Re: Am i asking to much
While you shouldn't panic at this point, in the end you will probably have learned a valuable lessons. The following considerations must be made whether flipping a boat, car, truck, bike, or even a house but let's stick to boats here.
1) Brand -- Doesn't matter what condition it's in if you are selling a brand that has less than a stellar reputation. However, there is always a buyer that, like you were, is uniformed so you could get lucky. But findiing that buyer is the issue. More on this in the next step.
2) The Ad: The very minute you put "or best offer" in an ad. it raises a flag that no matter what the price you are will to take a hit. Best Offer is also rather misleading and few people think about it. Asking $4500 and having someone offer you $10 is probably your best offer had you not had any previous offers. "Negotiable" is the word if you really have some wiggle room.
3) Never add a bunch of stuff to a flipper that someone else can add. You never get your money back. If the item is there but non-functional, then replacement is necessary but it MUST be considered in the "buy price".
4) Location-Location-Location: Same as real estate, where you are will dictate whether you have a marketable boat. Trying to sell your boat in an area of upscale homes will not likely produce a buyer.
5) Clean sells: Looks like you have this area covered. However, fresh paint means you were trying to hide something. Sorry -- but educated buyers feel that way and no matter what you say, an educated buyer will not believe what you tell them unless you can prove what you say.
6) Power: A Force engine is not very marketable. Good-bad-or in between, you have a tough time selling something that has a less than stellar reputation, but it is even more difficult when said engine is long out of production.
7) Know your product: Do not delve into flipping boats you know nothing about. Concentrate on two or maybe three models and just one or two power plants so you get to know their marketability. Otherwise you end up again in the same boat you are now (no pun intended).
8) Hull-Interior-Power or HIP for short: Unless you own the boat literally for nothing, you need 2 out the 3 categories requiring only cleaning or slight touch up. In the case of the hull, if you need to repair and paint, your time is costing you money. If the engine requires repair and you can't do the work yourself or are not sure of what you have, you again can lose money. Interiors are expensive to repair and/or replace. So cut your losses by insisting that 2 of the three categories need little or no work. That leaves someone elses misfortune for you to make money on.
9) Time of year: This has been mentioned earlier, but selling a boat now is difficult if you live up in the tundra like I do. It is also Christmas and people are spending money on other stuff. Tax refund time is the time to begin advertising. Advertise for one week only then pull the ad. This gets people thinking -- Crap -- I missed that one. Advertise somewhere else and then return to Craigs list in a couple weeks. When it comes back on-line, a previous viewer may call and indicate he saw the ad earlier and why is it back on. Simple answer is -- deal fell through! Not a lie since you had no deal. See how this works. Craigs list works very well. Take pictures and provide details that draw attention. Words like spotless, new, replaced, etc should be followed with pictures. Post pictures (close ups) of every interesting aspect of your boat on PhotoBucket, Flickr and then post a link to those pictures in your ad. If you intend to do this on a serious basis, you need to "Market" the boat -- not just say you have one for sale. Make people want it!!!
10) Do not buy a flipper if you cannot afford long-term to be out the money used in the flip. It is not good economic sense.
How do I know these tips work? It is called experience -- many years of it. I just sold my personal three year old pontoon for $400 less than I paid for it new. So much for depreciation being bad huh. Determining how much you can get for something is not a matter of determining the profit you want. You need to buy it right in the first place knowing roughly how much you need to spend to make it Marketable. Then what you get for it minus what have invested is what you earned.
