In article . com,
Capt. Rob wrote:
The asking price on the 1990 35s5 was 64'900.00. After seeing what a
creampuff the boat was I decided to discuss an offer prior to the
survey.

Excuse me? You normally do a survey before having an accepted offer??



Doug, I've negotiated more than 30 closings in the last 15 months.
There are plenty of ways to make a deal and who you're dealing with has
a lot to do with it. The professional survey found very little that I
missed and the owner comped on every item. When a boat is like new, you
don't have to be a prick about the buying process. And we still got a
better deal than anyone else has on 35s5's not even close to this
condition. My offer was still pending survey and the survey estimated
value of 69K would not have helped me at all. I knew that as soon as I
did the survey. If you know what you're doing and find a creampuff, you
should know that a glowing survey can COST you. I correctly made a low
offer prior to a survey I anticipated. Now you could always talk to the
surveyor about lowballing the value, but then you might have a tough
time getting a nice insurance package to match her "real" value.
And so it goes. I always advise buyers to understand that surveyors can
work for and against you...they walk a fine line. Doug, you have to
think it through. Now go find me a better 35s5 for even the original
asking price of 64.9K. Keep in mind that I have checked on most of
them.

Bob, I hope you have a license for this sort of thing. If there were a
problem, and one or more of the parties decided to sue, you could be
in big trouble. Not sure what the laws are out there, but here you
have to have a brokerage license to broker a deal.

I've never heard of an accredited surveyor willing to lowball the
value. They have their names on the line, and I would doubt that they
would do such a thing.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com