Best time to buy a used boat?

B

beachit

New Member
Nov 18, 2020
12
Boat Info
Sundeck 240
Engines
boatless
Hello everyone,

Looking at a few boats and one in particular is a Sundeck 240. Out of curiosity, when is the best time to buy a boat? I'm up in Maryland/DE and most of the boats here are getting winterized as the temps are dropping quickly. I'm looking at used boats. Are dealers more motivated to sell before they winterize since afterward sea trials are more difficult? We are going from camping so I'm thinking the market is similar to the RV market with an "off season" drop off in buyers. Thinking about sea trialing a 07 tomorrow or saturday since its gonna be decent weather but if I buy now, its just gonna sit there and collect dus....make that snow. Any advice is appreciated.
 
Probably just before winter. Many prefer to sell and make winterization the buyer's problem. It's also the case that there aren't a lot of buyers at that time of year because who wants to buy a new expensive toy and not get to enjoy it for a few months?

Now enter Covid, and forget everything I just said.
 
The best time to buy is when you find it. Good used boats are selling like crazy and many of them before they hit the market. I have dealt with the Searay dealer down there in Annapolis .... I had a great saleswoman there... at the time I was looking for a 240 Sundeck for the lake we live on here in Indy. As soon as one came up on broker or trade she was calling me with phone pictures.
Talk to a few dealers you are willing to travel to on a moments notice and tell them you are serious.... have the money ready and at each dealer a surveyor on call.
I have literally beat another customer by a half an hour when I was 3 hours away from a boat up on Michigan once
 
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Blueone said:
The best time to buy is when you find it. Good used boats are selling like crazy and many of them before they hit the market. I have dealt with the Searay dealer down there in Annapolis .... I had a great saleswoman there... at the time I was looking for a 240 Sundeck for the lake we live on here in Indy. As soon as one came up on broker or trade she was calling me with phone pictures.
Talk to a few dealers you are willing to travel to on a moments notice and tell them you are serious.... have the money ready and at each dealer a surveyor on call.
I have literally beat another customer by a half an hour when I was 3 hours away from the boat up on Michigan
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Thanks, you bring up another point I wanted to ask about which was having a surveyor. When I mentioned it to the dealer, he said I could bring a surveyor with me but that they rarely had customers use them on smaller boats like the 240. He then made it clear that I could bring one. His comment struck me as odd. Spending a few hundred dollars regardless if its on a 25k boat or a 2.5 mil boat seems like a small price to pay for peace of mind.
 
bobeast said:
Probably just before winter. Many prefer to sell and make winterization the buyer's problem. It's also the case that there aren't a lot of buyers at that time of year because who wants to buy a new expensive toy and not get to enjoy it for a few months?

Now enter Covid, and forget everything I just said.
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No kidding on Covid driving the market crazy. I'm very patient when I'm shopping for large ticket items because, as they say, "there is always a good deal" and making emotional quick decisions on expensive toys can get you in trouble. With Covid, its obviously a sellers market and I don't see it changing in 2021 sadly.
 
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Really anytime is a good time if you are serious. You make the offer contingent on a successful survey and sea trial. If the boat is in storage, get a contract signed and conduct your due diligence when the weather improves in the spring. My last boat went into contract while it was in winter storage and closed soon after the ice went out.
 
Good used boats around here are selling in less than a week. For every good used boat there are 25 pieces of ****, so you have to know what you're looking for and move quickly when you find it. I bought my current boat in October 2019. It was listed on Sunday, I called Sunday night and arranged to look at it Tuesday night, looked at it Tuesday night and ran the engine on muffs, put a deposit down Tuesday night contingent on a sea trial, sea trialed it on Saturday, and purchased it on Saturday. The boat was on the market for less than a week. It was the 12th boat I looked at. The previous 11 were pieces of ****.
 
The boat I’m buying was listed on Yachtworld on Thursday. I was in contact on it on Monday. I had 40 minutes to decide or the next person in line had it.

I had known about it before the listing went public and had a friend look at it in person, so it wasn’t quite that rushed. But you get the idea.
 
Not for lack of interest.........but, I've heard every conceivable reason an otherwise viable contact couldn't proceed...........size limit in their favorite marina (2 times), couldn't get a loan for a boat because of Covid (?), wife wanted a black hull boat, wife didn't want a mica interior (there are 28 photos on the listing....figure it out!, can't come until after the Holidays.

Honestly, I probably advertised the boat too early, but this is one of the best boating seasons in NW Fla where the boat is located. I'll probably extend the listing to get exposure to northern buyers when they start shopping.

But we aren't desperate and aren't discouraged. There are very few really nice boats on the market around here, and this is one, so she will sell when we find thge right buyer.
 
fwebster said:
Not for lack of interest.........but, I've heard every conceivable reason an otherwise viable contact couldn't proceed...........size limit in their favorite marina (2 times), couldn't get a loan for a boat because of Covid (?), wife wanted a black hull boat, wife didn't want a mica interior (there are 28 photos on the listing....figure it out!, can't come until after the Holidays.

Honestly, I probably advertised the boat too early, but this is one of the best boating seasons in NW Fla where the boat is located. I'll probably extend the listing to get exposure to northern buyers when they start shopping.

But we aren't desperate and aren't discouraged. There are very few really nice boats on the market around here, and this is one, so she will sell when we find thge right buyer.
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That's a great vessel. I saw one in Michigan for 100 grand more.
 
Get the survey! I'm assuming you can't really do a sea trial right now due to the cold weather, so you need to have a mechanic check it out. You could leave a deposit, sign a contract dependent upon survey, but don't let them push you around on it. Get the survey!

Unless you want to wait a year, now is probably the best time to buy. You have a month or two at most to dive into a quiet market. It's going to start heating up again in Feb or March. If you are able to wait a year, then you may get some deals from people who thought a boat was a good idea in 2020, then realized the cost of storage and maintenance, and then found out they don't use it in 2021. But that's a long time to wait for a "potential opportunity".
 
The best time is now.....we put our 2017 Crownline on the market a little over a month ago and in 6 days an out of state buyer paid us almost full asking price.We got lucky and he got a very clean boat with 105 hours.
 
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sbw1 said:
View attachment 95222
Yes. Provided the price is right. Many nice boats do not sell because they are not priced right. While boats are moving, don't be stampeded into overpaying.
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+1. The reason I moved so quickly on my current boat was it was in good shape AND priced $1500 below the NADA price. It was October, the previous owner had already purchased a bigger boat, and his wife wanted this boat out of their driveway. He wanted to sell the boat quickly and priced it accordingly. A boat that's in good shape but is overpriced is not a good boat to buy.
 
The best time to buy is when you find a good clean example of the boat you’re looking for.
The lower priced used boat is not always the cheapest.
There are nice used boats out there for sure, but there are a lot more that haven’t been maintained all that well.
I wouldn’t pass up a really good one because of the date on the calendar or for a few extra bucks.
You may wait a long time to come across another one if you do.
 
A broker I respect once told me the phone starts to ring when the price is right. When the price is right, the boat sells.
Garwood 003.jpg
 
sbw1 said:
A broker I respect once told me the phone starts to ring when the price is right. When the price is right, the boat sells.View attachment 95239
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So true, when I was searching for a 380, I set my search at 100k and the boat I bought was listed above that, so never seen it. When they lowered it to $99,900 it popped up in my search. Made an offer within a couple weeks and had a deal a couple days after. I didn’t get a screaming deal, but it was what I considered fair for the market at the time.

the people that had 380’s priced from 110-150k were not wanting to sell, as much as trying to make money or get some of their investment back.

don’t get me wrong, after a couple years I will have spent close to $20k on upgrades (not repairs). Maybe I could of got those for 10-15k more on purchase price, just wasn’t prepared for that with a daughter in college getting her masters. Now is better time for that....
 
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That's pretty much what I was told by the broker. He said it common to hear from prospects that they have been watching a particular boat for a while and waiting for the price to come down. We did sell our boat for a premium to the first person to look at it. However, we had to reduce the price by $2,000 to make the sale happen. I have not seen another sale equal to what ours sold for so I believe we maximized the price. And, the buyer got a boat that was close to Bristol condition and is loving it. A good time was had by all. Selling is an emotional experience for the seller as well as the buyer. Many people think their boat is better than others and worth the price they ask. This is seldom the case.
We just went through this with selling our lake house. There were 6 homes on the lake that were priced about the same. Ours received 4 offers and closed. The other owners were shadow pricing ours but the properties were not quite as nice. Those homes are still on the market accruing taxes and heating costs. We have our money invested. Once again it boils down to setting a realistic price.
 
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