Sellers’ remorse?

Well, that was a waste of time! I spent a couple of weeks seriously investigating and negotiating the purchase, through a reputable broker, of a Willard 47’ (Klatawa, which was on Yachtworld) and had an oral agreement through the broker in place that the Seller said he would agree to. Visited the boat twice, and my son flew up from CA in part to look at the boat. I sent in the contract over the weekend and was told the seller would be available to sign Monday. We made an appointment for Sunday to take my son to see the boat. Got up there (90 minute drive) only to find out that the Seller had taken the boat out for the weekend without informing the broker (in violation of his listing agreement). Was told he would be back Monday. So today (Monday) I get a call from the broker saying the Seller decided not to sell. It wasn’t price, he said he would take any price. I was a serious, cash buyer and had negotiated a deal both sides at one point agreed to. As you can imagine, the broker is seriously pissed off. My guess is this owner will have a hard time finding a broker around here to sell it if he changes his mind (again). Anyway, sad end to the story for me, and the search continues. First question in the next boat “Does the Seller REALLY want to sell?”

Be happy you didn't pay for a survey.

Funny, when we bought our boat it was the flip side. It was kind of a distress sale -- the seller had some serious life things to deal with and just wanted the boat off his mind even though his family had great times on it, so we got an excellent boat for a ridiculously low price. In fact we felt like we were taking terrible advantage of him and after looking at the boat and doing the sea trial we offered to let him out of it. The boat was near Newport RI. We told him we'd chalk up the weekend to a fun trip to beautiful Newport, nice hotel, great restaurants (Black Pearl, Anthony's Seafood Market, Midtown Oyster Bar...), nice weekend, and we'd just keep boat shopping and he could put it back on the market at a much higher price, no harm no foul. Nope, he insisted we were doing him a favor so we gave him the check. Meanwhile your seller suddenly yanks the boat away, whether you like it or not. Ah boat buying, what a crazy process.

Op, Maybe the boat Gods were looking out for you. A better deal may be ahead.

The boat is still listed. The boat may be owned be Thomas Whyte from Mukiteo, formerly from Tulalip. He is 77 years old. His phone is listed online. Probably lot more info available. No harm in calling him directly as there is no contract in place.

His ad in Willard owners group states he is retiring from boating.

I'm seriously sorry for you......but KARMA will win out! Good luck!

I live very near Mukilteo and could go try to look him,up, but based on the broker’s description they guy is extremely difficult to deal with. I suspect what is going in is that his younger family members want to keep the boat and talked him out of selling during a weekend cruise to the San Juan’s. I am not sure I have the stomach to spend more effort on this. I am sure the rest of the sale process would have been fraught with difficulty as well.

Had I gotten as far as a survey, I would have had an iron clad contract and could force him to sell. Given his demeanor that might have meant litigation, but I am a retired attorney . . .

Jknox0601 said:

Had I gotten as far as a survey, I would have had an iron clad contract and could force him to sell. Given his demeanor that might have meant litigation, but I am a retired attorney . . .

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We only have the brokers word re. demeanor. Broker could have been very pushy to a guy having trouble letting go of a boat he has enjoyed for 25+ years. Although the same boat was for sale in 2014. http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s12/47-willard-sale-15093.html

The sale doesn't begin until the customer says no.

The current owner bought her in 2014. Based on my interaction with this broker, I don’t think the broker is a pushy guy at all. Acted very professionally through the process. The seller overpriced the boat (the broker told me to make a substantially lower offer) and I am not, sure the seller ever really wanted to sell, or more likely his kids or grandkids didn’t want him to sell.

Anyway, I am moving on. Too much brain damage in this one already.

Another thing I discovered in this process is that it is virtually impossible to find a slip for a 40-50’ boat in the North sound area. Every marina seems to have multi-year waiting lists, even for open slips, much less covered. You can buy a covered slip condo outright — for over $200k! My search is now also focusing in boats with available slips within a reasonable distance from me.

Jknox0601 said:

Another thing I discovered in this process is that it is virtually impossible to find a slip for a 40-50’ boat in the North sound area. Every marina seems to have multi-year waiting lists, even for open slips, much less covered. You can buy a covered slip condo outright — for over $200k! My search is now also focusing in boats with available slips within a reasonable distance from me.

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Sorry about the hassle. Yes, large slips are hard to find in Northern Puget Sound. You may want to consider Semiahmoo. They might have slips available. Not exactly convenient to a lot of locations. You can also look to the South. You might be able to find something in Tacoma.

Tacoma and Blaine are just too far. Boating no fun if you have to commute 4-6 hours round trip to get to your boat! Tacoma would be especially bad since after fighting the awful Seattle traffic for a couple hours to get there, well, you are in Tacoma — what can I say?

We were purchasing a previous boat and I was booked on a flight to Seattle to look at a couple of boats. I was in Las Vegas and was going to Seattle to see the boats when I saw an ad for a 44’ Marine Trader so I called the broker. I asked if he was familiar with the boat, he replied that he was the listing broker. I asked is the boat still for sale, he replied yes. I asked if I flew in that day could I look at the boat, he said yes. I changed my flight from my Seattle to LA. Got to LA and looked at the boat. I made an offer that the broker thought would be acceptable. He told me to head back to the marina to sign up for the slip. On my way back to the marina the broker called and said he had bad news. He said the boat was already sold and had been sea trialed already. I asked if he was the listing broker for real and how did he not know that it had been sold. He didn’t really have an answer. I thanked him for jerking me around by having me fly to LA to see a boat that had been sold already. He didn’t have anything to say about that. I called and booked a flight to Seattle and ended up buying a boat there.

I had the same thing happen at 10pm the night prior to the survey. Also being sold by an older gentleman. The broker went to visit him and found out that he had bought the boat as a project following the death of his wife and didn’t want to let go.... well, second wife was in the room and told him it was her turn.... had to hustle to find another surveyor to get the second time around to go fast. What also helped was I told them that I wouldn’t change the boat name as I wanted to continue his honor to his wife....it was her initials. See if there is any emotional back story

Many older marina's in the Pacific Northwest and coastal BC. Part of the reason I bought my boat was to get into a well located marina in Comox. Because I bought the boat there I was able to jump the line, but there is a long line of folks waiting for a spot at that marina. This was true in Vancouver when I purchased my sailboat. For smaller boats, it isn't quite as dire but for larger boats, its a real problem. Often the easy part is buying the boat here, then comes the - where do I keep it problem.

Once had a boat pulled on me after I bought plane tickets to view; seller did partially compensate me for the tickets & I was able to sell them, too (back when you could still do that). Just last month was set to see another boat that was close & sounded perfect, but it was pulled the day before because sellers decided to give it to their children.

SoWhat said:

The boat may be owned be Thomas Whyte from Mukiteo, formerly from Tulalip. He is 77 years old. His phone is listed online.

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I spent a week on the Klatawa in the Broughtons a few years ago (it was chartered for an expedition I was part of). The owner is not Thomas Whyte. I don't recall the owner's last name, but his first name is Ron and he lives part of the year in Yellowknife and the other part in Campbell River.

It is a fabulous cruising boat, very well taken care of. Very sorry it didn't work out for you.

Yeah, it sucks you got jerked around. As someone else pointed out, it may ultimately be for the best.

There is an old parable about a farmer whose horse ran away. When it was found, his son went to get it and ride it back, on the way back, the horse bucked the son off and the son broke his leg. A string of bad luck? The next day, the army arrived looking for conscripts and they passed by the son due to his broken leg.

Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes you don't get to know why until later, sometimes not at all. Your next boat is still out there. You'll find it. Keep us posted on the adventure.

John

Jknox0601 said:

Based on my interaction with this broker, I don’t think the broker is a pushy guy at all. Acted very professionally through the process. The seller overpriced the boat (the broker told me to make a substantially lower offer) ....

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The owner's broker told you to make a substantially lower offer? That doesn't sound professional to me....

Happens all the time. Another case where an oral agreement is worth the paper it's written on. A lot of he said, he said, and no way to know who said what to whom. Other warning signs, when you submit a written offer and you've told, "He'll sign it on Tuesday" or "he had to suddenly go out of town." In today's world, you can electronically sign documents anytime from anywhere and all such delays for various reasons are signs the deal may very well be falling apart, someone just buying time.

Everyone has their own ways of doing things. Some do fine with verbal agreements. I document everything in writing and if something is discussed on the phone or in person, I confirm that discussion in writing. I just don't put much faith in oral representations by people I don't know or in one person representing to me what someone else has said or is thinking.

As to the owner having a hard time finding a broker in the future, I doubt he will.

Your question of whether someone really wants to sell is very valid and there are a lot of boats listed more as feelers, than serious sellers. Some are, well if someone was willing to pay that I would sell. Sometimes you find out even after a deal is made that they're not committed to selling. You get a survey and there are reasonable adjustments called for and they won't drop the price a dollar. Likely they knew the issues and were going to sell only if someone didn't detect them or accepted them with no price reduction.

Oh, also a lot of buyers who aren't serious. They look a lot, make periodic offers, even take boats to survey, but over and over they find an excuse to back out.

It's like getting a divorce. Your head tells you it's the right thing to do, but your heart keeps telling you that things can be worked out (and, sometimes they are, for a short time).

I was a bit surprised the broker did that as well, but I think he sensed that I was ambivalent because I was raising lots of issues and questions. I think he felt it would trigger my interest in making an offer, and it worked. Too bad the broker mis read his client so badly. . .

By the way, Ron from Campbell River was the prior owner, who sold it to Whyte. Glad you had a good cruise on the boat. Ron is the owner who did all of the major upgrades in the boat, and obviously he knew what he was doing

consider it life on the planet Earth. I had a great deal, settled signed contract and going for survey the next day. Owners wife was removing some personal items, started crying, and told him if he sold the boat she would divorce him. I let him off the hook, of course...not worth the hassle to try to force him. Found another boat a month later so no real harm done. Just move on. Good luck!

Oldersalt said:

Owners wife was removing some personal items, started crying, and told him if he sold the boat she would divorce him.

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Usually it seems to go the other way "sell that damn boat or I'm divorcing you!".

Well, the saga continues. Having abruptly taken the boat away from the broker and off the market, the seller came back with a revised proposal, adjustment to price but also delivering a lot of valuable extras. Turns out the seller really wanted to have one more nice cruise with his family this summer, and then is ready to retire from boating. Since I am not in a particular rush, and felt the revised deal was fair, I took it. We finally have a signed agreement and will proceed to the usual survey etc. and closing.

What a roller coaster ride for all involved! Anyway, I think everyone is happy, and I look forward to being the new owner/skipper of Klatawa, a truly exceptional vessel.

Thanks to all for the encouragement!

John

Well good for you. Glad it seems to be working out. We will need photos when you close on it. Good luck.

For photos, see the listing, which is still up as ‘“Sale Pending”

https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/19...e-repowered-3537664/?refSource=browse listing

I’ll post more after we close but it won’t be until late August.

It is beautiful. Lots of custom work done, congrats.

John: So glad you got the boat. To pursue something so unique and then all the focused intention just goes off the cliff like that, well, “roller coaster” is the proper term. She’s a beauty. Looking forward to hearing good cruising stories!