Thinking of selling our Northshore 27 which we have on a mooring in Jervis Bay. They seem to be for sale at around the $20k mark.
What do people think of the following;
- would I be better sailing her to Sydney and getting a temp mooring to show her off
- is it worth employing a broker, Batemans Bay or Sydney
- needs to have an antifoul job, should I leave it for when someone is interested to buy and hauls her out for survey and do i t then
- does anyone have any other tips for a successful sale
cheers
It might take a while to sell so paying for a Sydney mooring might become a problem and you would need to use a broker. I don't know what brokers charge for a cheaper boat but it might take a chunk out of $20K. As the mooring fees (probably $2-300 a month) buildup the broker will be in a position to get you to take any offer just to offload it.
If you have the time to take tyre kickers out for a look and don't mind how long it takes do it yourself in JB.
Presentation is everything but it depends on how much time and effort you want to put in. It probably won't affect the sale price because potential buyers are usually enthusiastic and there will be one that won't mind a bit of cleaning. But it could well slow the sale process considerably.
Personally, I turn away from boats that smell of bilge water, wet furnishings and diesel, although a bit of the latter is often unavoidable.
If the boat is clean, tidy and doesn't smell when you open the hatch you will be way ahead.
Also give the topside and decks a good wipe down.
If the seller said they would pay for an antifoul at purchase that would do me. Others might want to see a clean hull as they first approach the boat. If you do the antifoul first and it doesn't sell in 6 months or so it might turn out to be wasted money.
Two best days of a boat owners life, day they bought and the day they sold it.
Brokers will probably want around 10% which like MB says is a big chunk and could be your negotiating tool if you sell yourself.
I would try on Gumtree first for a few weeks myself and see how you go.
Defiantly antifoul , buyers don't want extra work and extra costs. Also if they want a survey the inspection can be taken out on a short lift.
I antifouled my previous boats and then got a purchase survey done to forward to prospective buyers including a bunch of antifouled and polished hull pics.
You can also download a bill of sale copy for the prospective buyer to sign once the deal takes place, saving about $2k going through a broker.
I am with Morning Bird, make sure the boat is well detailed inside and out with no smells. I am always weary of boats with fresh anti fouling as it can hide things. Most buyers don't mind doing a fresh anti foul if needed, but I would make sure the bottom is cleaned prior to a slipping inspection or test sail. Dive yourself or pay a diver. I have always sold my boats privately with no problems and quickly but they have all been presented immaculate.
If I can throw something else in.
Photos. Loads of photos. Inside and out. From the wheel and from another boat with the sails up. Reeeeally clean up inside, and for chrissakes, move your dirty jocks off the table you're taking a photo of!
Documentation is a big thing for me.
I can provide you with a receipt for just about every dollar we have spent since owning our boat. We also keep a detailed ships log of every outing, engine hours, every maintenance item/action, fuel, oil, parts, the works. You could look at the log to see when the last engine oil change was done, and match it to receipts for the oil (we do mostly all our own maintenance). We have copies of every owners manual, maintenance manual, and user guide for pretty much every item or system on the boat. Complete electrical schematics, plumbing etc. The ships log book and a google drive storage gives every detail about the boat and what we have done.
The boat had a good maintenance history of this stuff before we bought it, not quite like our record keeping, but pretty good. It gave us a lot of confidence in what we were buying.
https://yachthub.com/list/yachts-for-sale/used/sail-monohulls/northshore-27/227338
www.mysailing.com.au/news/the-ultimate-270-an-affordable-cruiser
If you want to sell it have it ready to use so they are buying a holiday dream not a load of hard work. But in the end it's price that is important. That boat will sell tomorrow if its cheap enough.