Another wannabe on the journey to ownership

I've lurked here off and on for years as a non-member seeking advice and guidance while I searched for our dream boat and cultivated the finances through feast and famine (mostly famine), sharing the joys of other's successes, and silently supporting and wishing those well who were not celebrating. Sometimes I visited more frequently when it seemed there was no hope our dream would come true, other times less frequently for the same reason.

What a crazy emotional roller coaster ride the journey to a boat purchase can be! It’s exhilarating, scary, exciting, gut wrenching, disappointing; filling one full of doubt one moment and inspiring confidence the next, plus a hundred others, half of them or more experienced during any one day. And the nights!? Who can sleep? There’s so much to do, so many unknowns, so much to learn, plan and accomplish in a relatively short time. Even with years of reading and preparation, there are many new skills to learn and acquire along the way. The experience oscillates between periods of sheer chaos and spells of crushing boredom.

Becoming a member of the forum and writing this intro is happening during the down time between the accepted offer and the survey/sea trial. I want to be doing something, but I’ve done everything I can do. I can’t assume the boat will become ours or that we’re any closer to reaching the end of our search that began many years ago. I can’t declare victory, uncork the bubbly, and share with you all the joy of being a new trawler owner, however short lived it might be, but of course I want to.

So here’s to the little victories along the way. Without recognizing, appreciating, and celebrating the little ones, the ultimate victory would likely never happen. Please join me with the beverage of your choice and raise your glasses to the little victories. Thank you!

The survey is the 9th. It’ll be a busy day, and I’ll be traveling home on the 10th, but I’ll let you all know how it goes when I can.

Be well.

Greetings,
Welcome aboard (finally).

9th survey? Wow...good luck.

Welcome to the forum! I'm a newbee too, only having been here for a couple of months or so. I know the roller coaster ride very well. I was in contract at one point and then out again. All I can say is that whole journey is an important one that should lead you to the right boat. I'm a few days away from closing my purchase and feel that that I ended up where I should be. If it doesn't work out then it wasn't meant to be!

With that having been said I will raise my glass (of tea!) and drink a toast to your "little victory" - having an accepted offer is definitely one of those. Cheers!

Are you willing to share what you are buying? I'll understand if you don't want to "tempt fate."

Richard

Heron said:

9th survey? Wow...good luck.

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I think he meant 9th of March and not his 9th survey. But maybe you knew that and figured humor didn't require a smiley!

Richard

Heron said:

9th survey? Wow...good luck.

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The survey is on the 9th. Busy season for surveys and sea trials as I know 2 others here who are doing the same. Good luck to you, Britannia and Codger. Exciting times, for sure!

But now that you're signed iup, it comes with an obligation to post lots of pics of your new vessel when she becomes yours. Without pics as evidence, it never happened!!

Heron- I think he means March 9th. Here's to Ya Greg! Good luck and keep us posted. (RT Firefly doesn't drink- so if he abstains it's not personal.....) ?


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

Britannia said:

I think he meant 9th of March and not his 9th survey. But maybe you knew that and figured humor didn't require a smiley!

Richard

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LOL...I would hope. If it were truly the 9th than I'd suggest some counseling!

GregBrannon said:

Please join me with the beverage of your choice and raise your glasses to the little victories.

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Um, that I can happily do. Black Box Chardonnay (learned to appreciate its virtues while cruising on the sailboat -- good for a month after opening). So here is to you, and to your successful survey.

Welcome aboard from another wannabe traveling down the same stream working my way towards open waters. Sometimes it feels like the tide is flooding out and the water is getting thinner. ? but the journey is fun and the folks here are an amazing wealth of knowledge.

Pictures please once you are comfortable, as well as highs and lows of the process. Excited for you and the survey/sea trial!


Kevin
Portland, OR

That's fantastic, Gregg. Hopefully, we soon will be celebrating with you. Welcome to TF.

Greetings,
Mr. GB. I'll raise a glass of Mountain Dew to your adventures.

Thanks, All.

Yes, the survey is on the 9th. Counseling wouldn't be enough to get me through this 9 times. I'd buy the condo in Florida about #3 and give up on boating.

Yep, plenty of pics to come. You're right, without the pics it hasn't happened. I'll post the pics when it has.

I'll also post some of my notes that detail the highs and lows of the last couple attempts. I'm doing this one without brokers - per the seller's wishes (and mine) - so I think there will be lessons to share when it's all over. I've also gone part way down the road with brokers on both sides, and I have plenty of opinions about the differences.

I'm not superstitious so am not concerned about tempting fate, but I'll wait to post pics until I've closed the deal. Too many things can happen, and if I don't get this one, it'll be another one, someday.

I did say beverage of your choice. Non-alcoholic is fine!

@Britannia: Have you posted your pics here somewhere? If not, I'll be looking for them when you do. Good luck with your closing. Here's another tip to you!

Good luck on your survey Greg. Nice post.Hopefully you will have a new location to enjoy your sundowners!

GregBrannon said:

@Britannia: Have you posted your pics here somewhere? If not, I'll be looking for them when you do. Good luck with your closing. Here's another tip to you!

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Not yet - will post pictures when I'm the proud owner!

Good luck, skipper... and Godspeed on your journey....

If it doesn't work out, think how much money you saved.... this time....

Glad to see you're enjoying the trip to boatdom. Best of luck.

Good Luck on the survey.
As some say, hope you're buying your second boat first.

Safe arrival reduces most of the stress.

Welcome to Trawler Forum Greg Brannon a new friend amongst old friends.
Good Luck with your new purchase and I'll happily toast you with a glass of Spanish brandy. Fair winds and safe harbours to you and yours.

I slept better getting that off my chest among friends. Thanks for listening and supporting.

I still woke up to melting snow, frozen tree limbs and bushes, and an icy drive to work that was aborted, but not before the decision was made for me. All's well. There was no harm to me or mine. I'm just stuck until the thaw.

Someday, a trawler, retirement, and a new lifestyle will deliver me from this.

GregBrannon said:

Thanks, All.

Yes, the survey is on the 9th. Counseling wouldn't be enough to get me through this 9 times. I'd buy the condo in Florida about #3 and give up on boating.

Yep, plenty of pics to come. You're right, without the pics it hasn't happened. I'll post the pics when it has.

I'll also post some of my notes that detail the highs and lows of the last couple attempts. I'm doing this one without brokers - per the seller's wishes (and mine) - so I think there will be lessons to share when it's all over. I've also gone part way down the road with brokers on both sides, and I have plenty of opinions about the differences.

I'm not superstitious so am not concerned about tempting fate, but I'll wait to post pics until I've closed the deal. Too many things can happen, and if I don't get this one, it'll be another one, someday.

I did say beverage of your choice. Non-alcoholic is fine!

@Britannia: Have you posted your pics here somewhere? If not, I'll be looking for them when you do. Good luck with your closing. Here's another tip to you!

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Welcome Greg looking forward to the pictures and stories

It's not mine yet, but it's close enough that I think it's okay to post a few pics. Both shots were taken during the survey last Monday. Yep, it's a Hatteras 48 LRC. Can't wait to get your input on the anchors. The happy guy next to the boat hauled is my friend, boating mentor, and delivery captain.

GregBrannon said:

It's not mine yet, but it's close enough that I think it's okay to post a few pics.

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I did the same thing, Greg. Posted a little early. I think you are safe, though, as it appears to be a well maintained boat. Congrats!

She's a beautiful boat and we wish you the very best of Irish Luck with her.
The broker's just a Mr Fixit trying to make a buck, just think of him as a marine realtor. I never ever use one myself.
Buying is always a fraught time, even for us that have done it many times but the joy it will bring you is priceless.
Fair winds and safe harbours.

No brokers. The sellers and I have had to feel our away along a path we don't travel often, but that's okay. Both sides are happy with the experience and the deal.

Greg,
Irish,

No offense to the good folks here that are boat Brokers, but really look forward to your thoughts, impressions, opinions and process on buying without. I bought my first large boat with a lot of help from a supportive sales guy, but clearly there were strong "agendas" on both sides that often got in the way. Never really got a chance to talk much with the seller, but suspect he was a pretty nice guy from all I have discovered. The sales guys we quite successful in keeping us isolated.

I have bought and know many others who have bought cars from private individuals, but boats and real estate is a bit too scary.

I can really see some advantages of two decent honest folks working through a boat deal personally that satisfies both parties - the brokers definitely got in the way and left us in the dark a lot!
I would really like to try to buy my next (big[er]) boat privately.

I have kept silent on the broker topic, but it has been on my mind. I don't want to start a broker bashing discussion. I'm confident that most of the brokers here are decent, conscientious, honest, good at what they do, and responsible to their client's interests as they work to achieve the best possible deal. Owners here have apparently found brokers that were useful in the buying or selling process, speak well of them and the experience, and recommend them to others. I have not been so lucky.

After a recent experience that went south due (in my opinion) to both the seller's and buyer's brokers having confused allegiances, I decided that the next attempt to buy a boat would be as broker free as possible. Finding a private sale requires one to search differently. There are FSBO sites (they say), Craigslist and other fringe ads - at least for large items like yachts - and other small circulation print and internet sites where FSBO ads can be found, but it's tough.

Finding the boat you want being sold by a private party will be a greater challenge than navigating through the sales/transfer process. From others, I've heard that private parties experience a tremendous response from the brokerage community to list their boats. Even if one starts down the path to sell the boat themselves and successfully parry the initial broker assault, dealing with endless tire kickers, difficult people, or getting no response at all might cause the private seller to become desperate and choose one of the brokers who'd promised to take care of everything, making the unpleasant part of selling the boat go away. I'm sure that offer can become incredibly attractive after a short time. A skill that experienced brokers offer the seller is the ability to filter responses to the ones that matter. I haven't been a seller, but I can imagine how difficult finding sincere buyers can be, and I know I'd appreciate someone taking that entire chore off my hands.

Once a private seller is found and the buyer musters the courage to deal with the seller directly, the buyer will need a general understanding of the boat selling/buying process. I think most anyone can successfully complete the process. Well, except that I don't imagine everyone is capable or willing to negotiate a major purchase like a large boat. Negotiating a large ticket item is intimidating and requires communication and reasoning skills that we either don't have or very rarely use. It might be helpful for the buyer to assume that many of the private sellers are going to suffer the same disadvantage.

Apart from the negotiating part, the process is pretty routine and well described in many places. The rough steps are:

• Buyer inspects the boat
• If the buyer desires to purchase, an offer is made
• The offer can be made and accepted verbally but is usually documented in a "Purchase and Sale Agreement" or similar
• Buyer hires surveyor(s), schedules the haul out, coordinates with the seller
• Buyer pays surveyor(s) and the yard
• Buyer receives the surveyor's reports and arranges post-survey discussion with owner
• Owner/buyer decide on final price or part friends, OR
• If the sale continues
• The Purchase and Sales Agreement is updated with the price determined during the post-survey discussion
• Note: At this point, it might be wise to enlist the help of a documentation service to help with the rest of the paperwork. Different services do different things, but a buyer might be interested in a service that: prepares the documents needed from this point forward, complete a title search, collect fees, complete the paperwork and file as needed for in/out of state registration or USCG documentation, payment of sales tax, and ensuring that all tasks to close the sale are done in accordance with the agreement between the buyer and seller. All of this can be done by the parties involved, but paying a reasonable fee to an experienced party to complete these items correctly might give peace of mind and alleviate headaches
• The buyer completes an "Acceptance of Vessel" with any conditions agreed to during the post-survey discussion
• The buyer and seller mutually create and sign the "Closing Statement"
• The buyer and seller complete the items on the Closing Statement.

The Closing Statement spells out what has to be done to close the sale, and both parties work to get done what needs to be done to complete the sale and the process to transfer the ownership of the vessel. There are many other important details included in the above steps that are spelled out in the body of the documents. Since I'm working from memory - even though a recent experience - I might have missed something. Consult multiple guides on the 'net and tailor them to fit your situation.

I'm nearly through the process dealing directly with the boat's current owners, and it has been mostly a pleasant experience. Any unpleasantness has been minor, of my own making, and NOT the owner's fault. Yes, negotiating was tough, but I didn't do any of it without first discussing my next steps and the ultimate objective with my wife and another friend/adviser. I don't like negotiating, but at the same time, I was glad to be involved and working directly with the seller. I'm proud and extremely happy with the deal we've agreed to, and the sellers assure me that they are too. That's priceless.

I would not have the same appreciation of the result if the seller and I had communicated solely through brokers. Yes, there were emotions involved throughout the process on both sides. My experience showed me that the presence of emotions is important - we are humans after all - and the presence of emotions by themselves don't mean that the process or its result will be something less. For me, the process and the result are greater with the experiences I had to get there. I'm thankful that I was able to see that at times the sale was very difficult for the owners while at other times it was a labor of pure joy.

In my mind, the presence of brokers would have removed me from the process and the lessons I learned. After having been through the purchase up close and personal, I would not want it any other way.

I hope I've stated the reasons for my choices without bashing or offending any brokers.

GB, very well said. Congrats and welcome aboard. Beautiful looking vessel. GREAT outline of your process. No feelings should have been harmed in your dissertation.
Happy trails, I mean sails, no that isn't right either,. Fair winds and safe harbours. Toast to you and yours,
Toolbuddie.

I tried to use a couple of buyer's brokers and it didn't work out for me. Probably mostly my fault-- I don't think I could clearly articulate what I really wanted in a boat so we floundered.

Ended up buying my boat at a repo liquidation place. I put in a bid online and the bank took it. Then after the survey it had some issues, so I reduced my bid $10000, and they still took it. ?

The broker representing the banks was quite interesting-- there was never any doubt who he represented (not me).