Think the bottom's fallen out

[Jim_in_Delaware]

Not conventional thinking, but if I was selling an 18 year old powerboat in this market, I would make a huge drop in price to facilitate a quick sale. As the Summer goes on and Fall approaches, it won’t get any easier to sell a boat. My experience is that it’s a heartache to see a boat sitting during boating season with no chance of it being used. Same thing is true when seeing that monthly storage fee on an unused boat.

Even if your boat is in perfect mechanical condition, when a lot of people look at a 15-20 year old powerboat, they think how much is a repower and work part of that into the boat value. I also think that less than 100 hours isn’t necessarily a selling point, as some folks prefer a boat that has been used more frequently. Crazy covid buying is definitely over and people have readjusted their thinking when buying boats.

Good luck with the sale.

Jim

 

[2kwik4u]

Not that people are trying to sell at a higher level, but people are just not buying houses right now, so they are languishing on the market. My neighbor is one. House has been on the market for Months, they have dropped the price twice and have an open house about every weekend. Have had a lot of tire kickers. They are now thinking they will remove it from the market, buy out the 6 month contract with the realtor, and relish with a new realtor in a Month or 2.

Man I wish that was the case here. We've lost bids on the last 3 houses we've looked at and made an offer on. Last one went for $65k over asking price in less than a week.

 

[Neutron]

Man I wish that was the case here. We've lost bids on the last 3 houses we've looked at and made an offer on. Last one went for $65k over asking price in less than a week.

Not here, there is so much inventory its amazing. We drove through a nice desirable neighborhood and could not believe how many house were for sale. 6 months ago there were not one for sale there. Problem is all the older houses are competing with many new beautiful builds for similar pricing.
I personally dont care what the housing market does because i am never leaving but there is a big Marine population that comes in and out every few years and that has to be frustrating

 

[drewkaree]

I've also noticed triple the number of houses for sale around my town and around the golf course.

Seems like that'll depend on the area. I'd love to move in and be your neighbor, but you'd probably hate me in a few months after I dropped your property values I JUST looked into possibly moving, and prices are ridiculous. Basements are almost a religion here, and the only thing in the price range I was considering were total gut jobs, or double the price I was looking at, ranches built on a slab, which is a deal-breaker for me. I'll likely be continuing to upgrade our house, and contemplate retiring to the lake house if we can swing a total tear-down and rebuild something slightly bigger. My only concern is that I'll finally be able to move forward with those plans, and die the week before we move in

It feels like people are trying to get out from under houses that they overbought and weren't able to afford, and they're trying to basically trade their Taj Mahal's for what they should have bought in the first place, at even money.

 

[drewkaree]

I've seen the same thing in our neighborhood - it was like someone flipped a switch in April. The market was as crazy as it has been with houses selling for high prices quickly, and then just one day, all the houses that were for sale suddenly just sat.

We have two houses a block away from us, one's been on the market for an unheard-of month now, and the other's a newly built house, both still for sale. The used house has had two price drops.

You're closer, but still not close enough for me to drag down your values. Can we move in above your garage or something?

 

[BigN8]

Seems like that'll depend on the area. I'd love to move in and be your neighbor, but you'd probably hate me in a few months after I dropped your property values I JUST looked into possibly moving, and prices are ridiculous. Basements are almost a religion here, and the only thing in the price range I was considering were total gut jobs, or double the price I was looking at, ranches built on a slab, which is a deal-breaker for me. I'll likely be continuing to upgrade our house, and contemplate retiring to the lake house if we can swing a total tear-down and rebuild something slightly bigger. My only concern is that I'll finally be able to move forward with those plans, and die the week before we move in

It feels like people are trying to get out from under houses that they overbought and weren't able to afford, and they're trying to basically trade their Taj Mahal's for what they should have bought in the first place, at even money.

Speaking of over buying and being house poor, I read something last year that a lot of people bought with variable rate mortgage rates. This could be the sudden influx of houses in market with those variable rates expiring.

 

[drewkaree]

Speaking of over buying and being house poor, I read something last year that a lot of people bought with variable rate mortgage rates. This could be the sudden influx of houses in market with those variable rates expiring.

Heard similar things. We have some friends who told me (whether true or not, I have no idea) that they had to sell when their ARM ballooned, or whatever their financial situation was, and they couldn't afford the house anymore. They moved from around us, to a spendier neighborhood, and spent the whole time trying to convince us to move out by them. Sent listings for houses in their area whenever something went on the market.

It got to the point where I had to tell the husband to knock it off, and that if we WANTED to move, we would, but they were becoming annoying with trying to pressure us. The excuses and justification when they finally had to let on that they had to move back to "the slums" near us were obnoxious, and I think I pissed him off when I told him this was one of the things we were looking to avoid, and he'd do better to square up his financial position than to keep trying to avoid taking responsibility for a bad decision.

Meanwhile, I'm happy and not arguing with my wife about finances. I guess he showed me.

 

[anmut]

You're closer, but still not close enough for me to drag down your values. Can we move in above your garage or something?

Come on over - we can do cigars on the nightly and I'll show you all the sandbars on the WI river.

 

[biffdotorg]

So we made the decision to sell the boat. It's just not easy to boat where we are now in life with two toddlers and no lake (we would be in the ocean here and the wife doesn't love that idea). Drug my feet on it from a time perspective, just been busy with other stuff.

Anyways, finally got it listed a few weeks ago. It's been crickets ever since. I might have priced it a little high, but not so much so that people wouldn't see it. I haven't gotten ANY interest on it at all. No trades for guns or woodchoppers or anything weird like that. No insulting low ball offers. Literally nothing.

So I reached out to a consignment lot that seemed to do a good amount of business about them listing it (I had not great pictures, a new Facebook account, etc). They were receptive but the guy was like "I just want to warn you... We've been having a hard time selling boats. I sold one yesterday, but it's been tough. We used to sell a boat every few days, it's been a few weeks now."

So maybe it's just here, but not a good sign I think.

So back to the original topic......

If you are at or below $20K, you are right on the money according to JDPower. Based on actual boats sold, you should be in the sweet spot. I would have guessed $20k as well



If it needs some elbow grease to make it more appealing, do so.

The shopper out there looking at your boat is going to be the guy that may be looking for an entry boat, but would jump on a bigger, more powerful one if it came along in good shape.

As you are in the range of a newer 190 class boat. But you have way more boat for the money, if they have the place to store, vehicle to tow and it's in good shape.

Good luck!