Sale advise

[David Arnold]

Unfortunately due to the state of the economy I may need to look into the sale of my boat rather than sails for my boat.  I'm looking for advise on where best to list my C34 (2005 model year).  I hate to give away a chunk by listing it with a dealer but if I can sell the boat for for more through a dealership that might be my best bet.  The boat is located in Southeastern Mass if location is a determining factor. 

[Joe and Carol]

Start right here on the Catalina 34 Association Site!

[Steve Sayian]

Dave,

Also try www.craigslist.com.
No charge for listing or selling.  It's limited to 4 pictures, but you can refer to secondary website for more pictures, etc.
You list by geographical location.

If you do have to list with a dealer, Eastern Yacht Sales is right there in Portsmouth (we bought ours there in '05) and also in Hingham.  You can also try Hellier Yachts in Connecticut (www.hellieryachts.com).

Steve

[Gary]

David, sorry to hear the news.  There is an excellent article by Ken Textor in the 2007 May/June issue of "Good Old Boat" titled, "Are Brokers Necessary? Yes, sometimes they are."  You can purchase a back issue at this address <http://www.goodoldboat.com/reader_services/back_issues.php#2007>.  Many libraries also subscribe to Good Old Boat and Practical Sailer and keep the back issues in their stacks.

This article by Ken Textor, an excellent marine writer, may help you decide the broker / private sale question.

Best of luck!

[ellispe]

Kind Sir,

I just sold my 28 ft Catalina. Craigslist.org is a great place to start, but you may want to put it on a few of their geographic areas to get the best response. You may need to change the wordings in the descriptions a bit or they won't let you post more than 1. Try to put it in the most populated area on Craigslist. Also, if you sign up on Craigslist and create an account, it will be much easier to manage your postings and re-postings.

I also put my boat on http://www.sailboatlistings.com .  While not looked at as much as Craigslist, it is a great site and is very easy to set up your add. It is 100% free and you can put all your pictures on this site. Also, if you search google and put "sailboats FOR SALE" that is the site that will come up first.  When I did my Craigslist postings, I included a link from this site to my boat.  This was my listing  http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/11410 . I just pasted this into my CL add and said for more info and Pictures see :... This site is great, if not for sale traffic as a place to put your pictures. If you click on the pictures at the bottom of my link you can then use your page up and down to move between pictures. It works great.

You should not have to pay to put your boat on a site. I paid for Boatrader but did not get any response.  Having said all that I finally sold my boat through a Yachtworld Listing via a broker.  For whatever reason the person who purchased my boat never looked online at Craigslist or other sites. That was at least until they were looking for comps to use to bargain my price down.  Be sure to search yourself to see what the other boats equipted like yours are going for. This will help if somone trys to get you down on price.

I just purchased my 2005 Catalina 34, 4 weeks ago, so people are still buying.

Good luck with your sale.

[Ted Pounds]

David,
I sold my C34 through a yacht broker (Jan Guthrie Yacht Brokerage, buy-a-boat.com).  Her commission was the standard 10% and I felt it was money very well spent.    She helped with prepping the boat to show it including lots of great pictures.  She knew my boat inside and out when presenting it prospective buyers.  And she got it sold in the middle of January!  (Not only that but she found me a great buyer who still let's me use the boat sometimes!)  If you decide to go with a broker I suggest you give Jan a call to recommend a broker out your way.  Seems like she has contacts all over the place.  Just my $.02...