Yacht Broker Boats for Sale

• Problem Selling Your Boat
• High broker commission rates
• The problem with selling a boat
• Boats can be hard to sell.

The biggest hurdle in selling a yacht or cruiser is normally finding seriously interested potential buyers in the first place. Most boat owners don’t know fully how to go about finding these buyers without spending an extortionate amount in the yachting press which if doesn’t work is money wasted that month.

Most will therefore resort to paying brokers fees and commissions at about 6% to 8% of the boats value. That can in fact work out to quite a lot of money in real terms. A regular £250,000 yacht or cruiser for sale would typically cost about £15,000 to £20,000. (even a UK Estate Agent only charges 1.5 to 2.5% of a property and your boat is probably worth more than the average property...)

By the time you drop on your asking price with your £250,000 boat is starting to look more like £220,000 or less.For that commission and loss you get a yacht broker who will list your boat in their adverts and on their website amongst all the other listing they have hoping someone will come along that fits the profile and they can make a sale which may or may not be your boat of course.

Occasionally they will take a phone call about it and then phone you to tell you they have taken a phone call. Eventually if you are lucky they will show a buyer around your boat and pass on any offer made for you to consider. They say they are working in your interests but if they can get a sale by recommending you drop the price then they are surely going to.Ten percent off for you is a whopping £25,000 but it is only £2,500 out of the brokers fee and they pocket 12,500 in this example. It’s easy for them to give away your £25,000 as it doesn’t cost them in the same way. Chances are you will probably want to meet a buyer at your boat to show them around properly and size up how serious the interest is for yourself.

Ten percent off for you is a whopping £25,000 but it is only £2,500 out of the brokers fee and they pocket at least £12,500 in this example. It’s easy for them to give away your £25,000 as it doesn’t cost them in real terms in the same way.Now for the real kick in the ging gang goos....

Recently a leading global yacht broker sent round a leaflet advertising that “we sell 20% of all the boats that are listed with us” as if that were some claim to great achievement –they seemed to think so hence the headline on the leaflet.

We read it differently – “ we don’t sell 80% of all the boats that are listed with us” ....! You could be sitting on your boat for sale for months or years with a broker. How much will it depreciate in today’s economic climate? Our bet is you will loose at least another 10% through depreciation on your boat by the time you come to sell it. What’s the loss on selling it so far £25 / 35,000?... to us it is a claim to something other than achievement.

I know from my boating contacts that this is a typical experience for many people trying to sell their cruisers or yachts. Many have had their boats on the market for years. They can’t get out of any finance on the boat and are suffering depreciation on it at the same time. If they are changing or moving up with their boat they can’t until the old one is gone or are at best if wealthy enough stuck with two boats at the same time – extra mooring fees, extra lifts and maintenance are only a couple of things that come to mind here.

There has to be an easier and more cost effective way to sell - there is – Boats in Focus!