Broker proximity

T

TimHenn

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if you talk to a broker a thousand miles away they will tell you the world has changed and having a local office isn't as necessary as it used to be. I would imagine, however, that a local broker would have an advantage since they can claim the same benefit of the digital world in addition to local knowledge, buyers, sellers, etc.

How important is it to have your sales broker local enough you can sit down face to face? And, how important is it that your broker buys and sells in your general area of boating even if you couldn't easily sit down face to face?
 
Are you buying or selling?

It really would depend on the quality of the broker. But if I was selling I'd be inclined to use a local broker that could easily show the boat.

If I was buying and had no issues with traveling to see boats then a long distance broker would be fine. As long as he/she fully understood what kind and condition boats I was interested in. And didn't waste my time showing me boats that were not in the kind of condition or style I was looking for.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Capt. Bill1

Are you buying or selling?

It really would depend on the quality of the broker. But if I was selling I'd be inclined to use a local broker that could easily show the boat.

If I was buying and had no issues with traveling to see boats then a long distance broker would be fine. As long as he/she fully understood what kind and condition boats I was interested in. And didn't waste my time showing me boats that were not in the kind of condition or style I was looking for.

Click to expand...


+1 on this. I used a couple of remote "buyers brokers" worked out great, I reimbursed the one who didn't get the deal for expenses after tellin them up front what I was doing. Would definitely want a someone near a baot I was selling, though.
 
It really depends on the size/class boat. For a simple $20k boat you'd be best listing with a local broker. For larger boats though, in this day and age, it really is all about online marketing. I have sold a ton of boats all over the USA that I have never set foot on but still easily brokered the deal as the listing broker. Many larger boats get sold to someone outside the local market so local broker isn't so much an issue a lot of times.
For a buyer's broker....it can be challenging depending on the boat, if your broker is remote. OR to state it more accurately, having your buyer's broker see the boat at some point in time personally is really critical b/c they can help you as the buyer really evaluate the condition of the vessel and formulate a realistic price for a prospective boat that is based on it's actual condition.
 
Thanks, all.

Since there's a good argument on both sides, how does a remote broker handle showing the boat without ever stepping onboard? Is it an agreement with the buyer's broker to be in proximity to come aboard? And then there's the issue of allowing any old broker on your boat - not a pleasant thought. I very much agree that it's all about marketing these days and buyers are coming from all over the world. My dock neighbor had is 50' Rampage on the market for a couple of years and when the sale came through the buyer was from Venezuela - they had the yard do $60k of improvements before the buyer ever saw the boat. Hard for me to imagine doing such a thing.

I think there's a big advantage hooking up with well known brokers that deal all over the country, and the world, but, I'm not sure how showing the boat works and if that's a disadvantage.
 
I'm selling so I chose a local broker who spends his life selling boats within a reasonable driving distance of my boat.

A few brands/ models are so well known that highly focused buyers search the country or even the world for them. The rest IMO, require a knowledgeable salesperson taking customers to boats and pointing out the features and helping the customer envision his life on that boat. All the internet pix can do is get someone interested. Most of the time I expect that getting the customer actually on the boat is necessary to sell it. To do that from a distance would be very hard and a cooperating local broker who doesn’t know your boat becomes little more than a taxi diver. I don’t see why someone would choose a remote broker because local brokers have all the same access to the web as a remote broker.
 
IMO
There is no advantage to using a broker who is not local. If he has a local guythn he is local. If he does not,then you are showing it or someone you do not know is showing it. If you are listing a boat, you want your local broker to make sureit is listed in the YW MLS and available for co-brokerage. Then your local broker gets referrals, does all of the showings and shares the commission. At some point someone has to have feet on the ground.

If you are content showing the boat yourself, there are brokers who charge a low fixed fee and essentially just feed all leads back to you. Having said that I can tell you I spent two saturdays this month waiting for prosects who did not show. One was from another broker.

IMO nobody is going into HMY looking for a specific model and not buying because he does not have it while there are ten others on YW.
 
If you don't have a broker taking pictures, creating the listing, managing the leads from start to finish, showing the boat, performing the sea trail and being present for the survey process what exactly are you paying for?

I could see if you want to be hands on with the sale and I mean VERY hands on a remote broker could work for you if their commission rate was lowered down to about 1-2% just for advertising it. Its my opinion that you should use a local broker.

I know a person down the dock from me who is older and set in his ways, he knows a broker in Florida and listed it with him....3 years ago. I have never seen the boat shown and the owner tells me it has never been shown. I am 14 boats away and walk by his boat every day and he still wont budge.

If you haven't taken note, there are several brokers who have chimed in on this thread. Myself being one.
 
I used both local and remote brokers in trying to sell my boat. None of them (used 3 in total) produced even a single lead. Would up selling her myself on ebay.
 
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