How my (small) bank comes up boat values.

We are starting the process of looking for a new boat. we have only had our present one less than a year but simply put it was to good of a deal to not test the waters with (pun intended). we paid cash so that certainly made matters less complicated.

As we are starting to look at boats I gave community bank a call to see what they could do as far as rates and such. I have been dealing with them for years and they always come close or beat the big banks with rates.

I ask about the process of acquiring a loan, requirements and how they placed a value, i assumed a survey. But no, they use exclusively NADA guides. Which, if you are a boat buyer, is a great but not realistic, place to get a value from. For example, a 2000 Nordic Tug books at $132,000. Oh and that Nordhavan, 2005 43' it is worth $250,000.

This particular bank isn't really in the business of yacht lending and the few boats that they hold interest to are bass boats, ski boats and the occasional 25'ish cabin cutey. They are humans and if i wanted an exception to this i am sure that they would at least take my cause to their board of directors.

Where or how does NADA get values? because it looks like they just started throwing out numbers.


Oh and if anyone knows where i can by a 'average' condition Nordhavan 43 for 250K please forward it to me!

I would keep looking for financing. There are several lenders that will loan money on large boats and actually understand them and how they are valuated as collateral.

One method would be to go to yachtworld.com and click on one of the several financing links that are available there.

In the bigger boat world most boats are valuated by a survey, much like a home gets an appraisal.

I think SunTrust has a department that focuses on "yachts", i.e. not bass boats and center consoles.

Greetings,
Mr. e. I've often wondered where NADA gets their "values" as well. A few years back, coming up tax time the county assessed our vessel @ $XXX and they evidently got this value from a NADA book. I went to NADA on line and plugged in my numbers and came up with a lesser ($Xxx) value. Took a print out to the tax office and said "Here's what she's worth according to NADA on line so I should be paying taxes in THIS amount". You can easily imagine what response I got. Would have made a difference of several hundred $$. No arguing with City Hall. Keep in mind NADA also has a range of values based on condition. Probably your bank is using the lowest value and my tax office the highest. Somebody's laughing somewhere...

ksanders said:

I would keep looking for financing. There are several lenders that will loan money on large boats and actually understand them and how they are valuated as collateral.

One method would be to go to yachtworld.com and click on one of the several financing links that are available there.

In the bigger boat world most boats are valuated by a survey, much like a home gets an appraisal.

Click to expand...

twistedtree said:

I think SunTrust has a department that focuses on "yachts", i.e. not bass boats and center consoles.

Click to expand...

Absolutely correct. There are plenty of specialty marine lenders to choose from; some will lend off survey value, others a percentage of same or the BUC valuation. NADA is useless for the marine business.

What are their terms, 80% of NADA value for 7 years at prime plus 8 or 10? That would be the best that my old credit union would do 15 years ago.

All depends on the lending institution. Wings Financial CU has 2.99% at 85% LTV; Key Bank has 4.7% at 80% LTV. You can find a really great rate with some research.

SCOTTEDAVIS said:

What are their terms, 80% of NADA value for 7 years at prime plus 8 or 10? That would be the best that my old credit union would do 15 years ago.

Click to expand...

Actually, they are 100% of value, 6.5% for 120 months.

Lots of replies here but no one can tell where i can buy that 250K Nordhavan. :lol:

NADA and BUC have no relationship to reality on values of boats over 30 feet and anything over 10 years old.
You might contact a marine lender and get pre-approved, then show that to your local bank if you would prefer to do business with them.

Don't overlook BoatUS. They work with a lot of different financing institutions that you might not think of. They came up a winner with a major bank for a lower rate and better terms. They handled all paperwork. Painless.

Trident. Good people that know boats.

My credit union strictly uses NADA too, whether or not it makes any sense at all. Our old Carver (1983, 3207) booked out at the mid-20's when they made the loan. Heck, we were buying it for $15K -- although that was an unusually good deal. They gave us fantastic terms, like 3-something percent but then we were only financing for 36 months. Might have helped too that we didn't really have to finance it at all but at that rate, it made us feel better than raiding the balance in our safety net.

I tend to think it's not a bad thing though. The NADA values tend to be very low (as you mentioned for that Nordhavn) and so it forces people to be very conservative and not finance boats to the hilt. If you need to finance 100% LTV (or even more) then you can't afford that boat anyway.

Call Dave Trostle at Sterling Acceptance Corp 800-525-0554. Tell him I sent you.

I don't know where you live, but i was solicited by alaska credit union and I live in california. We ended up going with them and got a great rate. And they use survey values not Nada.