Factors In Browsing Boats For Sale
It takes just one sailing vacation to have most people perusing boats for sale. There are large luxury yachts and speedy power boats or smaller catamarans and leisurely sail boats. These boats not only range in size and price, but also in amenities, styles, conditions and handling ease. Before buying, you will need to buy insurance, find a place to store your boat and consider maintenance costs. You can find your dream boat online, through a yacht broker or at a trade show.
Going through a certified yacht broker is a great way to discover both used and new boats that are up for sale. In this way, you will find your dream boat much the same way you would find your dream home; by enlisting the help of professionals who have access to multiple listing services, insider connections and sweet deals that have not been advertised. The broker will work with you to define your needs and find all the amenities you desire. Brokers can also help you with financing, deal brokering, setting up an inspection, title clearing, procuring docking space and yacht services to ensure a smooth closing and transition to boat ownership. Check out www.yachtcouncil.com for more information on yacht brokers.
When you are browsing boats for sale, you will need to consider a number of other factors. Sailing yachts are undoubtedly as big an investment as an automobile or a house and, similarly, you can expect a fair amount of maintenance costs associated with your purchase. New boats won’t need much maintenance for the first three years. However, major repairs often rear their ugly heads when your purchase hits the 5 to 7 year mark. If you buy one of the new 40-foot motor yachts and sell it in 3-4 years, your annual maintenance will average around 4% of the total cost, but if you own it ten years or longer, then you are looking at paying roughly 7% of the boat’s total cost in maintenance each year.
One pitfall for consumers looking at boats for sale is that they tend to gravitate toward the bigger boats. In the age of “keeping up with the Joneses,” it is easy to be seduced by the thought of pulling up in this magnificent monolithic vessel in the Captain’s hat and waving from the command wheel. However, bigger also means needing more hands on deck, paying more in storage, paying more upfront, paying more in fuel, paying more in maintenance fees and less maneuverability. The beginner boater should stick to one of the nice mid-level or smaller sailing yachts to get a feel for sailing first. In fact, boat manufacturers are packing their newest mid-sized models with a lot more amenities to meet consumer demands.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Boating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.