Re: Whats the protocol for selling a boat ?
We just bought a boat from Craigslist, so I'll give you the other side of the story on how it went and what I expected.
First off, I spent several weeks (actually months) watching Craigslist for what I was planning to buy to get a feel for what I could expect to get for my budget limit. Early on I emailed a few people for more info and never got to the point of meeting them. It amazes me that about 75% of the emails I sent went unanswered, and the questions were usually very easy to answer... why place an ad if you aren't going to respond to potential buyers???
Once I had money in hand (in the bank) for what I wanted to buy, I cranked it up a notch and went and saw two boats, as well as calling and talking to several on the phone. Of the two that I saw, we discussed how much flexibility was in their price during that first face to face. I think this may be part of your problem. You don't need to do a sea trial at the first meeting, and certainly until you are at least past the initial qualification of are they a serious buyer and are you in the ballpark on price. I would ask them... "Assuming that you have a successful sea trial, what price are you planning to offer?". Then, unless there is something that doesn't go well in the sea trial, there shouldn't be any surprises. People are always afraid to discuss price, but I don't see a problem with being honest and open. If you are not flexible, then tell them. Ask them their intentions.
So the one I ended up buying, I arranged to come back for a sea trial and met him at the boat launch near his house. Unfortunately, the battery was dead and we spent a very long time trying to get it started. He said that he had shown it to another buyer that week and had the reverse problem... trolling battery dead. After an hour and a half of various help from other boaters, we had someone take their battery out of their boat and put it in this boat... get it started, and then swapped back. We then went out on the lake and it was having a problem with the prop slipping under acceleration. He had put a new prop on it in response to the first buyer not liking that the prop had a few nicks in it.
We came back to the dock and discussed the two problems and we talked price a bit. He had pulled the listing from Craigslist and was going to re-list it for $500 more since he bought a new prop and battery. He had also just had it tuned and the oil pump replaced for about $800. He gave me the number of his mechanic that did the work.
I called the mechanic and also had a few discussions with the seller about his progress on fixing the prop slipping. I wasn't concerned with the battery problem because it started right away when the good battery was in. He figured out that he had left the old thrust washer on when replacing the prop, so there were two on there. He fixed that and tested that the problem was gone. I called his mechanic and verified that a compression check had been done and that he felt the motor was well maintained and no problems to worry about.
We arranged a new sea trial date. I showed up and we went out and everything worked as planned... no more prop problem, and it started right up cold. We had already discussed price at our last meet... with the assumption that the problems were fixed. He was not willing to come down at all on the price because he was raising the price... and from my look at prices over the last few months I was comfortable with the price being fair for the condition of the boat. I am not the person that is going to argue about a couple hundred bucks on something that I'm paying thousands for. So basically I told him I thought we had a deal, so we towed it back to his house and worked out the details. Because of our combined busy schedules, he wasn't going to be able to meet up again until a week later and we were coming into Memorial Day weekend. He gave me a bill of sale and the boat, and I agreed to have my wife meet his wife the next day with the cash. I guess we had developed a level of trust in all those interactions, AND, he was a cop so he probably figured I wouldn't try to rip him off. That next day I hit DMV and the Wildlife Dept. and got both the trailer and boat registered and it was done.
It was a very smooth transaction and the process allowed me to get more comfortable with the seller and the history of the boat.
