View Single Post
Old 05-01-2016, 12:19 PM   #27
BandB
Guru
 
BandB's Avatar
 
City: Fort Lauderdale. Florida, USA
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 21,449
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hawgwash View Post
1. Are boat trades as cloudy as vehicle trades?
2. Does the broker actually register ownership of the trade in?
3. Do all transactions show on Soldboat?
1. Two levels of boat trades. First, the smaller boats, primarily on lakes but some coastal. Even more cloudy than vehicles since there is no reliable blue book or reference and since the profit margin on a new boat is so much greater. Plus there is no wholesale market or a relatively small one so the risk to the dealer is great. So, here's an example. New boat MSRP $100k, dealer cost $70k. Old boat, the dealer estimates he might retail it for $40k. He truly then wants no more than $20k in it. So, he offers to give you a $30k allowance off the new boat at $100k. So he puts the used boat in inventory at $20k and shows a profit on the new boat of $20k. Then when he sells the used boat for $35k that gives another $15k profit for a total of $35k. On a straight sale he would have sold the new boat for $85-90k and only made $15-20k. Most dealers can't afford to really have money tied up in used boats since they don't have them floorplanned.

Long ago dealers took trades on almost everything. Then things tightened and they did very few trades. They they realized how much that hurt business and went back to trades in moderation.

Now to trawlers, cruisers, yachts and all more expensive boats. Very very little trading. Only a few builders who broker and will do it. Most boats are sold through brokers used and then the new boat purchased or the new ordered while the used sells. If you're returning to the same builder your chances are greater. Regardless trades are a very small part of the business. The majority of boats you see on the builder/broker site are those that they're trying to sell as they have a new purchase or another used purchase hinging on it.

2. On smaller boats, the dealer rarely ever registers the boat in their name. They get the registration and/or title signed on the back and hold it like that. On larger boats, especially documented ones, on those few occasions they actually take ownership, they also register/document so they can finance the inventory.

3. No. Boats the don't go on Yacht World don't make it to Soldboats. The majority of those on Yacht World do make it although some brokers are sloppy and don't report the sales and other brokers don't give the accurate price. However, the majority of brokers follow the rules and report accurately.
BandB is offline   Reply With Quote