Your views on post survey negotiation

There is a common topic of discussion regarding the boat buying process that I've seen with prospective boat buyers over the years. That topic is how do you handle the boat buying process regarding post survey negotiations.

Here's Kevins opinion

I believe that as prospective boat buyers we have the obligation to carefully look over a boat, and to make our offer based on our careful observations.

I believe that we as buyers should not ever go back to a seller and try to negotiate a lower price based on things that we either noted on our personal inspection, or that we should have noted on our personal inspection. I believe that our offer should have included consideration of those items.

I believe that we as buyers should not try to renegotiate a sale price based on a small quantity of "small" things that a surveyor finds, such as expired flare kits, or expired eprib batteries, or even a failed bilge pump we missed on our inspection.

I believe that we as buyers should use a surveyor (hull and engine) for his/her specialized skills, not for our lack of general observation skills. I believe that any major issues that are revaled by the surveyor(s), should be the basis of renegotiation, or of the buyers decision not to purchase that particular vessle.

Here's my take: the last 2 boats we purchased, we checked the market, then crawled all over the boat- then made an offer. Generally, our offer is realistic, as we don't want to burn the post survey negotiation (if there is one).

After the survey, we review the mechanical and hull reports, and counter with an offer based on any major repairs/concerns that are noted. We don't look at the minor items.

Gee Kevin, you must be a responsible person and expect others to be responsible. Come on get with the times, no accountability and no responsibility.

I do agree with Kevin provided the seller allows the buyer to have unhindered access to the boat. I would also ask the seller for a boat ride and provide a refundable down payment if the seller is advertising the boat as "ready to go". All this before a professional survey.

I encouraged potential buyers of my sailboat to take a ride with me if I thought they were serious buyers. I believe that offer and the successful outcome of that ride sold the boat.

In principle, this sounds correct. But, what about those of us newcomers to boating whose observational skills are simply inadequate to flag issues that might be obvious to a more experienced boater?

Kawini said:

In principle, this sounds correct. But, what about those of us newcomers to boating whose observational skills are simply inadequate to flag issues that might be obvious to a more experienced boater?

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Great question. Hire a buyers broker to provide that experience you don't have. Not only will you have a professional set of eyeballs on the boat, you'll also have his/her experience in the transaction process.

Is there a cost? Yup- but the peace of mind in priceless.

ksanders said:

I believe that we as buyers should use a surveyor (hull and engine) for his/her specialized skills, not for our lack of general observation skills. I believe that any major issues that are revaled by the surveyor(s), should be the basis of renegotiation, or of the buyers decision not to purchase that particular vessle.

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Yup. . . That pretty much covers its.

I would only add that small items such as expired or defective safety items or equipment that were advertised as being part of the sale, should be in working condition. In my experience when buying through a brokerage, the seller (sometimes the brokerage) usually repairs or replaces those defective items. But it's not a reason to demand to renegotiate the price.

Interesting subject as I will soon have a survey done on a boat we are buying. I have 3 surveyors, Hull, Engine and Fuel.

Fuel?

Yep. I have a fuel guy coming out to inspect the tanks, fuel lines and primary filter set up. He will also polish the fuel for me once I give him the OK. The reason is this boat has 2-250gal tanks and 2-50gal tanks. The owner has stated he has never in the 10 years he has owned the boat put fuel in the 50gal tanks and he thinks the original owner may also not put fuel in these tanks. So this concerns me as I am going to make a 700nm trip north in it at the end of next month.