5 Tips For Successfully Selling Your Boat

Our Top Tips for a Quick Boat Sale

Thinking about selling your boat? Selling can be a daunting and often bitter-sweet proposition to many owners. Boats often become part of the family, with so many wonderful memories attached to them it can be hard to think about selling. That’s why here at Clipper Marine, we make sure to handle each sale with grace as we understand that selling your boat can be an emotional process.

Let our expert brokers handle every step and take away the stress and hassle of selling privately. We will walk you through every stage of the process and help you navigate this next stage of your journey.

Sell Your Boat

1. Organise the Paperwork

When selling your boat our brokers will ask to see the original paperwork for your boat. This includes: the Bills of Sale showing a minimum of five years clear title (ideally you should have original Bills of Sale for the entirety of the boat’s life), the original VAT invoice or proof of VAT exemption and the original builders certificate. Alongside this your broker will ask to see invoices for the boat’s service history as well as any additions to the boat that have been made in recent years such as upgrades to the navigation equipment, sails, heating… This is so we can show to potential buyers the work that has been done to your boat, which aids in the sale of your boat.

If you are struggling with this, give our brokers a call, we might be able to use our extensive network within the industry to help track down the paperwork you need.

2. Prepare your Boat For Sale

Appearance makes a crucial difference to being able to secure a quick sale. When thinking about selling you want to make sure that your boat makes the best first impression possible with potential buyers. This means removing all your belongings to allow buyers to envision themselves onboard and ensuring that the boat is cleaned and ready for the season.

To help with this we have an in-house service team who are able to help polish, antifoul, change anodes and more to ensure that your boat is looking ship shape before she goes on the market. Head over to our service page to receive your free estimates today.

3. Maintain Appearances

When selling it remains your responsibility to ensure that your boat is looked after and looking good for viewings. This means keeping up with maintenance, i.e. winterising the engine and keeping the antifoul looking smart. It also means that it is your responsibility to ensure the decks and teak stay clean so that your boat always looks her best when we conduct viewings with potential buyers.

Our service team can help with this if you are unable to make it down to your boat. Contact our service team or contact your broker for free estimates.

4. A Sensible Price

Our brokers will do extensive market research on your boat to make sure that we can give you the best possible sale price. We will continue to guide you on market conditions throughout the course of the sale and consistently check to ensure the price we put your boat up at is an accurate reflection of the condition of both the market and your boat.

To be able to sell your boat within a fantastic time frame and for the best price possible, it is really important to listen to your brokers advise when considering an asking price as this is one of the most fundamental elements to being able to sell your boat.

5. Be Open to Negotiation

Selling a boat is an art form, our brokers will negotiate on your behalf to get you the best price possible, however you can expect with almost all sales for the buyer to come to the table with an offer that is slightly lower than asking price. To be able to sell your boat you will need to be prepared to negotiate slightly on the price you are willing to accept, your broker will advise you if the offer seems like a good deal or whether you should hold out for something better.

It is our job to ensure we get the best price possible for you and that the sale is completed smoothly, which is really important to bear in mind when going into negotiations.

Selling Your Boat With Clipper Marine

We have an extensive network of buyers world-wide you are looking for a boat just like yours. We ensure that we reach out to those buyers as soon as your boat comes on to our books and we extensively advertise across all of the major platforms including our own website and client base to ensure that your boat is getting the maximum visibility possible.

If you want to get started on selling your boat today, contact one of our helpful and enthusiastic brokers so that we can help get you started on this next stage in your journey!

For more information on our brokerage commission or more details on how we work, please contact us so we can help guide you through what to expect from the process of selling your boat with us.