How do I select a yacht broker to sell my vessel? How do I come across the best yacht broker to sell my boat? These are questions that you as a yacht owner may ask when it is time to sell your boat. In my transactions with sellers, I find that the majority, if not all of them had no idea when deciding on the brokerage to represent them. Their preference was made arbitrarily it would seem. When you are ready, you need to find a first-class yacht brokerage that you can rely on. Some of the factors that you should think about are honesty, value and competency.
A yacht is a huge expenditure and a lot of people prefer to buy one from a yacht brokerage. A brokerage sells boats to interested people for a commission. Obviously, before you think about which one to go with when selling, you will want to be familiar with the commission fee that they charge; it is a standard 10% in the trade.
Of course, you want to look for honesty in a yacht broker. Nobody cares to trade with a dishonest person in any way, but some people are extremely dishonest without seeming to be. Check out the reputation of the brokerage before making a commitment, and make sure that there are no complaints filed against them. The brokerage should be competent when it comes to pricing your yacht. Your yacht brokerage should have a good knowledge of the market and how much to price your boat.
Always look for skill in a yacht brokerage. They should have been in the trade for some time. The longer, the better, obviously, as this shows they’re able to stay in business. They will not only have the opportunity to sell your yacht at a respectable price, but also manage to obtain the perfect yacht if you are looking to buy another one from a broker.
In order to locate the right yacht brokerage, you must shop around. Talk to some people until you get at ease with one. Ask for and phone references. Never deal with a brokerage that is aggressive or insists that you put your signature on a contract that you do not understand. These legal contracts are binding. If you do not grasp the listing contract, you should check with an attorney. In addition, remember that buying a boat is like buying a house. You will want to investigate the business as you would a home brokerage business.
Here are some questions to pose while looking for the top yacht brokerage. Make use of this list to establish which Broker is best for you.
Will you co-broke with other Brokers who might have a buyer that could purchase my vessel? Am I able to get it in writing? We have it in our listing agreement; we always co-broke with other Brokers. If you cannot get it in writing the broker is more worried about his commission; you could potentially lose out on a sale.
How reachable are you going to be to me, buyers and other Brokers? We make telephone calls often to other Brokers and wait for days to hear back from them. My cell phone and PC are constantly on; you can reach me if you need to; so can buyers!
Does your company sell yachts full-time or is brokerage just a passion? Numerous Brokers do it in their free time like a hobby. If your Broker will not act for you full-time, seven days per week, and holidays if needed, you need to select another company.
How long does your listing agreement last? Can I cancel if I want to? Our listing agreement is for an initial 6 months. Our rule is that if you are not pleased with our services, we will release you at any time at your request after that initial period. Most brokerage listing agreements contain a notification clause in fine print that claims you are obligated to give them a 90-120 day written notice before you will be released.
How do you market my boat? Marketing and advertising vessels is all related to exposure. It’s a well-known fact that today’s boat buyers shop the Web almost exclusively for their yachts. Here you are! The truth is statistics demonstrate that about ninety-eight percent of all boat sales transpire as a result of world wide web publicity. Ask about the web sites the brokerage uses to market boats and yachts. Having your boat on 10 little known web sites nobody can find is ineffective. Inquire how the brokerage has completed search engine optimization and what percentage of visitors visit their sites every month via search engines. About 63% of our site visitors get through to us by way of a search engine. It has been indexed by all of the most important search engines including Google, Yahoo, Bing, Dogpile, and others.
Ask what terminology the internet site is rated for; our web site can be Googled and located on page 1 for “used trawlers”, “used motor yachts”, “used cruisers”, and scores of other search terms. Perhaps that is how you located us? Can your selected brokerage certify that your yacht will turn up on Google page one? At our brokerage, we do warrant it with each boat listed.
What number of site visitors come to your web site seeking yachts? We often experience over 18,000 visits to our web site monthly, thousands more than the Yachtworld internet website.
Inquire if the brokerage makes use of the Yachtworld website, the international multiple listing service web site. This internet website is the multiple listing website where we share listings with other Brokers. And yes, all of our vessels are on there.
Global marketing is a big issue to us; it produces consumers. Do you realize that we have had site visitors from as many as 78 countries in 2010 from countries such as Australia, Norway, Canada, France, Finland, New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, and Germany on this web site, just to name a couple? We sold about 6 vessels to foreign customers last year. Request how a brokerage markets worldwide.
Does the brokerage employ direct email advertising and marketing? We keep an email marketing list of several thousand boaters, a good number of whom are purchasers. On a bi-monthly basis we email these buyers with a publication about new vessels on the market, price changes, boating headlines and other subjects of marine interest. Your yacht will be marketed here. It sends customers to the website.
Does the brokerage keep up a blog? We maintain a blog to help educate new customers to the boating community; your yacht will be posted there also. It is also indexed by Google daily and produces hundreds of visitors on a daily basis. We post to the blog twice weekly. We additionally maintain a Paradise Yachts existence on Face Book, the social media internet website where we interact with other boaters; a lot of our followers are boat buyers wanting to locate the best boat.
We are one of a few brokerages that make use of You Tube to promote your boat via narrated videos describing her features. Your yacht will be featured here as well. In addition, we also take part in sixty-one other social bookmarking websites with the only intent of bringing the buying public to your yacht.
How will you keep me informed of the progress of your marketing? At Paradise Yachts we frequently hear how other Brokers get a listing and don’t let customers know how things progressing. You will hear from us regularly; about every 6 weeks. I enjoy sending you an email outlining how I understand the universal market, how many boats like yours have sold and at what value, what the prices are with boats like yours on the market, if any boats similar to yours have entered the market and what, if any, recommendations I have to improve our internet marketing.
How many boats do you keep in inventory? I like to maintain from 25-35 vessels in my selling inventory. With this amount, I am able to keep track of each boat’s monthly progress, assess the traffic each yacht gets, examine what other boats like yours are selling for and keep you informed on her progress. More boats and you will turn out to be just another number.
What do you truly comprehend about yachts; have you ever owned one? I have sold more than one vessel because the buyer completed his investigation and found me because he recognized I myself own a trawler. The buyer sought me out as a result of my yacht ownership and know-how. I could talk the talk with him.