Boat Broker?

[FireBreathingRubberDucky]

Hello Everyone,

Just curious if anyone has ever used a boat broker to sell your boat? I have my 2021 G23 listed on multiple sites, including in the for sale section here but haven’t had much luck. In general the boat market seems pretty slow, which doesn’t surprise me given the economy and interest being higher than people are use to through recent years. Either way, who did you use and what was your experience like? I thought about towing it to Arizona and trying to sell it in a warmer climate but I don’t trust someone else to take care of my boat the way I do. She’s never spent a night outside since I owned it and don’t want to start now.

[bturner]

I only knew 1 person that did but he was selling a 28' cruiser type boat. He ended up selling it on his own but it took over a year and multiple price drops to sell the boat.

Be real careful about fees with these guys as I've heard some, not so good stories out there. Most are going to charge you 10% off the top but some may also try to sneak in other fees for surveys, detailing, advertising fees, storage fees (if you move it to their lot) and other misc fees. In addition to all that you'll probably be pressured to negotiate a lower price should a potential buyer comes along. In your case, say someone is willing to buy at $170K. This means you've lost the $10K plus the $17K for the brokerage fee plus any other additions. You're take on the boat now is $153K. At that price you may be better off listing at $160K and hoping you can cut a deal at or very near that price and leave the added complexity of dealing with the broker out. I've found that price and advertising in the right places will move a boat better than anything else but who knows maybe a broker is a better place to go for a boat in your price range.

These are some trying times in the boat market especially now that dealers have new 2023 boats on their lots and are advertising 40% plus off new in stock 2024 models. Some one on the MC site was saying his dealer was suggesting that they could cut close to $100K off a $300K boat. Is that true? Well, it was on a forum so it has to be, right?

Add to this the time of year, interest rates, the layoffs we're seeing in the tech sectors and the automotive sector about to implode..... the market may not be coming back anytime soon. If it were me, I would probably figure out my absolute lowest price, detail the snot out of it and hit the market in the spring.

If you're looking to stay in boating and move to another boat, I would work with a couple dealers and see what kind of a deal they would be willing to make based on your new lowest price you need to get out of that boat.

[FireBreathingRubberDucky]

Thank you for the response. All those things you mentioned are my biggest fear. I'm supposed to be getting a 2025 G25 but refuse to take it in the shorts on my current boat. I saw the bottom of the boat industry coming, as the price increases were unsustainable. Then you mix in the economic variables and it's a recipe for disaster. I was planning on making my 2025 the last boat purchase for a very long time for a variety of reasons. I just to swap out every 5 years or so, but that's not realistic with current market standards.

[pitts12driver]

We've owned wake boats for 20 years, and switch boats every 3-4 years. I've used the same dealer/broker the entire time, and the upgrade process has always been seamless. I give them our current boat, order a new one, and in 2-4 weeks, the old boat is off to a happy new owner. We gave them our '22 loaded G23 with very low hours in late May, and got one offer over the course of the entire summer which fell through when the buyer didn't qualify for financing. The dealer said they couldn't sell any of their new inventory, and had 2023 models left over from last year. So, we had the boat detailed, cancelled our order for a '25 and brought it back. It was realistically priced - the market in northern california was non-existent this year.