Boat Business 101- to masters degree;
Boats priced correctly for their condition and the market don't last long on the market. I'm gonna spill the beans of why you see so many overpriced boats on Yachtworld. There are many reasons;
1. One is required to have a X (I forget the number) minimum of Central Listings to continue to be a member of Yachtworld. If you sold out- your out.
Since 08 when many boat builders went out of business there was also an avalanche of repos, a huge amount of yachts were put on ships never to see America again. I USED to (as did many brokers) sell the same boat over and over. One boat I sold seven times before it too went overseas. This all has created a huge shortage of inventory out there to list, much less sell, so some brokers will list boats really not for sale ("I don't want to really sell her") to have enough listings to satisfy the minimum required. Price it high enough it's guaranteed not to sell. Then years later you might see the same boat priced correctly-that's because the owner is now ready to sell.
2. THEN there's new salesmen that need listings to satisfy the boss.
3. The worst are brokers that are afraid to counsel their clients at what price to market their boats. There's a Bayliner 57 thats been for sale for 14 years now. The owner just won't listen to reality. As a broker our biggest job is not dealing with buyers-nope it's trying to make delusional owners SEE reality so it will be out of their hair, but they'll spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in carrying costs, when it would had been cheaper for them to have cut her loose years ago at less a loss. You can show some guys comps to your blue in the face, but will still say "I'm sure if a buyer just see's my boat he'll pick it over those newer boats for the same money". I can only tell them:"BUT NO BUYER WILL EVER COME LOOK AT YOUR OLDER BOAT IF THEY SEE A MUCH NEWER ONE ADVERTISED AT THE SAME PRICE, The days of drug addled dudes with sacks of cash walking the docks are GONE". Well, they might be still out there, but most all the damn marinas have gates now! It's truly amazing this reality disconnect some have with values. And on January 1st they'll all be worth less.
The smart broker doesn't take these overpriced listing which is why you see some selling a lot of boats, and others having the same sad listing for decades it seems. Whats worse (for them) is they attract other overpriced listing.
4.Then there's the owner who just flat out paid too much when he bought. I see this regularly with older fellows who bought years ago and were late to using the internet, and just sauntered into a dealership who just 'laid them out' so their payoff is still higher than market. "Heck yeah we'll give you $200k (for boat worth $100k) trade in on your boat"-(because they have $200k mark up and effectively took it for free) I'm amazed how many otherwise intelligent people really don't understand how trades work.
Here's another secret I can now share: Not all dealers received the same amount of boats from the factory. How many you received (and annual rebate from the factory that determined their real profit, and they still keep that secret) was based on how many boats they sold the year before. Whereas a volume seller on the West Coast or in South Florida could sell you a boat for hundreds of thousands less than a dealers in the hinterlands who only received two boats a year. I guess they could had sold them for the same low price, but they wouldn't had made enough money to stay in business. A 2001 4788 sold new in South Florida could be bought for $360k, whilst the same boat in Ct., Michigan, Missouri, or even north Florida- would cost you $500k (yes, that's correct) and IF a buyer from those other areas came into a cheaper dealers territory and bought a boat- the dealer would have to throw money back to the other dealer- it's called "territorial protection".
5. Then there's the guys who traded in a boat and wrapped the old boat loan in with the new loan but years later seems to have forgotten this fact, and are now expecting you to pay for two boats (or more) while only giving you one.
6.Over the years I've also seen many "ghost listings" which are boats that flat out never existed. Just listings purely fabricated out of thin air with photos of other boats. I still see them on Yachtworld.
7. Supply and demand to a certain extent.
Soldboats.com is 90% accurate these days. I no longer see the sales of these ghost listings there like I used to. To that I'll give YW credit.
A broker can show you comps of actual sales and hopefully explain to you WHY the price differences (location, features, plus there's a little brokers blurb that doesn't print that should say if the boat had survey issues, etc., or was just a great deal as seller was just wanting out)
Brokers that specialize in particular marques can tell you the market on those boats.
So pick up the phone and call the brokers that specialize in the boats you want-there's way more information they can give you such as market trends, the popular model years, and why- damaged boats, latent defects, location, differences in engines, etc. Brokers usually aren't expecting to make a sale on the first call, and should tell you everything you need to know.
Any opinions on the value of boats and the market in general would be greatly appreciated. Thanks as Always 
