Selling Guide

How to Sell Your Boat Without Leaving Money on the Table

Boats that sell well have three things in common: an honest price, marketing that actually reaches buyers, and a clean path from offer to closing. Here is how we handle each one.

1Start With an Honest Price

The asking price decides how long the boat sits more than anything else. Price it right and good buyers show up early, while the listing is fresh. Price it high and the boat sits, buyers start wondering what is wrong with it, and you usually end up selling for less than a realistic price would have brought in the first month.

That is why we start with a written market valuation, not a number pulled from the air. We look at what comparable boats actually sold for, adjust for your year, hours, engines and equipment, and look at every boat you will be competing against right now. Then we give you three prices.

The valuation is free and comes with no obligation. Request yours here. You can use it with any broker, including the one you have now.

2Have a Plan If It Does Not Sell

Every listing we take comes with a recommended price adjustment schedule: if the boat has not drawn an offer by a certain point, here is where the price should go next. It is a recommendation, not a requirement, and the decision is always yours.

We put it in writing because it keeps everyone honest. You know from day one how we think the market will respond, and you never have to wonder whether a high number was named just to win the listing.

3Get the Boat Ready

Buyers decide in the first few photos and the first few minutes aboard. A little preparation pays for itself many times over.

• Clean it like a buyer is coming tomorrow: hull, deck, canvas, cushions, bilge and engine compartment
• Gather service records, owner's manuals, spare keys and the title or documentation
• Fix the small things a surveyor will find, like dead gauges, weeping fittings and burned out lights
• Know the bottom paint status. Buyers ask, even on a trailered boat
• Take personal gear off the boat so buyers can picture it as theirs

If the boat needs more than a weekend of work, our service team can handle mechanical items, restoration detailing and decking before it goes live.

4Market It Everywhere Buyers Look

Every boat we list gets professional photos and video, always included. Then it goes out on YachtWorld, Boat Trader, Boats.com, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and hynmarine.com, and we market it directly to our buyer network instead of waiting for someone to stumble onto it.

5Keep It Easy to Show

A boat that is hard to see is hard to sell. If your boat is on a trailer, it can be stored and shown at our Tarpon Springs location while it is listed with us. We keep it washed for showings, keep it plugged in, and run sea trials right down the road.

6Offer, Survey and Sea Trial

When an offer comes in, we negotiate it with you and put it on a written purchase agreement. The buyer's deposit goes into our escrow account at Chase, which is kept separate from our operating funds and is not touched until closing. The account is registered with the State of Florida and bonded under our Florida yacht broker license.

Most buyers then schedule a marine survey and a sea trial. We coordinate both and attend them. If the survey finds something, that is a negotiation, not automatically a lost deal, and we will walk you through your options.

7Closing

We handle the closing paperwork: title or documentation, lien payoff and release if there is a loan on the boat, bill of sale and closing statement. Funds are disbursed from escrow once the paperwork is clean, so both sides are protected.