Purchase during the winter months

In the colder climates an accurate survey cant be done in freezing weather.* My understanding is that moisture meters wont work and most equipment cant be tested.*
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How can you make and offer and protect yourself when it may be months until the weather is good enough?* Yes, you can always wait till the weather changes to make the offer but there may be good reasons for getting the boat off the market if you think it would likely be purchased by someone else.

set your contract up to be contingent upon sea trials and survey in the spring- it is done that way all the time.

In the PNW, I advise buyers to look and buy boats during the winter time so know if there are leaks, how the heating system works, how the boat handles in rough weather/water.* Besides brokers and buyer are hungry so the winter time is the better deals.*
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How were surveys done before the fancy moisture meters?* A good surveyor knows what to look for and rapping/tapping can tell a lot.* If you are around boats enough you will know where trouble areas might be. Give me an old timer surveyor any time!* Besides what are the meter going to tell you when the boat is dried out?

good advise. have the contract written clearly for a survey of the boat, a separate survey of the engine and sea trial in the spring. Make very sure that the deposit is placed in an escrow account and not mixed with the brokers funds. Chuck

Make a real low ball offer. The owner has to pay for storage all winter long.

If he doesn't take the offer you will be first on the list come spring.

I don't trust moisture meters I have seen to many discrepancies.

If you sound out the hull you can easily find the*problem spots.

SD

Old Stone wrote:
Just what Tony says, and if the seller hesitates, or doesn't want to wait, expect that something is being hidden from you.

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That's a bunch of BS. If the boat is on the hard and winterized but local waters are navigable, the buyer should pay for the launch and trials and re-winterizing if rejected. If nothing else, let the buyer and seller negotiate the costs if the seller is motivated to move the boat.

To expect an owner to put the sale on hold for months without compensation is one thing but to claim any hesitation to do so as evidence of problems with the boat is really out of line.

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I sold boats in Connecticut for years before I moved back to Fort Lauderdale. We did surveys and sea trials in the winter on a regular basis, the buyer just has to pay some more for launch, haul, block and re-winterize. But this can be negotiated with the seller for who pays for what and what happens if the sale does not proceed. The buyer normally pays for the haulout when the boat is in the water in the warmer months, so the extra cost should be calculated considering that. Also the yard might give some type of a price break to do the work in the slow period, ask for a special rate.
If I was representing the seller, I would not want the boat to be off the market until the spring, if I am representing the buyer, I want him to know know what the survey says so that there is plenty of time for repairs without being concerned with the spring time boat yard rush.
A quick side note about surveys. I would have to say that many, many times the survey items are a surprise to the seller.

Tucker,

I see you got my new prop a ready!

To clarify- absolutely, if you can get the boat physically in the water and you are not iced in then by all means survey and sea trial it after de winterizing it. problem is when you have a northern boat that is hauled out of the water and kept inside heated storage. If the boat in question was among the first in the building you may not be able to get it out without moving around a bunch of others. So- just depends on whether the boat can be accessed or not and whether the water is iced in or not. If you can put it in the water now and the only issue is cost of dewinterizing it obviously do it now and move forward.

Thank you for all your comments. In the Great Lakes area, all the marinas are shut down for the winter, most inshore areas are iced in till spring.

meridian,

I purchased a usded trawler*last winter here on the Great Lakes under the circumstances you discribe. The boat was in heated storage and no open water was available. The contract required an immediated hull survey and approval before closure, and a sea trial in the spring. Money was set aside in escrow to repair any system not operating to the manfacturers specifications at that time. The risks were mitgated somewhat because this was a fairly new boat with low hours. The benefit was that I was able to negotiate a lower price during the off season.