it for.

When you twist there arm up to a better trade price you have not miraculously increased the value of your trade all you have done is used up some of there over allowance. There are three figures incorporated into a vehicle or boats listed price and is as follows

Wholesale Value + Load Value + Over Allowance = Ticket Price

Wholesale value is a items real value

Load value is what the dealer requires to stay in business ( profit margin )

Over Allowance is the figure added to cover for those people who have to a higher opinion of what they are trading.

Cheers

Steve

[Scott79]

There are alot of variables as people have already suggested, but as a generalisation I reckon about 15% off the ticket price would be a good place to start. Not ridiculously low to give the impression that you are a time waster, but still a good saving for you if the final price is down around that mark.
Scott.

[bennyboy]

Most boat yards would struggle to make 10% markup on a BMT package and on a motor only you are talking around 5%

If you get 2 or 3% off the price you are doing well
$1500 off a $50,000 boat is reasonable
$150 off a $5000 boat.

This is off the Cash price. RRP is certainly a different story but no one advertises at RRP

[PADDLES]

everyone always seems to expect to get some sort of a discount off the asking price, it's a bit of a game really. what happens if the asking price is actually a fair price for the boat?

it is a buyers market at the moment especially in the times immediately following the boat show (ie. people get a little excited at the show and place an order without having sold their existing boat first) on the other side of the coin however, the second hand boat prices are ridiculously high, so don't ask, don't get. but on the whole, if you are buying from a reasonable dealership they know the market better than you do and there won't be too much room to move on price unless they really need to move something on.

[finga]

everyone always seems to expect to get some sort of a discount off the asking price, it's a bit of a game really. what happens if the asking price is actually a fair price for the boat?

They can only say no to the offer.
You can either come up or they can rethink your offer.
Simple really as boats are everywhere for sale.