Well members,
TELL ME YOUR LONGEST NEGOTIATION PERIOD FOR A PARTICULAR BOAT.
Our experience with our PNW cruiser was not typical. As I recall, the time from submitting our offer to the purchase of the boat, or at least to the acceptance of our offer, was about 15 minutes. That's how long it took to radio our offer from Seattle out to the owner of the boat who was driving his new boat down the west coast from Vancouver, BC to San Francisco Bay, and to get the acceptance message back. The boat we were making the offer on was also in San Francisco Bay.
Our offer was contingent on three things.
1. The boat had to be what the owner said it was: a bone stock production boat with no modifications and no surprises.
2. The boat had to pass our inspection and do well on its sea trial.
3. The boat had to do well on a hull/systems survey and a separate engine/generator survey, the surveyors to be selected by and paid by us.
We then flew to California with our broker and a very good friend who knows more about boats of this type than God (we paid his air fare and expenses), the boat met our three conditions, and we called the marine trucking company and said, "Haul it two states north."
Our other two boats were purchased brand new so there was no offer/offer acceptance step in the process.
