Broker Stories - Good And Bad

[menzies]

We all probably have them, so post them up! The good guys and the not-so-good guys.

Here is mine from last week.

We surveyed and sea trialed a boat in October. It failed pretty badly. For example the hull had been left unpainted for seemingly years and the epoxy has been eaten through to the gel coat. A number of electronics wouldn't boot up (like autopilot), and the ammeter on the AC panel had been bypassed and the panel kept blowing everything we tried a load.

But the biggest issue was that one of the engines overheated (and low oil came up) when we started to go through the higher RPMs.

We offered a price that would cover us fixing everything plus a bit for our risk if there was anything else, but couldn't come to an agreement. The broker said that the owner was going to fix everything and continue marketing the boat.

We were going to look at other boats last Saturday, so before doing that we decided to check on the status of the boat we were interested in. Thursday (New Year's Eve) I asked my broker to contact the other broker to see where they were with the maintenance.

The answer was "The electrical and electronics have all been fixed, it is in the yard having the bottom done, and they found the issue with the engine. A large industrial sized bag had been pulled up into that engine's raw water intake and was causing the overheating!"

When my broker called with the update I told him that I guess we could comfortably move on to other boats with a clear mind.

The boat we were considering doesn't have intakes. It has a sea chest which fed both engines and genset. Any "large industrial sized bag" sucked into the sea chest would affect everything. Plus when we hauled during the survey my surveyor used a flashlight to check up inside the sea chest and found nothing.

Ah, life!

 

[O C Diver]

Have bought 3 boats through brokers. Each time used the seller's broker and was able to negotiate a significant price reductions. Did my own presurvey and then had a complete survey done. On the trawler, the broker helped me negotiate an additional price reduction after survey for neglected engine and generator maintenance. Found all 3 brokers to be very professional and did whatever I needed them to do. Not sure if the sellers were as happy based on the price reductions, but they did get there boats sold. I've been very happy with these 3 experiences.

Probably interacted with 40+ brokers looking for my trawler. Some were great; most I could work with; 3 I would have happily run over if they were standing in the road.

Ted

 

[DavidM]

The good:


My broker found a local surveyor that would take a look at a boat I was interested in a thousand miles from home for a few bucks. Reported it was crap, end of looking at it. Saved me hundreds of dollars in airfare.


My broker turned a disastrous survey on the boat I was selling into a final sale.


While looking for boats on the Florida trip discussed below, we looked at another boat but it wasn't for us. A few weeks later that broker called and said that they just got a trade in for a pristine boat exactly what I wanted. Negotiated a price long distance, flew down to watch the survey and found absolutely nothing wrong. Closed the deal the next day.


The bad:


I flew a thousand miles to look at a boat in Florida and when I got there I learned that it had a contract on it for two weeks.


When I was a broker myself in Annapolis, I sold a boat in Florida. The buyer needed the keel bolts replaced after the sale was closed. The Florida broker told the yard doing the work to go ahead and do a bottom job without the buyer's knowledge. The yard held the boat hostage and the buyer ended up paying for it.


So, for Florida brokers- two bad and one good. For Annapolis brokers, two good.


David