We have covered how a sale runs and how the price is set in another article. Here we deal only with preparation. A buyer first meets the boat in photographs, gains confidence from the documents and decides after the survey. Good preparation helps at all three stages.
Deal with the jobs you know about
Every finding in the buyer's survey report can become an item when the price is discussed. That is why it pays to put right the small defects you know about before the sale. Have the periodic service of the engines and generator up to date. Have the small things that don't work repaired: lighting, pumps, screens.
A fault that concerns safety, such as a bilge pump, the fire system or the navigation lights, is not left for the negotiation. It is put right before the sale.
Clean, dry bilges, no smell on board and teak, varnish and upholstery that look cared for tell a buyer how the boat has been used. Antifouling and a hull polish can also be done before the sale, and if the boat winters on hardstanding that is the easiest time for it.
If there is a defect you are not going to fix, the soundest course is to tell the buyer at the outset. Some owners commission their own survey before the sale and see the defects in advance. Buyers generally still have their own independent survey.
The document file
Before the boat goes on the market, these documents are brought together:
- The registration certificate and a current transcript of the register
- The chain of ownership: earlier bills of sale and the builder's certificate
- The documents showing the boat's tax status
- The service invoices for the engines, the generator and the equipment, and the maintenance log
- The engine hours record and the service read-outs
- A detailed inventory and the manuals
- Any earlier survey reports, and the record of repairs carried out
- The radio licence and the insurance history
If the boat is registered to a company, the company's documents of authority are prepared too. The documents are also checked against each other: the year, the length and the identification number on the registration certificate must be the same as on the builder's certificate and in the listing. Any discrepancy is put right before the boat is listed, or its explanation is added to the file.
With a tidy digital copy of the file, we can answer questions from the buyer's side quickly.
Photographs and video
The photographs are taken in daylight, after the boat has been cleaned and personal belongings removed. The exterior, the flybridge, the saloon, the galley, every cabin and bathroom, the helm and the engine room are each shown. A photograph of the engine hours display goes into the file as well. A picture taken with the boat afloat, the awnings up and the deck tidy shows the boat as it is.
Footage taken under way, and a video that goes through all the spaces in order, give a distant buyer a good idea of the boat before they visit. If the pictures show the boat as it is today, the buyer who comes to view finds the boat they saw in the listing.
Viewing day
Before a viewing the boat is aired, and the shore power and air conditioning are kept running. The state of the deck, the gangway and the lines is what a buyer notices on first stepping aboard. The document file is kept together on board. If you, or a captain who knows the systems well, are there for the viewing, technical questions get answered on the spot.
Set aside beforehand the items that are not included in the sale, and tell the buyer plainly. That simple step prevents a later disagreement over the inventory.
When the preparation is done, the answers to most of a buyer's questions are already in the file.
