Compare Internet Boat Sales Listings
The true value of a boat quite simply depends on how much a buyer is willing to pay for it, and many sellers start with a high price and drop it through time until the boat sells. In fact, the time it takes to get from an initial listing to a final sale is a factor professional boat dealers consider when trying to figure out just how to price a boat.
So, you have to recognize that when you look at boat listings on the internet, many of the asking prices you will see are a bit far-fetched.
- Online boat listings generally run on the high side, since boats that are priced too low get snapped up quickly, and then the listing disappears.
- While you may see a lowball listing here or there, expect that the numbers you generally see can be a bit inflated.
- Also note that while researching how to price a boat by looking at internet listings youll have to sift through a huge number of listings that dont actually state a price.
Five Criteria To Help Assess Vintage Boat Values:
To help price a vintage boat you want to purchase or sell, get acquainted with available online resources. Boat clubs and shows are great places to learn the basics and classic and wooden boat shows take place all around the country. Other resources include the Antique and Classic Boat Society, the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club, the Antique Boat Center, Antique Boat America and Woody Boat magazine. Also, a visit to a wooden boat restorer will help assess what it takes to work on, maintain and budget for classic boat ownership.
Acceptance Or Rejection Of The Vessel
Following the completion of the survey, receiving satisfactory answers to any remaining questions and being comfortable with the overall understanding of the boat you are considering, there is one question that remains: Are you ready to own this boat?
Typically there are three answers to this question, each with a different path to take in the purchase process. They are acceptance of the vessel, conditional acceptance of the vessel and rejection of the vessel.
Acceptance of the vessel occurs when no major surprises occurred during the survey process. Perhaps there are a few minor issues, but nothing major. If acceptance is desired, the buyer can submit a clean acceptance of the vessel which means that you are ready to accept the boat as-is, close the deal and take possession of the boat. If submitting the acceptance, the buyers 10% deposit typically becomes non-refundable at this point and both parties proceed to closing.
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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.
What Affects Used Boat Value And Price
There are a number of factors that determine the value of a pre-owned vessel. The most obvious ones include size, age and model. After that, there are more subtle elements like condition, location and equipment.
Condition divides into three general categories. Mechanical , rigging , and cosmetics
Boat location and condition are big factors in the value and asking price for boats for sale.
As previously mentioned, location will increase or decrease the price as well. In areas where boats are highly-concentrated such as lakes, rivers and the East Coast of the U.S., prices may be somewhat depressed due to a larger supply. However, selling a boat where there is a small population can also decrease the number of buyers and the price may adjust 10-15% downward. Use in salt or freshwater also affects the value since freshwater boats often have fewer corrosion issues.
Finally, the way a boat is outfitted makes a difference. Updated electronics are attractive and will raise the appeal of a vessel. However, electronics become obsolete quickly, so a savvy buyer will not put much of a premium for these if they are getting older. If the vessel has advanced electronics including AIS, satellite communications and radar, these will generally raise the price because they arent typical upgrades.
Boat electronics, navigational and communications equipment can add value to the vessel making them worth more in the eyes of interested buyers.
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Negotiating Your Boat Purchase
Before you even begin to negotiate a final deal, make sure youve already gone through all of the above research and come to the table armed with solid background knowledge. Boat dealers know that todays buyers are savvy, can research boat prices, and have probably already talked with their competition. They know just what their overhead costs are and what level of profit they need to make to stay in business. Ask an honest dealer what the bottom-line price is, and youre likely to get a straight answer.
That doesnt mean, however, that you cant make some special requests. Dealers can sometimes add an extended warranty or an option or two to sweeten the deal, without taking too much of a hit. And remember, youll often be able to get a better deal if you:
- Buy a boat during the off-season or at the very end of the boating season, when dealers really want to move their inventory.
- Buy a leftover model year boat, which the dealer wants to move to make way for the next model year.
- Buy at a boat show, where the dealer may offer special incentives or reductions.
- Order a boat as opposed to buying off the lot, so the dealer doesnt have to pay floor plan .
To learn more about the entire buying process, financing or ownership costs, be sure to read:
Who Pays For A Condition Survey
If the seller wants to have a good survey in his pocket to make the boat easier to sell for a higher price, then he pays for the survey. If a buyer wants to know the condition of the vessel he is about to purchase, then he pays for the survey. That cost is nonrefundable even if the deal falls through so its best for the buyer to survey only those boats that are serious contenders.
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Research Local Boats For Sale Listings
Whether youre looking at a local newspaper, magazine, or localized internet listings like those on Craigslist, since the volume of listings will be lower than the national numbers you may have a tougher time finding directly comparable makes and models for sale.
That said, if you do find similar boats listed you may see a more realistic number because the location the boats being sold in is the same as your own and location does impact value. On the flip side of the coin, its still normal to see somewhat inflated numbers as boats priced properly tend to sell faster and be listed for shorter periods of time than those that are overpriced.
After looking at these three sources you may feel like youve managed to uncover how much you should ask for your boat, but there are still variables you need to account for before you can answer the how to price my boat for sale question. These include:
- The boats condition
- The quality of its electronics and how modern they are
- Accessory gear and/or upgrades youve made to the boat
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What Is My Boat Worth
Selling your boat can be a time of joy or sadness, depending on your reason for selling. But whether you are trading in for a new model or giving up the seafaring lifestyle, you want to get the best price for your boat. This means knowing what your boat is worth so that you can negotiate the best deal.
Many factors go into determining the price of your boat. These include the make, model, age, and condition, among other factors. First, let us take a closer look at how to estimate your boats value.
Final Thoughts On Boat Pricing
After checking with guides, speaking with brokers, comparing online resources and histories and paying for a C& V survey, the bottom line on boat pricing is how much is the boat worth to you? That may move the price up or down. If youre the seller in need of fast cash, youll take less. If youre an emotional buyer with the dream of a wet summer, youll pay more.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Research The Market Price
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.
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Visit The Boat Manufacturers Website
Some boat manufacturers offer a builder tool on their website, and many include pricing. Some will offer to email you a quote after you complete a virtual build. These often allow you to price different features and options and can be very helpful in determining the value of the package youre looking at.
We have a list of links for NMMA Certified Boat Brands & Manufacturers to help lead your search.
Is There A Blue Book For Boat Values
Its natural to wonder How much is my boat worth? or What should I pay when I buy a boat?, but its also important to ask Who is providing the information?.
So lets establish this up front: There are no Kelley Blue Book® Values for boats, unless its a personal watercraft. So if youre looking for a value for your personal watercraft, were happy to help. Of course, if you need a value for a passenger vehicle, motorcycle or snowmobile, we can help there too.
But if youre looking for boat values, where can you turn since Kelley Blue Book doesnt offer them?
If you pull up a search engine and type in boat values or Blue Book boat values or boat values KBB, a lot of sites come up. Most are legitimate, like Boat Wizard and ABOS Marine. They can give you a good general idea of the price of a boat like yours or the boat you might consider adding to your fleet.
But be careful. Not all boat value sites are legitimate. Almost every site out there throws the words Blue Book in there to confuse the issue. Some sites cover their pages with phrases like Boat Blue Book Value or KBB Boat Book to ty to attract shoppers and search engines alike. They hope youll assume that their boat values are genuine Kelley Blue Book boat values.
But theyre not.
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Great Values In Used Boats
If you don’t want to pay full price for a new boat but want something modern and reliable, these five picks are good starting points.
There are plenty of classics out there and countless old used boats in need of a rehab. But what if you’d like to get one new enough that its tech isn’t ancient and its systems aren’t all worn out? It certainly can be done, and whether you’re in the market for a runabout, cruiser, center-console, watersports boat, or sailboat, there’s almost certainly one out there with less than a decade of service that costs about half as much as buying new.
Used boat values can vary radically due to location and condition, so there’s no hard and fast rule as to just how much a boat will devalue over time. That said, most boats depreciate quite a bit when first sold, then devalue less year by year until, at some point, prices more or less stabilize. Find a boat of this vintage in good shape, and you could pay not much more than you would for the same model with additional years of use on it. In this used-boat sweet spot, we find the following five boats particularly attractive and include some other gems in case you want to cast a wider net.
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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What Guide Do I Use To Find My Boats Price
NADA is the blue book that both buyers and sellers refer to when trying to price a water craft. In fact most banks refer to it when they are considering giving out a loan with the boat as security or if the client is considering buying a boat.
The NadaGuides.com website is where you will want to start off to determine the selling price of a boat as it will give you the low and high value of the boat. Off course you should understand that NADA may not be able to ascertain the actual condition of the boat so damages to it may bring down its value when the bidding starts, but you may not get that information there.
