by Chuck Meyers, Jarratt Bay Yacht Sales
It is one of the two happiest days of a
boater’s life the old saying goes, the day you sell your boat.
What can make this day even better is if you have found a buyer quickly
and you have gotten a good price for your boat. To ensure that this happens, a boat owner must go about
preparing their boat to sell correctly.
To prepare one’s boat to sell there
are some obvious things one must do to it.
Now just because things are obvious, doesn’t necessarily mean people do
them. In fact, one of the most
surprising things I see in my business, yacht brokerage, is the number of owners
who haven’t even covered the basics. You wouldn’t think that one would need
to be told that a clean boat will show better and command a higher price, but it
is in fact one of the most common conversations that we have with our clients.
There is probably no more important time to make your boat ship shape
then when it is going up for sale. So
if you have the time yourself get out there and detail the boat.
Make sure it has fresh wax, paint and varnish, etc.
If you don’t have the time, hire a detailer. The money you spend is well worth it! Just think if you sell your boat a month quicker you will
have saved on dockage, insurance, slip fees, etc.
The money you spend getting your boat detailed probably far out weighs a
month of these expenses.
Getting a boat “clean” is also more
than just a quick wash and wax on the outside.
A boat that shows well will be clean inside and out.
One of the best things an owner can do to is to “de-clutter” their
boat, especially the cabin. Take
whatever you don’t need off the boat. This
includes all the extra linens and clothes you may have piled in a hanging
locker, the canned food you have in your galley drawers, or the stack of boating
magazines you have on the nightstand. Ideally
the only items left on board would be records and manuals for the boat and its
accessories and the necessary safety and operational items required to take the
boat out on sea trial. Not only
does a de-cluttered cabin feel cleaner it can also give the interior a feeling
of being larger.
One often overlooked spot when cleaning
is the engine room and the bilges. Nothing
will make a person run off a boat faster than a smelly bilge. As part of your cleaning regimen take the time to lift the
hatches to your bilge and clean with a bilge cleaner and scrub brush.
Not only will this show the potential buyer the attention you have paid
to detail, but it will help leave a clean smell throughout the boat.
The engine room is also of utmost importance.
Many buyers judge the overall condition of a boat and the care it has
been given based on what they see in the engine room.
Again this is a great place to de-clutter, keeping only the necessary
spare parts, fluids and tools neatly tied down. The engine room again can be scrubbed down with a bilge
cleaner and engines should be degreased, wiped down, and painted as necessary.
Outside of appearance in the engine
room, all routine maintenance should be performed if it hasn’t been done so
already. If you are completely up
to date on your fluid changes and tune ups, great.
If not, take the time to do these items as people again use it as a tell
tale of how the boat has been kept overall.
Likewise if there are any known items on the boat that need fixing, now
is the perfect time. It never
amazes me the switches people will flip when looking for the first time at a
boat to potentially buy. If for
some reason the horn is not working, fix it before someone comes aboard and
tries it out. If the stereo only
plays over the two front speakers why the back two are silent, get it fixed. If the potential buyer does not find the items that don’t
work, the surveyor will!
If someone is interested in your boat
there will eventually be a sea trial performed.
There is no sense in taking your time and the buyer’s time to get to
this point if the boat does not run properly.
As part of preparing your boat to sell, take it out and make sure there
are no vibrations and that the engine is hitting its recommended rpm.
If you have not used the boat for an extended period of time, the bottom
may be fouled and one should have a diver scrub the hull.
Nothing is worse than taking a buyer out and not even being able to get
on plane as you have allowed barnacles to cover your entire running gear.
Last but not least, if you have someone
else showing your boat for you, make sure they are familiar with your boat’s
systems. If the person is a
professional broker they should have already taken the time to familiarize
themselves with the boat. Whoever
shows the boat should know how to turn on the interior lights and get the air
conditioning going. It is important
that the boat shows as well as possible and that the potential buyers feel
comfortable spending time on board. Showing
a dark boat that has an interior temperature of 100 degrees in June is not the
way to leave a good impression!
Again, all the items mentioned above are pretty simple and straightforward. If you have maintained your boat properly and have been vigilant in it’s maintenance than you should not have much to do at all. If you have slacked in one or all of the departments then you have some work to do, but the reward in the end will again be one of the happiest days of your life as a boater!