 | If I decide to buy a used boat, should I use a broker? |
| If you have plenty of time on your hands you could locate a good used boat at a fair price without a boat broker. Unless you find a boat for sale by owner, you end up working with a boat broker anyway - the listing agent.
Do you homework and end up with an agent who has your long-term interests at heart. You're not paying for his time and expertise until you purchase a boat through him.
Keeping several brokers in competition against one another often results in no one giving you the time that you'll require.
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| Should I avoid a boat if the manufacturer has gone out of business or is currently undergoing hard times? |
| Emphatically, no. There are plenty of good used boats on the market from manufacturers who couldn't survive the poor economy of the past several years. The parts you will need from time to time are always available from catalog outlets or suppliers. Engine parts, of course, are easily secured from a number of sources. Generally speaking, there are no components used in a production model that cannot be replaced (or) repaired by a good yard.
Note that many of the most popular boat models on today's brokerage market were built by companies now out of business.
For resale, should I only consider a brand of boat with big-name market reputation?
There is no question that certain popular brands have consistenly higher resale values. There are, however, many designs from small or regional builders that are highly sought after knowledgeable boaters. Often, the market for these models is tighter and generally less saturated than the high production designs - a factor that often works to a seller's advantage.
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| How can I spot s boat that's been fished hard? |
| Many owners of expensive sport fisherman employ full-time captains to maintain their watercraft to new-boat standarts. Generally, how a boat has been maintained will determine what kind of service to expect more than the number of hours she's been fished. It's obvious that a five-year-old Davis 47 with tuna tower, outriggers, and a full electronics package sitting in Palm Beach with 1,500 hours on the meters has been fished - the question is whether she's been well maintained during her lifetime.
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| Should I reject a boat with bottom blisters? |
| Generally, no. Blisters can almost always be repaired, although the process can require a fair amount of time and expense. With that in mind, it is rare indeed to see a blistering problem so severe that it actually effects the intergrity of the hull.
While some used boats tend to re-blister again and again, most bottoms properly dried and protected should remain blister-free for five years or longer.
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