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Old 10-12-2019, 10:12 AM   #4
DavidM
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City: Litchfield, Ct
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 6,786
How you proceed depends on how comfortable you are with dealing with multiple brokers over the phone, setting up visits, arranging for a survey, attending the survey and negotiating the deal. If you are comfortable then contact the selling broker, tell them you are interested in their boat and proceed.

If you are not comfortable with taking on the effort discussed above, or you are put off by the selling broker then find your own buyers broker. This isn't particularly easy and results in interviewing several brokers in your area to find one that is willing to help you particularly if your search leads you beyond his normal territory.

Then discuss these issues with your selected broker:

1. What happens if the selling broker won't split the commission 50/50. Do you both walk away. Do you pay him a fee for his services independently of the selling broker.

2. How does he participate in the sale. Just handling phone calls generally won't work. He needs to really work- maybe arrange for and attend the survey, maybe arrange financing and closing for the deal.

Most selling brokers will agree to a 50/50 split if the buyers broker does his share of the work.

I have done both and by my 3rd boat purchase, I did all of the work myself, contacting selling brokers and arranging visits. It worked pretty well for me.

As a broker in Annapolis for about a year, I had customers who depended on me for all of the buyers brokers duties including closing a complex deal in Florida, a state that seems to have more than its share of shady brokers, btw. But also a buyer who I showed several boats to, found a couple out of state that fit his needs, then discovered that he had gone directly to the out of state broker and bought one of those without me. Such is the life of a broker.

David
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