Recommend a consultant for boat purchase?

[niftyc]

Hello and thank you all for such a wonderful forum. I have been a reader for years now but this is my first post.

I am considering a purchase of a liveaboard custom-built steel-hull trawler and I wonder if anyone has a recommendation for someone who would be willing to act as a buyer's consultant. I already have a broker (identified from this forum -- thanks for that) who is very knowledgeable but I am feeling like it would be nice to have an extra set of eyes who is more focused on boat operation and maintenance, and who is independent.

To make sure this is clear, since I already have a broker, I'm not looking for a broker to consult. I think the best consultant might be a surveyor, builder, designer, operator, or maybe just a very salty trawler boater. Not sure.

I imagine paying an hourly rate to have someone examine plans, watch a video walkthrough, review a survey, and possibly also look at e-mail threads or answer questions or do other things like that that may come up.

Any recommendations?

A second question would be: How much should I expect to pay such a person?

My thinking is that this is a big life decision for us and a consultant like this would be money well spent even if it is only for peace of mind or to give me "backup." Let me know if this is a crazy idea.

I did see other threads about these sorts of questions but they were mostly about using a broker as a consultant. (Forgive me if I missed a recent thread!) I'm not 100% sure this is the right forum since my question feels more technical than financial, but it is about buying a boat so I think it fits best here.

Hoping someone has ideas!

 

[menzies]

https://www.zimmermanmarine.com/yacht-purchase-support

 

[JLD]

https://www.zimmermanmarine.com/yacht-purchase-suppor

Me thinks you mistakenly left off the "t" https://www.zimmermanmarine.com/yacht-purchase-support

Jim

 

[menzies]

Me thinks you mistakenly left off the "t" https://www.zimmermanmarine.com/yacht-purchase-support

Jim

Did not!!

 

[bligh]

Tad Roberts

 

[Comodave]

Welcome aboard. Steve D’Antonio might be able to help or recommend someone. He posts here on TF.

 

[EngNate]

Definitely get a thorough survey, and your first priority is finding a good and competent surveyor local to you, one for steel. The surveyor is crucial if you don't have the knowledge and experience yourself. Try to get recommendations from other boat buyers.

There are a lot of useful articles here

 

[STB]

When I was looking out of state, I hired a survey to do boat walk through for me to distinguish reality from "prom photos" before I flew out.

We basically agreed on an hourly rate and booked half a day of him driving around looking at boats in his area.

Some surveyors wouldn't do it because they were worried I was trying to get a survey out of a 30 minute walk through. But, I quickly found one who understood and was happy to be a consultant at his consulting rate (which seemed to be about the same as his survey rate if you count a survey as half day).

We also agreed that it wasn't a survey, that no reports would be written, that he'd just call me up and tell me his general impressions and anything he noted as being glaringly different than the adverts.

It was money well spent in that it saved me tons of disappointment and let me focus my limited travel time on likely candidates. It also gave me some idea where he'd spend his time on a survey.

And, one showing got cancelled because the broker noted him to be a surveyor and said, "The actual buyer has to be here for the showing, no representatives, and surveys are after an accepted offer." I counted that as a win.

I also hired my old out of state mechanic to review the pictures of the engine room on the boat I eventually bought. They were high resistance and plentiful. That was really inexpensive. He asked more questions than gave answers, but made some interesting observations, gave some hints as to what to check on that type of engine, and it was good to have someone to talk it through with before and after I saw it, as there was work left to be done.

 

[JohnEasley]

Hi niftyc. Welcome to the forum. Sent you a Private Message.

 

[mvweebles]

Sounds like hiring a surveyor would be best but they are pretty busy these days so finding one could be difficult.

You might consider the Port Captain feature of this TrawlerForum. Could probably find someone in the are you're looking to pre-view a vessel for you and give an unbiased opinion. My wife and I have been laying low due to Covid for months - wouldn't take much to get me out of the house and go on a blind-date with some nubile boat-flesh.

https://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s22/new-tf-port-captain-feature-announcement-how-54068.html

Peter