READY
Guru
Open-d,
Based upon my experience here is my suggestion since you are looking for a rule of thumb. This would apply to most production boats.
The starting point is not what is the list price of this single boat but what is average list price of comparable boats.that is the competition to the seller and the alternative for the buyer. Comparable ideally means same model, similarly equipped, similar condition and within the same region. Using Florida pricing for a SoCal boat is not comparable unless you adjust for the cost,risk and time to deliver it.
Offer 20% off an be prepared to negotiate.
Option#2
Decide what is the max you will pay for the boat (and feel it was a fair deal) and offer 10-15%% less and negotiate from there.
In any event I have usually included a "deductible allowance" for survey items to let the seller know I am not planning to nickel and dime them. For example on an $800k boat buyer would cover any problems found at survey totalling less than $30k. So even if the offer is aggressively low it will not get even worse for the seller after the survey unless there are really serious problems.
All of this is influenced by how badly you want the boat and how anxious the seller is to get rid of it. As mentioned if you do your homework and have a good broker you can usually know about where the parties are likely to meet on price.
Based upon my experience here is my suggestion since you are looking for a rule of thumb. This would apply to most production boats.
The starting point is not what is the list price of this single boat but what is average list price of comparable boats.that is the competition to the seller and the alternative for the buyer. Comparable ideally means same model, similarly equipped, similar condition and within the same region. Using Florida pricing for a SoCal boat is not comparable unless you adjust for the cost,risk and time to deliver it.
Offer 20% off an be prepared to negotiate.
Option#2
Decide what is the max you will pay for the boat (and feel it was a fair deal) and offer 10-15%% less and negotiate from there.
In any event I have usually included a "deductible allowance" for survey items to let the seller know I am not planning to nickel and dime them. For example on an $800k boat buyer would cover any problems found at survey totalling less than $30k. So even if the offer is aggressively low it will not get even worse for the seller after the survey unless there are really serious problems.
All of this is influenced by how badly you want the boat and how anxious the seller is to get rid of it. As mentioned if you do your homework and have a good broker you can usually know about where the parties are likely to meet on price.