Buy and Resale Boats

[will941s]

I work in Law Enforcement and only work like 2 weeks a month...so free time is something I have alot of. So I got to thinking, if I could buy boats for cheap (Craigslist), clean em' up, service them, and put them on the market for book value maybe I could make some extra $$$$. Then about 2 months later I met a guy through a friend of mine (random) than works for a large company and has a pretty good little fortune. We're out on the boat and we're talking, and my friends boat's overheat alarm goes off. I go to the motor, remove the t-stat (stick in it), put it back together and BAM..ran like a champ. 3 days later my friend calls me "John Doe wants your #". So John D calls me and askes me if I want to buy and sell boats with him......talk about wierd. I never discussed my idea with any of them. So i'm thinking since the market is horrible, no one is really financing new boats, If I can buy and sell and keep cost at a minimum, is this a worthy investment?? Thoughts? If so, what are some of the things I should include in the package to make the boats more appealing? What styles sell the best? What should I stay away from?

 

[The Famous Grouse]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

If I can buy and sell and keep cost at a minimum, is this a worthy investment?? Thoughts? If so, what are some of the things I should include in the package to make the boats more appealing? What styles sell the best? What should I stay away from?

Here's the deal. If you don't already KNOW the answers to these questions, then you will lose your sweet buttski if you try to get into the buiness of flipping boats. Since you don't know, I'd say you're setting yourself up for big losses.

I mean, if you think about it for a second, knowing the answers to these questions is really the whole deal, isn't it?

You need to know what sells well in your area and for how much. Generic answers from other regions are useless.

Personally, I think if you're thinking about doing this, start SMALL and specialize in one type of boat so you get to really understand the local market. The biggest thing is not to overpay and to stay away from money pits. The most profitable flips are going to bet the ones that just need good cleaning and minor touch-ups, but no major mechanical or structure work.

Once you step into the next level where the boats need carpet, upolstry, or mechanical work, you'd better have good contacts in these trades so you know what you're getting into before you buy. Otherwise you will be losing your ***.

Biggest thing is to look at it like gambling. Don't gamble more than you can afford to lose because you will lose sometimes. Make sure it's an amount you can afford.

Don't get involved with any partners because that's just more people to dilute the profits and partners = trouble because you'll very soon learn all kinds of things about your partners you didn't know before and most of them will be bad.

It'd be a fun hobby and I've done it a couple of times myself, but you need the time and the local knowledge because your profit is going to be low and therefore one blown flip will wipe out the profits from several previous boats, so gambling doesn't pay, you need to know how to recognize the sure bets.

Grouse

 

[coolguy147]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

make it a hobby not a job

 

[will941s]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

Thats what I want to do, I spend 90% of my free time working on my boat or someone elses crap for free......because I enjoy it, and it gives me something productive to do besides sitting on the couch watching GAC or VERSUS. I'm not looking at making a killing....but a little extra cash here and there would be nice. Was thinking about the ones that need little to nothing and reasale them for a little something. As far as Major stuff.....I know what it costs to buy carpet, fiberglass, paint, and all everything that could make a $1,000 investement a $2,500 investment and may only have a resale value of $2,000 in Great shape. It's like the guy that spends $5,000 to get a car ready for a race, and wins $1,000.......and celebrates! By no means am I going to quit going after the bad guys for this.....but some money for a hobby would be nice. Here in Charleston, SC, it seems like CC's and Jons Dominate the market and the waterways. Bass boats....eh. Thanks for replies and thoughts on this, taking in everything for useful knowledge.

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

I have a friend that has had a used car lot for many years.

He sells mid and high end cars these days, but started out with less than perfect cars that were cheap.
He always says those were the days he made the most money. He sold them and had in house financing for them.

 

[SeaKaye12]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

You can't get hurt by trying; can you? At least not more than the money invested in the first couple of boats.

Surely you're a smart enough guy that even if you couldn't make a profit on them...you would eventually sell them for close enough to what you paid that the "venture" wouldn't cost you much.

Just start small....and use the profits from the first one to help buy the second...etc.

Full blown "restoration" would be a bummer. A lot of necessary skills that very few people would possess in total.

But a cash in hand buyer can get good deals even on boats that need just a bit of sprucing up; especially in off-season.

I guess a lot of it would depend on what sort of storage you have. You could buy boats in the winter and then re-sell them in summer when the market is strongest. But; where would you store them in the meantime?

Lets see what others have to say,

Chuck

 

[ajgraz]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

There is a guy on these boards, can't remember the screenname but an older gentleman I think in California.

He does the flip thing, but his advice sounded solid to me; stick to smaller aluminum vessels with small one-axle trailers and small outboards. Anything else and you ain't gonna make a decent return on your time and money.

 

[The Hammer]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

It would be like a hobby like woodworking and other crafts, you wouldn't be able to recoupl the hundreds of hours you put into it. I know a fire fighter and he specializes in fixing chrysler and force engines in his off time, wont touch anything else. Its a hobby to him and fun.

 

[will941s]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

Yea, i'm thinking along the same lines. Spring kicks off the fishing season, summer the fishing and boating, fall is gigging and shrimping, and the winter is the duck season. Maybe sell boats in those seasons for those specialties...which I would think that a good aluminum jon would fit most of those puposes. Buy a good ole' sitting in the garage 25hp for about $400, find a good little 14' sitting in someones yeard jon for about $350, $70 in service parts...good cleaning and attempt to resale the thing for about $2,000 for example would produce a little pocket money for my new found hobby. Fixing up in the off seasons and stock piling for the on-season seems like a great idea....storage in not a problem. Don't think I would waste my time on bow riders, or bass boats....pontoons, jons etc. seem like good sellers. Found a 1998 18' SeaPro CC with a Yami 115,2-stroke once for like $3,000 that was in awesome shape....people had to sell due to moving, things like that seem like it would be one heck of a Bang for the Buck, seeing as a good friend of mine just bought a 96' 19' for $6,500 that was on the market for like 2 days and he had to race another buyer to the bank for it.

 

[davidhicks]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

I was fliping boats for while not worth the time. I was making money on it for a while, than i had 3 pos boats in my back yard i had to take a loss on.

 

[will941s]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

"1995 Renken 17.5' Center Console, Seel's Marine Trialer, 115 Yamaha Engine that needs work, engine does turn over, was informed it needs a new power pack. Great deal for person who works on boats. Selling as is. 3800 obo. Call Marshall at ......"

Craigslist ad, lets assume that indeed all it needed was a powerpack ($200) and a good washing and waxing to make it look pretty much new. And you could get it today for $3,200, would something like that be a worthy investment as far as what you could potentially get back?

 

[Fl_Richard]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

NO! - Now $500-800 and I'd consider it..... if it was really pretty and I knew all it needs is a powerpack.

 

[LAC_STS]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

I would just keep your eye out for some real steals. And even then go look at them and only buy the ones where someone (probably not motivated or not mechanically inclined) is selling it for cheap because of some problem that you yourself can fix.


Right now the boat market is not good. There are a lot of deals right now on boats. I dont see many people paying book for a boat. Just look on CL. There are tons and tons of boats that dont have some major problem that are going for a lot less than book value.


I just bought a boat 2 months ago. Off of CL. I must have went and looked at 50 boats. Most of them were turn key and were pretty nice but I just didnt end up liking them when I looked at them, or the setup of them ended up not feeling right to me.

I also went and looked at a few boats that I had saw on CL for a while and they kept going down and down in price. When I either called them or went and looked at them they were people who bought the boat with the intent on flipping it and then realized that even pricing it 10-15% below book value they had no biters.

With so much money tied up they just wanted to get rid of them.

 

[109jb]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

IMO, you could probably make as much money flippin burgers as you could flippin boats. If you do attempt it, you surely don't want to buy something that doesn't work and trust the seller when he says "it just needs a powerpack". Could be all that it needs is a whole new motor and you'd be screwed. If you have enough mechanical knowledge that you can determine the REAL problems then OK. Also consider that you will more than likely spend a fair amount of time and money driving around looking at someone's POS that they took photos of only from the good angles and got creative with the text on. When I was looking for my most recentt purchase I had a general idea of the size, type, etc, but didn't limit myself to one brand or model. I searched CL constantly, and went to look at 7 boats before I bought one. This was fine because I was looking for a boat for me. If it was a business, I would have lost my ***** with all the wear and tear and fuel cost for my truck. Most of the boats I looked at averaged 50 miles away, so I put about 700 miles on my truck and wasted 14 hours or so just driving around. I'd never attempt it, but good luck if you do.

 

[RWilson2526]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

Nice write up Bubba!

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

All of the posts above have some excellent points, but there is one thing that was left out: Try it and see!

Buy one that you think you can make a small profit on. You already stated that you have free time, enjoy doing it, have the space, and weren't going to invest a lot of money. What other venture has these points going for it?

As long as this isn't your sole source of income (it isn't), what have you got to lose if you sit on a boat or two over the winter and sell them in the spring? If you break even, you lose nothing but time. If you make a couple of hundred dollars, then you realized it wasn't worth the hassle. If you lose a couple of hundred dollars, you're not going to go bankrupt and you realized that this isn't for you or that the market isn't receptive to flipping boats.

The worst case scenario is that you have a couple of grand invested into a couple of small boats for a season. Sell them whenever, however you can and go from there.

Good luck and let us know what you did.

 

[Alpheus]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

I have been flippin boats since I moved to the Va Beach area. I had to sell a couple before I figured out what exactly made the most money.

Here small bowriders (16' to 21') with outboard engines sell the best. Doesn't matter the brand Bayliner to SeaRay, Force to Mercury they sell like hotcakes...

I love flippin boats for a hobby but its just not stable enough to count on to pay the bills...

 

[ozarkt165]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

Bought a 16 ft ozark tri hull in 08 for 500 bucks. This spring replaced stringers and floor, full fiber wrap, and new carpet. spent 700, have total of 1200 invested. Bought 17 ft fiber v, hull has been painted,trailor painted to match. Transom, stringers, floor all cut and fitted. All I need to do is glass in and paint top cap (next couple of years). Then try and sell and get a good start on a 28 30 ft pontoon.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

Another thought: Flip slowly until you find the right boat for you to keep. If you can continue to upgrade a little bit at a time, you could wind up with a 26' cuddy for next to nothing! Remember the guy on Craigslist that started with a red paper clip and over the course of 3 years ended up with a house? Trade up, trade up, trade up.

 

[Wingedwheel]

Re: Buy and Resale Boats

I wanted a bigger fishing boat and started looking for deals to flip and make money. I found that small fishing boats with small motors that you can sell for under a thousand go quick. My first one was a 14' jon boat I bought for $150, bought a trailer for $90 and spent $50 to repair a 7 1/2 horse motor someone gave me. I sold it for $750 as a unit. Used the profit to buy a bigger aluminum boat and trailer, traded a generator that I paid $100 for and got a 35 hp Merc. Spent $150 on paint, impeller and carb kits and sold that for $1500. Used that money to buy a nice bass boat with an 85hp Merc and spent money for fuel lines, carb kits, a new battery. Reworked the transom and stringers and plan on selling that in the spring for around $3000. I have time invested, but as a hobby its something I enjoy doing and people are always looking to give away an old outboard that they are tired of moving around their garage for next to nothing. I was given a '52 5HP Johnson Seahorse and got that running and now I have a guy wanting to trade me an 85 HP 'Rude that he got from buying a forclosed home. The deals are out there if you use the tools to find them(I.E. Craigslist) its free! Like Alpeus said, it won't pay the bills, but it does keep me busy and I enjoy it. I always manage to finance my next project with a small investment up-front.