How should I price my project boat for sale?

[brewern]

I know it's against the forum rules to post items for sale on iBoats, and if my question about how to price it is against the rules, then, moderators, feel free to delete this thread.

So, I recently started pulling the floor out of our boat to do a full renovation, and I still may. But, the admiral and I have decided to downsize and buy a canoe with a trolling motor. Our kids are grown and don't go to the lake with us anymore, and all we really need is a canoe to paddle around in. Not to mention the benefits of a little exercise. And we can take it to places where we couldn't take our runabout, like smaller rivers or even big ponds. That will increase the number of places where we can go camping!
The engine runs great, although it could use a new wiring harness. And the trailer (with rollers) works just fine too.

Can anyone recommend how much I should sell my boat for? If we can get enough for an aluminum canoe, trolling motor, and deep cycle battery, we'd be very happy.

The two pics below are pre demo, and post demo. How much is a fair market price?

Thanks for your advice and help, as always.

 

[64osby]

Having a hull that is a project, the value of the project is the motor and the trailer IMO.

Chaparral's have good name from what I've seen, but being a project has a stigma.

Pick a value your comfortable with. If it sells fast you under valued it, if it doesn't sell your over priced.

Remember a good deal is when both the buyer and seller are both happy or both disappointed.

 

[brewern]

Thanks 64osby, and I completely agree with you. But, I'm on a time crunch, and need to figure out how to maximize my profits. I originally bought the tub for $2K, and in 1 more payment, it'll be paid off. I'm fine with taking a loss on it overall. The fun it provided is well worth it.
To purchase the large canoe we want, along with a trolling motor, battery and charger, will be around $1200. Would I be asking too much if I asked for $1200?
If I asked .01 for it, of course I'd find a buyer. And if I asked $10K for it, no one would call. What I'm asking for is "If you were looking for a glasserproject boat of this size, what would you pay?"
I encourage everyone that reads this post to throw out a number. Maybe the average will be close to correct. All I really need is between $1K and $1200. But i don't want to price it too low, or too high either. :/

 

[sphelps]

Well if the motor has good compression post those numbers with your ad ... You could probably fetch 6-8 hundred for that . And the trailer which looks to be a tad undersized for the boat if in good condition should get you around 300 maybe ... So your in the ball park of getting what you need ... Most boats of that price are usually somewhat projects anyway ... Might ask for trades for a canoe ....

 

[hadaveha]

U will get more money if you sell it in seperated pieces it's odd but a good clean motor will allways bring more money then it will if it's attached to a rotten boat. I don't know why that is but I swear it does

 

[Tnstratofam]

After buying a few fixer uppers I'd say $1200 is about the max. However I agree with hadaveha you'll probably sell the motor with the controls allot faster than the complete project. Then you end up with a rotten boat on a trailer somebody may or may not want. I'd probably offer it up both ways, complete project, then also as motor boat and trailer. If you sell the motor and are left hanging with the boat and trailer strip the boat, take the hull to the dump, and relist all the parts, ( windshield, hardware, extras), and the trailer again. You should be able to move the items pretty quick that way if it's warm enough in your area for boating. If everything is still frozen your gonna be sitting on that stuff for a while.

Do a clist or evilbay search for pricing on similar motors, and trailers to help with your pricing. Good luck.

 

[bonz_d]

I will relate it this way. 2 years ago I purchased a project boat. It is a 16' Alumacraft fishing boat and I paid $1100 for it. It came with a blown up outboard, a 5 year old Shoreland'r trailer, an almost new trolling motor and a whole lot of other gear. I paid what I did for it because the boat and trailer was what I was looking for. The engine didn't concern me as I already had a source for a replacement engine. Also as an aluminum hull it was still ready to use as-is once another engine was fitted to it. So as it is now I have about $1700 invested in it and have already used it 2 seasons. To buy this same boat, motor, trailer combination in as-is condition would have cost me $2500 - $3300 and I know this because I watch the for sale ads regularly.

So now with your glass hull that is a different picture because of the costs of the repairs that are going to be required to get that hull water ready. As the others have stated if it were me looking at that boat I'd be looking at the value of the engine and trailer as the boat it's self has no real value in the condition it is in unless you can find some one who is really looking for that size and model of boat. Again the cost of repair is going to equal of exceed the value of that boat hull.

I know, everyone is looking for a bargain!

 

[jbcurt00]

You mentioned that you were in a time crunch, so based on that, my suggestion:

• List it on CL 5 ways: Motor only, trailer only, trailer and boat, free boat, and a boat, motor and trailer.
  • IF the motor looks good, runs good and has great compression, make sure you can fire the motor up if someone comes to look, list motor only $850, hope to get $650. Needing wiring means the 80hp Merc won't get top dollar, even if it runs great.
  • List trailer only for $350, hope to get $200, BUT you then have a boat to dump w/out a trailer
  • List boat and trailer for $250, hope to get $150, someone wants the trailer only, price goes up to $350, just like above, hope to get $200.
  • Post boat only as FREE project, have a plan to get it of the trailer if someone wants free boat only
  • List the boat, motor and trailer (BMT) as a project for $1000, hope to get $800. If anyone asks to buy the trailer and motor, but not the boat, price goes UP to $1200, and hope to get $1000.

That's a total of 5 ads, all individually on CL, with as many pix as you can come up w/. My best guess is you'll be lucky to net $800, based on the boats I've been to look at, stuff posted on CL in a fairly large radius from me and the posts on iboats over the last several years. At $800 net you may still have to either cut up a boat or figure out some way to dispose of it w/ out a trailer. Dump fees here would be $50+/- so then net would be $750.

I wish you luck, this time of year it could go either way, and sell quick or take quite a long time to sell. Refusing to accept less then the $1K you mentioned you hoped to get may mean it takes a very long time to sell. Then it also becomes time consuming for you to deal w/ calls and people coming to look. Is it worth an additional $200 to have the ads running until Memorial day or longer? Maybe or maybe not, that's for you to decide.

I would definitely pick a number you think you can get for BMT and do an ad search w/ adhuntr or searchTempest for BMT w/ a price range from $500 less then your # and more then your # and see what's currently available in that price range w/in 300mi +/- of you. You can ignore the knowledge that many of those boats are way overprice and are probably rotten below decks. It's likely sellers and buyers don't know it, or dont think it's anything more then a small soft spot on the deck. Once you do that search, repeat it every few days. See how many are sold and no longer appear on the list, and how many are listed until the ad expires.

Best of luck

 

[hadaveha]

The funny thing is the more you are willing to break it down the more you can get for it. Sale the lower unit, the power head, carbs, starter, controls ext. it takes longer but you will offen bring in much more money

 

[redneck joe]

U will get more money if you sell it in seperated pieces it's odd but a good clean motor will allways bring more money then it will if it's attached to a rotten boat. I don't know why that is but I swear it does

this one.

 

[brewern]

No Title

I love this site! So many great suggestions, and so many things I didn't think about.

With our first Rinkerbuilt (link in Sigline), I found out how easy it was to part out the boat once we decided to not rebuild it. I had originally purchased that one for $1500, and ended up parting it out for about $1600. Ha! I was surprised that even the fly wheel sold fast! And I'm also a power seller on eBay, and also sell on CL all the time, so that won't be a problem.

I also like the idea of offering it up for trade to a canoe, great idea! But, our needs may be too specific. Ideally, we would like a two seater, with a small transom, and enough room for some camping gear, a dog, and of course, some beer. Something like the attached picture. The admiral's only demand is that it's wide enough that it doesn't tip over easily. If anyone has any recommendations, let me know. At first I was thinking we would want an aluminum canoe, but my research is leading me to consider other options.

I think I'm going to go ahead and list it on CL in various ways as recommended by jbcurt00, and see if I get any bites.After a while, if I still don't get any bites, I'll start parting it out. If it comes to that, I like the idea of cutting it up and slowly sending it out with our normal trash. Saves me $50, and I'm frugal!

Once we get our canoe rig set up, I can start thinking about my next long term project boat. Now that 2 glassers have got the better of me, I think I'm going to change teams, and become a tin head! Won't Jas and Water, and all the other tinny types be so proud of me! LOL. Yep, I may join the Starmada!

Thanks again everyone. As always, you're a huge benefit and resource!

 

[brewern]

The wife and I talked about it more, and we've decided to keep the boat AND buy a canoe, or used jet ski, or something just to get us out on the water while I fix the Chaparral.
If you aren't already, feel free to follow along with the reno at the link below. It should go pretty fast. It only has a single stringer, and I have most of the floor and foam out. Next up will be to remove the engine, and then the cap, and then the rest of the floor, and transom removal. Then put it all back together!
Thank you all for your help and suggestions, in no way did I mean to waste anyone's time. Hopefully this post will help someone else in a similar predicament in the future.

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...ns-on-how-to-proceed-replacing-stringer/page2

 

[64osby]

Great plan. Being on the water is key.

The Chaparral look like a nice hull that shouldn't cost more than a small fortune to get it splash ready.

 

[hadaveha]

When you get finished you will have a boat you do know, instead of one than your not really sure what's going on below the deck

 

[jigngrub]

The wife and I talked about it more, and we've decided to keep the boat AND buy a canoe, or used jet ski, or something just to get us out on the water while I fix the Chaparral.

The thing about that is you'll be out futzing around on the water when you should be working on the boat. I know a couple of members here that have one or more boats to restore but they don't do anything to them because they're out on the water in a lesser boat that runs and floats instead of working on their projects.

No boat but the project boat will be the best driving force and incentive to do the work that needs to be done to get the project on the water.

 

[Tnstratofam]

The thing about that is you'll be out futzing around on the water when you should be working on the boat. I know a couple of members here that have one or more boats to restore but they don't do anything to them because they're out on the water in a lesser boat that runs and floats instead of working on their projects.

No boat but the project boat will be the best driving force and incentive to do the work that needs to be done to get the project on the water.

Guilty as charged !:facepalm:

 

[bonz_d]

Yes the advantage will be that you do know the inside and out when finished, done properly will last many more years and should still be less expensive than replacing it with a newer one.

From the looks of the picture the outside and gel coat look to be in pretty good condition so if all you have is interior work it could be an easy project that shouldn't take too long.

 

[brewern]

That will certainly be the case once a month, for one long weekend each month, for the next four months.
We sat down last night and reserved our camping sites at three different watering holes, and one dry dock camping site, from April through July. And in August, we'll be taking an extended week long vacation to head down to Texas. That leaves me 3 weekends each month to get busy on the boat.
Here's the plans:
April, Koomer Ridge: http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/dbnf/recreation/recarea/?recid=39462
May: Holmes Bend: http://www.reserveamerica.com/campi...oundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=73208
June: Holly Bay: http://www.reserveamerica.com/campi...oundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70550
July: Waitsboro: http://www.recreation.gov/camping/w...oundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=71478