looking to purchase repo'd mariner 3297

[doug3297]

Hi All, Thanks for the forum, hope to be a n active participant! Im hoping to get a couple questions answered about a boat im looking at. It's 1988 Mariner 3297. It's been repo'd. The previous owner purchased it in 2005 and it was repo'd 5 years later. The guy still had 10yrs of payments on it to go. I've looked at the boat but I cant run it as it out of the water and cant be put it untill march or april due to weather. It's in very good condition otherwise. the motors look clean and the rest of the boat is too. It will need some cosmetics but Im not worried about that. The one thing i do worry about is the engines of course. But the price is good, 14,900.00 as-is. One thing I wanted was to see the condition report at the time it was repo'd, but the broker says it's confidential between them and the bank. I see these boat going for around 35,000. and if I had to I could replace the engines for around 3500.00 each if I had to. Im just worried without seeing that report of any other issues. I do know the owner put very few hours on it. They had installed a brand new westerbeke 5kw genset in 2005 and it has only 27 hours on it.
Thanks for any feed back and will respond to any questions!
Doug

 

[JoLin]

Re: looking to purchase repo'd mariner 3297

Screw the 'condition report', though the fact that they won't show it to you would immediately convince me to shop elsewhere. You need to cut a deal contingent on YOUR OWN survey and sea trial in the Spring. If the broker and bank won't go for it, walk away.

Those boats are NOT going for $35K unless they're truly pristine. Those are the nutty asking prices one sees on Yachtworld. According to those ads, the late-90's Four Winns Vista I bought 3 months ago for $15K was 'going for' anywhere from $25-35K. Bull!

Look, it's a lot of boat, 23 years old, with the potential of significant structural, mechanical and sub-system issues; none of which will be cheap to fix.

My .02

 

[jayhanig]

Re: looking to purchase repo'd mariner 3297

Won't allow you to see the survey??? That should be a HUGE RED FLAG and set your feet walking toward the door! As to it's value, its 23 years old, look it up on NADA and see what they say its worth. The real value is somewhere in the middle of NADA and what you have been told.

Finally, I've found that Repo's tend to be horrible boats to buy. Why? Because when someone dedides to stop making their payments, they aren't spending money on needed maintenance and repairs either.

If you are certain you are still interested, hire your own surveyor, it's money well spent!

What he said. I was a repo man in an earlier life, though of cars and trucks only. Of all the vehicles I snatched, I can remember only one I would have liked to have owned. The reason is what Bubba mentioned: when they stop making the payments, they stop doing the maintenance. You're likely to end up with the queen of the boatyard.

 

[doug3297]

Re: looking to purchase repo'd mariner 3297

Thanks for all the responses, I was thinking along these same lines. I was going to try to contact the previous owner also to see if I could come up with anything from him also. I prob should just walk away. Nada shows 24-29k value on the boat. I have looked at it and it looks good. It does need some upolstry work on the bridge and the clear glass needs cleaned up but look usable. the rest of the boat looks real clean. Guess i should also mention that im on the west coast and the prices of these seem to be higher here than the east. Here is a link to the boat if anyone happens to know it.

http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1988/Carver-Repo-3297-Mariner-2223102/Chicago/IL/United-States

 

[eastont]

Re: looking to purchase repo'd mariner 3297

Make them an offer with a clause that states only upon reviewing and accepting the marine survey will you close the deal.

The other thing to do is find out who has done work on it in the past and get their opinion on the boat. That was an invaluable resource for me when I bought my current boat. I found out how cheap the owner was, minimum repairs, and adjusted my offer to represent that fact.

 

[wingmastr23]

Re: looking to purchase repo'd mariner 3297

Make them an offer with a clause that states only upon reviewing and accepting the marine survey will you close the deal.

x2!!

 

[jonesg]

Re: looking to purchase repo'd mariner 3297

Its a Class A1 sucker deal.