Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Boat Evaluation for Buyers and Sellers

By John Howard

From the viewpoint of the seller of a boat or yacht, but just as well for other involved people such as buyers, brokers, and marine surveyors, finding out the monetary worth of a marine vessel is one of the most crucial but also one of the most harrowing aspects of marine life.

As the potential seller of a boat or yacht, whether owned for pleasure or for fishing, and whether you plan to reinvest the proceeds of the sale into another boat or not, it is critical that you get the maximum used boat value from your vessel.

Even if you are buying, or trading in used boat for a new one, you should not let anyone fool you into believing that you should get anything but the best from the arrangement, and for this it is crucial that you manage appraise your boat correctly as a precursor to getting the best value out of it. .

This is, unfortunately, harder than it seems. Boat prices fluctuate a lot due to a series of sometimes obscure circumstances, such as the place you are in and the season of the year, and these are all things you need to be aware of. Otherwise you may strike what seems a great deal, but in hindsight you may then notice that the transaction left you worse off by thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

Therefore, the correct amount of forethought and organization is essential before finalizing any deal and for this, you have the option of either doing the evaluation yourself, or to hire a broker. Hiring a broker is the most straightforward solution, but it remains to be proven that the broker will earn his money's worth.

But then again, doing your own evaluation is a perfectly legitimate tactic, as long as you are willing to put in some work to educate yourself. And believe it or not, many people manage to do their evaluation better than the professionals.

To become your own appraiser for boat values, you need to look at as many resources as possible - and there are plenty of books and websites on the subject. Your aim should be to come up with realistic minimum and maximum process for the kind of boat you want or are about to sell.

For this, trade magazine classifieds (whether online or offline) are a fantastic place to start. Systematically collecting and comparing ads for similar boat classes over time will give you a very good idea of offer and demand, and therefore of current price levels.

Your next stop should me your local marina's party or some other kind of social get-together, where you can find other boat owners that can brief you on the current state of the market.

Lots of new makes and models are introduced in these festivals every year and so you Going to trade shows will also allow you to get an idea of current fashion. What is in fashion sells, and if you can add slight modifications to your vessel to make it look hotter, your boat's value will increase.

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