Have you done so? If so, I would like your feedback.

It seems that there are some nice used boat deals on line, including on Ebay
Motors and other internet listing sources. The problem in most cases is
that these boats are located several hundred miles from me.

Buying locally is easy as you can do an initial inspection of the boat to
see if it is worth pursuing. That is not practical when considering boats
being sold several hundred miles from you.

The easy solution seems to be making the sale contingent upon a complete
structural and mechanical survey by a recommended "buyers surveyor", but
that can get to be expensive if prospective boats continue to fail the
surveys. As we all know sellers often overstate the condition of their
boats when putting them up for sale.

How did you handle your 'sight unseen' internet boat purchase? What did you
do right? What did you do wrong? Would you do it again?

On Aug 25, 8:34 pm, "JimH" ask wrote:
Have you done so? If so, I would like your feedback.

It seems that there are some nice used boat deals on line, including on Ebay
Motors and other internet listing sources. The problem in most cases is
that these boats are located several hundred miles from me.

Buying locally is easy as you can do an initial inspection of the boat to
see if it is worth pursuing. That is not practical when considering boats
being sold several hundred miles from you.

The easy solution seems to be making the sale contingent upon a complete
structural and mechanical survey by a recommended "buyers surveyor", but
that can get to be expensive if prospective boats continue to fail the
surveys. As we all know sellers often overstate the condition of their
boats when putting them up for sale.

How did you handle your 'sight unseen' internet boat purchase? What did you
do right? What did you do wrong? Would you do it again?

Never ever buy a boat sight unseen (unless you just have way too much
green in your pocket)
I have driven as far as 250 miles just to view and test drive a boat.
I wouldn't buy a car without test driving it, I sure as heck wouldn't
buy a boat without a test drive.
BTW what type of boat are we talking about? (runabout,cruiser)
A friend of mine bought a used bow rider after inspecting it, but
never test drove it.
He paid $4000 for the boat.
The 1st time he put it in the water it sank (rotted Transom)

On Aug 25, 8:34 pm, "JimH" ask wrote:
Have you done so? If so, I would like your feedback.

It seems that there are some nice used boat deals on line, including on Ebay
Motors and other internet listing sources. The problem in most cases is
that these boats are located several hundred miles from me.

Buying locally is easy as you can do an initial inspection of the boat to
see if it is worth pursuing. That is not practical when considering boats
being sold several hundred miles from you.

The easy solution seems to be making the sale contingent upon a complete
structural and mechanical survey by a recommended "buyers surveyor", but
that can get to be expensive if prospective boats continue to fail the
surveys. As we all know sellers often overstate the condition of their
boats when putting them up for sale.

How did you handle your 'sight unseen' internet boat purchase? What did you
do right? What did you do wrong? Would you do it again?


I have purchased two boats on ebay.

The first was a Seadoo XPL (1999 which I purchased in 2000). I live in
Pittsburgh, PA and drove to New Jersey/New York for this. I did state
in the bidding emails that the bid was contingent on my inspection and
it meeting the description. I inspected it myself (easy to do on a
PWC) and started it up in the parking lot (again, you can do this with
a PWC). It was still under warrenty so I was confident everything was
OK. Had to go with owner to his bank to write the payoff check. There
was no title as New Jersey didn't require one on PWCs yet. Had to get
a Bill of Sale and fool around with PA to get a title on the PWC. The
bank gave me the title on the trailer. The guy took a bath on this
deal, but I guess he got more than he realistically was going to get
trading it in on a motorcycle. He and his girl friend tried to ride
this ski and found that they fell off and couldn't get back on (XPLs
are a bit tippy ;-) ). Well worth the drive and effort for me. I still
enjoy riding that ski 7 years later.

The second was a 1995 Sea Pro Citation 1900 Classic Cuddy. This was
purchased in 2004. This one required a drive to Cleveland. In this one
the boat did not meet the seller's reserve so I emailed after the
auction to let him know that if he wanted to sell it I would offer
$250 more than the highest bid but that it was subject to my
inspection. He had a couple others interested and a guy coming down
from Canada that was supposed to buy it, so I said keep me in mind if
that doesn't work out. Long story still long, it didn't work out so he
called. I went and checked the boat out. Fairly easy to see that it
had been very well kept and that there were no soft spots on the floor
or transom. It was late October and a bit chilly so we started it on
the hose and it started and ran fine. Went to his bank and wrote the
payoff check and bank sent the titles. This was a deal ripe for
problems since I had not had a professional survey, had not run the
boat in the water and in fact did not splash the boat until April of
the next year. But the boat was clean, the guy selling it nice, etc.
To my good fortune I have enjoyed this boat with nothing more than
normal maintenance for 3 years. I paid $4,000 and it booked for about
$8,000 (high retail). I figured that even if I had to put a couple
tousand in it it would have been a reasonable deal and I wouldn't have
felt totally screwed until I had put $3,000 to $4,000 in it for
repairs. The only real repairs that I had to have done is getting the
canvass restitched because the seams were starting to pull apart.

So, I have had good luck. Good DUMB luck, but good luck just the same.
Dave Hall

On Aug 25, 8:34 pm, "JimH" ask wrote:
Have you done so? If so, I would like your feedback.

It seems that there are some nice used boat deals on line, including on Ebay
Motors and other internet listing sources. The problem in most cases is
that these boats are located several hundred miles from me.

Buying locally is easy as you can do an initial inspection of the boat to
see if it is worth pursuing. That is not practical when considering boats
being sold several hundred miles from you.

The easy solution seems to be making the sale contingent upon a complete
structural and mechanical survey by a recommended "buyers surveyor", but
that can get to be expensive if prospective boats continue to fail the
surveys. As we all know sellers often overstate the condition of their
boats when putting them up for sale.

How did you handle your 'sight unseen' internet boat purchase? What did you
do right? What did you do wrong? Would you do it again?

Have the seller provide the survey and if you buy the boat, you would
reimburse him for the cost.

On Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:08:47 -0000,
wrote:

How did you handle your 'sight unseen' internet boat purchase? What did you
do right? What did you do wrong? Would you do it again?

Have the seller provide the survey and if you buy the boat, you would
reimburse him for the cost.

Not a good idea, and the buyer always pays regardless, at least with
larger boats. You want a surveyor who is working for you, no one
else.

On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 20:34:20 -0400, JimH wrote:

Have you done so? If so, I would like your feedback.


I'm looking at this thread with interest.

I'm looking for a 27-29ft sailboat for around $10-20K, and there are lots
on Yachtworld. Trouble is, I'd like an Islander 28, and there are NONE in
the Pac NW (I'm willing to drive to Portland, but not San Diego!). So, I
am thinking of a "sight unseen" deal, of course with a survey, and maybe
ONE personal inspection and sea trial. Then of course I'd have to have it
packed up and trucked to Vancouver (I eliminated sailing it up on another
thread a while ago...)

The US dollar is so weak right now the deals from Canada are tremendous!

druid
http://www.bcboatnet.org

(I'm willing to drive to Portland, but not San Diego)

Flights are cheap. Fly down, stay in a cheap hotel and look at it in
person. No doubt any travel costs will be an order of magnitude less than
"surprises" that need to get fixed later on.

On Sep 11, 5:56 am, "Bill Kearney" wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote:
(I'm willing to drive to Portland, but not San Diego)

Flights are cheap. Fly down, stay in a cheap hotel and look at it in
person. No doubt any travel costs will be an order of magnitude less than
"surprises" that need to get fixed later on.

Yabut... Assuming the "Ordinary Person doesn't know much about boat
structure, so use a Qualified Surveyor before buying!" mentality, what
good would a personal inspection by me do? I will have a Professional
inspect the boat, and supposedly HE will find all the problems I would
have missed anyway.

Regardless, my Plan is to submit an offer contingent as usual on sea-
trial and survey. If accepted, THEN I fly down and do the sea trial
(which of course would include a "personal inspection"). If THAT is
OK, I arrange for a survey, and if THAT is OK, I buy the boat. Only
one flight down required, and that's after I've been assured that if I
like the boat, it's mine.

Only problem I see in this is that 2 of the 3 boats I looked at last
weekend had BAD holding-tank odour throughout the boat - that's
something that isn't obvious in pictures!

druid
http://www.bcboatnet.org

Yabut... Assuming the "Ordinary Person doesn't know much about boat
structure, so use a Qualified Surveyor before buying!" mentality, what
good would a personal inspection by me do? I will have a Professional
inspect the boat, and supposedly HE will find all the problems I would
have missed anyway.

Learn more now, save your headaches later. Go down when your hired surveyor
is actually going to do the job and learn from it.

Regardless, my Plan is to submit an offer contingent as usual on sea-
trial and survey. If accepted, THEN I fly down and do the sea trial
(which of course would include a "personal inspection"). If THAT is
OK, I arrange for a survey, and if THAT is OK, I buy the boat. Only
one flight down required, and that's after I've been assured that if I
like the boat, it's mine.

Again, flights are cheap... lots cheaper than surprises later.

Only problem I see in this is that 2 of the 3 boats I looked at last
weekend had BAD holding-tank odour throughout the boat - that's
something that isn't obvious in pictures!

That actually not always that hard to solve. Lots of time it's just a
matter of replacing the waste hoses. Use it as a negotiating point to get
the price dropped by a couple grand.

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:06:33 -0400, "Bill Kearney"
wkearney-99@hot-mail-com wrote:

Yabut... Assuming the "Ordinary Person doesn't know much about boat
structure, so use a Qualified Surveyor before buying!" mentality, what
good would a personal inspection by me do? I will have a Professional
inspect the boat, and supposedly HE will find all the problems I would
have missed anyway.

Learn more now, save your headaches later. Go down when your hired surveyor
is actually going to do the job and learn from it.

This is an excellant point.

Had it happen to me once on a 28' Topaz. I figured I was all set,
ready to go - nice boat.

Surveyor was there five minutes and the deal was off.