"sciman" wrote in message
ink.net...
This is probably a pretty newbie question, but I have found a boat I like
at
a somewhat reasonable price. We are talking a 40FT boat that is 5 years
old
so this is a considerable investment. In my offer, what should I be
asking
for? The obvious is pending an independent survey, but are there other
things? In today's market, assuming this is an average asking price, is
coming in with an initial bid at 80% too low?


The market is very soft, I've read some of the other posts here stating that
80% might be "high" for a starting price. The problem is, the owner might
owe more than 80%, especially on a boat that's only five years old. He
probably isn't going to accept an offer that will require him to come up
with cash to sell his boat. It isn't the most ethical thing for a broker to
do but they will occasionally give you some information as to the buyers
willingness to negotiate the selling price. He will probably tell you
immediately if the buyer is willing to accept your low-ball offer, assuming
you make an offer with a deposit, i.e.., a serious offer. You might want to
look into some of the price guides out there to determine how close the
asking price is to "market value" With the right set of circumstances you
could buy the boat for 60% of asking price.
John Cairns