When it comes time to sell your boat, you don’t want to spend months showing your boat every weekend to unqualified buyers and waiting for offers only for them to be below market value. This costs not only your patience but also your wallet as your boat continues to degrade aesthetically and mechanically. Therefore, it pays to know the best approach when listing boats for sale.
By listing your boat right, you can help ensure a fast sale at the best possible price. Now let’s look at the best ways to list your boat for sale and the best marketplaces for achieving results.
How Can You List Your Boat for Sale?
When it comes to selling your boat, you have two main options: selling your boat yourself by listing it on a general or boat-specific marketplace or selling it through a licensed yacht broker.
By listing and selling your boat on your own, you can avoid brokerage fees; however, you will be responsible for everything. This means that you will have to determine the price, show potential sales prospects the boat, determine the upgrades to do that add value for a higher sales price, and pay to advertise your listing.
You will also be responsible for handling the legal aspects of the sale: purchase contract, funds transfer and collection, title transfer, working with a seller’s bank and insurance companies, and navigating the survey and negotiations. There are a lot of steps where things can go wrong that you will be fully responsible for. Given the relatively small amount that brokerage fees work out to be, many buyers prefer to go that route instead.
By choosing to list your vessel with a professional broker such as Passage Nautical, there are many benefits not just from the time saving aspect of it, but from the legal and liability standpoint as well. The biggest benefit is that your vessel is listed for sale worldwide through Multiple Listing Services only accessed by professional brokers, advertised in trade magazines, and listed on their professional marketplace. With their professional expertise and ability to handle every part of the selling process, it’s no wonder that many boat owners choose to list their boats with a broker or dealer. However, there are cases where you will do better to sell your boat yourself if it is under $50,000 in value.
For boats under $50,000 value
Best Marketplaces to List Your Boats for Sale:
All boat brokerages have minimum commissions, as it takes as much time to sell a boat for $250,000 as $50,000, sometimes more because of the issues an older boat might have. You may not find a brokerage that wants to list your boat. If you have a boat under $50,000 in value consider the following sites for listing your boat.
Craigslist and eBay
Craigslist and eBay are both great places to list just about anything for sale, and this includes boats. It is extremely simple to create a listing for your boat that millions of visitors can see. However, there are downsides, including the fact that most of these visitors are only window-shopping, meaning that you may have to deal with a lot of contacts from people who may not really be interested in buying your boat. Also, because these listings are not professionally reviewed and classified, keep in mind that you will need to be careful to check that your listing is properly categorized and that everything is spelled correctly to ensure that potential buyers can find you.
Facebook Marketplace
If you already have an account on Facebook, the social media giant has made it easy to list items for sale in connection with your account, and this includes your boat. By listing your boat on Facebook Marketplace, you can use your profile to list your vessel online for sale to buyers in your area.
Classified Listings in Boating Magazines
Another way to list your boat for sale is to use the classifieds offered by many boating magazines on their websites. These may offer less exposure than general marketplaces like eBay or Facebook Marketplace, but they can offer better results. This is because buyers are more likely to be interested in boating and to be in the market for a boat. Due to the lower traffic of window-shoppers, you are less likely to waste your time on uninterested contacts. There are higher fees to advertise in these industry publications.
Used Boat Websites
There are several used boat websites out there, often claiming to offer fast and simple ways to list your boat for sale. This does have the benefit of listing your boat in a place where buyers are definitely looking. However, you will still be completely responsible for determining a fair price, showing your boat to interested buyers, and handling the sales process. Regardless, there are a number of websites that offer places to list your used boat, and you can also browse their listings to get an idea of what your used boat might be worth by comparing similar makes and models.
Forums
There are a number of online forums for those interested in recreational boating, and most offer a place for members to list their boats as well as boating parts and supplies for sale. You may not be able to find much exposure on these platforms, but if you are a member in any of these online communities, it is possible you may find interest among people you have had interactions with.
Passage Nautical is the best place to list your boats for sale over 50K.
Passage Nautical offers the best way to sell your boat quickly for the best price. Selling your boat normally takes a considerable amount of time and entails significant risk with a lot of money changing hands. However, by listing your boat with Passage Nautical, you can leave the heavy lifting to a professional broker. Passage Nautical will not only list your boat for sale, they will also perform a detailed market analysis to help you determine the best listing price, perform an 18-point inspection to determine if there is any work to be done to enhance the salability of your vessel, and list your vessel through a variety of sources including their professional network to ensure your vessel gets maximum exposure. From there, they will ensure only qualified prospects are shown your vessel and will handle the entire sales process.
Final Thoughts
Your boat is a major investment, and it is important to ensure that the sales process is handled right. This can be a daunting prospect, but by knowing the best places to list your boat for sale, you can ensure that your vessel finds maximum exposure through the right channels. If you use the above marketplaces, you can help get your boat sold in no time!
