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Does Kelley Blue Book Have Boat Values
Outside of personal watercraft , Kelley Blue Book doesnt provide values for other kinds of boats. This also includes boat-related products like outboard motors and trailers.
Why doesnt Kelley Blue Book have boat values? Good data is too hard to come by. Its impossible to get a large enough sample size to set a boat value with the confidence and accuracy we demand. We dont put the name Kelly Blue Book on just any value. We have almost a century of valuation expertise and trust to consider.
Kelley Blue Book only provides trade-in values, private party values and Fair Market Range when we can get our hands on enough actual transactions, across a wide enough range of the country, to ensure we can produce values that are both fair to all parties and reflect the ever-changing market.
Getting a value for a boat isnt easy, which is why many people choose to work with a professional boat surveyor. In the end, there are online sources that can give you an estimate, but Kelley Blue Book/KBB.com isnt behind any of them. Good luck.
Boat Values And Prices Shouldnt Be A Mystery Heres How They Work
Understanding boat prices should be like understanding car prices, right? Just look up the NADA or Kelley blue book value and youre on your way.
Unfortunately its not that easy! Why? Because many personal watercraft and boat models arent listed in boat value guides.
Fortunately there are a few different way to go about determining what a boat is worth. Well walk you through each of these options.
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Step : Evaluate The List Price
We always take the listed price with a few grains of salt. From talking to yacht broker friends and from our own experiences, boats almost never sell for the list price. In fact, its just a starting point for negotiations. It is usually set high because the culture in sailing is to offer 70-80% of the list price.
Craigslist is especially useful for finding cheap boats, we share the secrets for searching out great deals on Craigslist.
If we are interested in a boat we usually ask for a copy of the most recent yacht survey. The survey will tell you a bit about the boats history and what the boat was worth at the time of the survey. Beware of sellers who use 10-20 year old survey reports to justify their current asking price.
Example:
I go on Craigslist and find a Dufour 35 sailboat from 1979, listed at $20,000. I contact the seller and ask for the most recent survey. They send me a 15-year old survey that lists the boats value at the as $45,000.
Is There A Kelley Blue Book For Boats
Pricing a boat can be a nebulous equation that takes into account science, art, and of course personal taste. The final price generally depends heavily on how much the buyer likes the boat versus how savvy the dealer is at forging a deal. It’d be great to have a starting point. So is there a Kelley Blue Book for boats? As a matter of fact, there is. Multiple options are available and while they vary a bit in price, they should at least give you a decent starting point.
If you want to get the best price possible, your boat will need to look its best. The Better Boat is here to help with that! Whether that’s keeping your deck looking amazing with , shining the hull with boat marine polish, or keeping your chrome and metal gleaming with a quality marine metal polish. Maintenance is extremely important when it comes to the possibility of reselling. You can’t undo decades of wear and tear overnight, so keep your boat looking great at all times.
No matter how great your boat is looking, there will be a bit of discrepancy in the price which is up to you and the buyer or seller to decipher. We will go over all of these options that you can use as a Kelley Blue Book for boats. There are some significant pros and cons, so we’ll assist you in finding the pricing method that is the right one for you. Buying or selling/pricing a boat doesn’t need to be difficult, and we will make it as easy as possible for you. So let’s get started!
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Beneteau Oceanis 55 Series
I had a lot of trouble finding data on sailboats, but Beneteau had a model that has run for the last 10 years. It is a large 55 sailboat and is considered a sailing yacht.
This sailboat sells for $550,000.00 new.
- 3 YearThree years into ownership of this sailing yacht, youve lost $50,000.00 in value. This is a loss of $16,667.00 per year but only a loss of 9% of its value.
- 5 YearsAt five years, this boat is selling for $465,000.00. This is $85,000.00 less than its original value, and the owner will have lost $17,000.00 per year. 85% of the value is still left in this sailboat.
- 10 YearsAfter 10 years, this sailboat still sells for $400,000.00, but it has lost $150,000.00 in value. This puts it at a $15,000.00 loss per year. It is now worth 73% of what the original owner paid for it.
At first, I found these numbers surprising.
With expensive cars, you usually notice a staggering amount of depreciation within the first few years.
However, these boats seem to keep their value better than the smaller and less expensive models.
A sailing yacht seems to have a steady depreciation rate so that you could buy a new one, and you wont have any large variations in losses throughout the first ten years.
These boats have high price tags, so my advice would be to use a broker or spend some time learning how to negotiate.
Get good at shopping and negotiating, and you could end up saving tens of thousands of dollars on your boat purchase.
Boat Values And Pricing Guide
Valuing a boat depends on numerous factors, but in the end its part science, part art and part personal taste. When selling a boat, sellers will often ask, How much is my boat worth? and buyers in turn frequently wonder, Will I overpay for my boat? Of course the final price hinges on both the buyers affinity for the vessel and the sellers proclivity for making a deal.
The process of researching, valuing and pricing a used boat is vital for both sellers and buyers in order to make sure both parties have an accurate view of the proper boat value.
It can be said that the process of pricing a boat broadly resembles that of valuing a home or used car. Remember the old saying, location, location, location! As with homes, location may indeed play a big role in a specific boats value as well. For example, a deep sea offshore fishing boat with a large draft and wide beam may not be as desirable in an inland region where shallow bodies of water are the only boating destinations nearby and buyers would prefer a trailerable boat. Similarly, a car with high mileage depreciates in value the same way a boat with high engine hours loses value.
Lets take a closer look at new boat prices from dealers, versus pre-owned boat prices from individual private sellers and/or brokers.
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Use A Price Curve To Estimate Used Boat Market Values Over Time
In evaluating a particular boat we have as gone as far as making depreciation curves. Dont worry it sounds complicated, but its not. You can .
We collect all the listings for comparable boats in Excel and then plot them on a scatter-plot graph.
For example, if we are looking at a 41 Beneteau, we search for all Beneteaus in the 40-43 range. We put the age and price of every boat into an excel document and plot them on a scatter-plot graph.
Next, we add a trend line to fit the data. This will give us an idea of what the price of the boat is doing over time and we can project where the price will be going in the next few years.
If we are planning to sell in a few years we would want to be near the beginning of a low slope segment of the trend line. Sometimes the trend line is skewed by overly-idealistic sellers or junk boats, which we consider outliers and often strike from the data.
Example:
I plug the prices I find into the Calculator and I get the following trend line. The more data points you add to the excel sheet the better your estimate will be! 5 data points is not great, but its all I could find for a Dufour 35. Based on this curve line I should assume that a 1979 Dufour 35 is worth ~ $29,000.
Determine The Boats Cash Value
Before you sell your boat, you will need to determine your boats cash value. Note that this is not the same as the trade-in value, which we will discuss separately. Instead, it is the amount of money you could expect someone to pay in your local market.
Those last three words are key. Boats can be worth more or less based on local supply and demand. For instance, a boat with a deep draft will have more value in a location with more deep water and more places to take it.
Even so, it can often be helpful to check the National Automobile Dealers Association Marine Appraisal Guide , ABOS Marine Blue Book, and BOS guidelines. These are national listings that should be taken with a grain of salt. Still, they can give you a reasonable ballpark estimate of your boats approximate value.
To get a better estimate for your area, check local listings for boats of a similar type and age. This will tell you what similar boats are selling for in your location and give you a better estimate of your value.
Of course, every boat has its own history, and many have some kind of aftermarket modification. A dealer or mechanic can give you an excellent estimate of your boats value based on its individual profile. Be careful with dealership estimates, though. If they think you are looking for a trade-in, they are more likely to give you a lowball offer.
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How To Find The Right Price When Buying Or Selling A Boat
Naturally a boat buyer always wants to pay the lowest fair price possible, so after presenting a boat as best as you can, it makes sense that pricing is perhaps the next most important step of selling a boat. And its very difficult to assess exactly what a boats worth is in the most buoyant of markets, let alone the relatively weak one thats bumped along for the past few years.
So, how do a buyer and a seller know if the price being negotiated is fair? The most common advice says that all you need to do is to look at similar boats that are currently advertised, and use their prices as a guide. Unfortunately, many owners have an inflated idea of their boats value, often as a result of mistakenly assuming that theyll recoup most of the money theyve spent on upgrading on the vessel, or perhaps letting their emotion for the boat get in the way of reason. The bottom line is that there are a disproportionate number of advertisements for over-priced boats on the market, at any given time. And unfortunately, most of these boats dont get used and maintained regularly and as a result they quickly start to look shabby. Most are eventually sold, years later, for a fraction of the original asking price. And by then, they may have cost their owners thousandsor even tens of thousandsof dollars.
How Long Does It Take To Sell A Boat
When considering price its also important to appreciate how long it takes, on average, to sell a boat. Currently this varies from around eight months for boats 26 to 35 to almost 12 months for a boat 46 to 55. For every boat that sells in a couple of months, theres another that takes two or three years. For sellers, this means its worth starting out with a realistic price that attracts a steady stream of shoppers. This is particularly true for lower value boats, where the annual costs of moorings, insurance, maintenance, and repairs can add up to be a significant proportion of the vessels value.
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Get Accurate Nada Boat Values Quickly Online
Whether you’re looking to buy a sleek powerboat, to sell your trusty old fishing boat or to trade one yacht for another, you’ll have to have an accurate boat value to be sure you’re getting the most out of the deal.
For boats, outboard motors or trailers, simply click the link at the bottom of the page to begin calculating their value. You’ll be taken step by step through the process of choosing the model, selecting the features and calculating the most accurate low and high resale values.
NADA is one of the most trusted names in car and boat values. They collect resale information about hundreds of manufacturers and the sales transactions of thousands of boats annually. That’s why we partnered with them to provide a quick and easy tool that allows you to instantly find the proper value for practically all used boats made between 1970 and last year.
We’re delighted to provide this service to our online guests. By becoming a member of the American Boating Association, you’ll receive more exclusive benefits. Get great deals on boat loans, boat insurance and discounts and more can be yours for only $15 per year. Join over 30,000 fellow boaters who support ABA’s mission to promote boating safety, affordability, growth, a clean environment and fun! Get all the details of membership now! Want a free one-year membershipin the ABA? We’ll show you how to get yours.
How To Use The Nada Guide To Determine A Boats Value
The memories you have created on your boat make it very precious and placing a monetary value to it may become a bit of a challenge when you want to sell it. Or you just may not have the knowledge needed to value it. And the same is true on the buying side – you want to make sure when buying boats, that you are not overpaying. Well that is why the NADA Guide is one of the best places to go when you want to determine the value of your boat.
One of the most common questions we receive at Nada Book Info is, “How do I find my boat’s value?”
It may seem simple for many of you on how to value your boat, but it is understandable that many people may not know how to use the NADA Guide website to determine the value of the boat. There are a lot of different options to choose. But don’t worry, below we will walk you step by step, and by the end of the article you will be sailing right through!
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Pricing A Preowned Boat
Preowned boats are much more difficult to get a decent price for. Used boats are almost never pristine, no matter how well they are maintained. There are three overall categories that can be used to determine a boat’s condition. From most important to least: Mechanical such as engine hours and performance, status of the hull, health of the deck, etc. After that comes the boat’s rigging which include the mast, boom, sails, stays, and shrouds.
Arguably the least important category is the cosmetic side of things. Is the gel coat intact? Is the wood trim deteriorating? You can easily patch cosmetic issues long enough for the sale to go through, and honestly as long as the engine and rigging are in working order I don’t much mind sailing on a boat that isn’t the prettiest thing on the water. I say it just adds personality… Or maybe that’s just my way of compensating. Regardless, many cosmetic repairs are easy fixes that you can do yourself with very little experience or investment.
Step : Value By The Numbers What Will It Cost To Get The Boat To Fair Condition
When we go to inspect a boat, we write down any projects and repairs that will need to be done . Our goal is to list all the boat systems that need work and any parts that should be repaired or replaced. Next we assign a material and labor cost to each project.
In general, we dont add normal maintenance costs because that would skew the value and be unfair to the seller. The exception is if the seller hasnt been maintaining the boat and we would be playing catch up.
We add all of the repair costs to the list price for a total . Often we often multiply the repair costs by 1.25 as weve found we are usually optimistic about price and time.
Example:
Upon inspecting the Dufour 35 I discover there is some work to be done! The GPS doesnt work , the main sail is wrecked beyond repair and the furler needs to be replaced . Ill have to spend at least $6,000 fixing up the boat, which I multiply by a factor of 1.25 . So, I estimate it will be $7,500 to get the boat into fair condition.
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