I had hoped to go sailing today. Unfortunately, winds are 22-25 kts and forecast to remain high the next 2-3 days. OK for experienced sailors; not so good for tadpoles. I guess that gives me some time to work on the starboard teak toe rail.
Bill2:
Very, very funny, especially about old Abe.
Joe:
I agree completely. I just wish sellers agreed.
I will be paying cash (cashier's check), no financing, time is on my side and I love S/V Tadpole. I want to believe it is a buyer's market.
I made an offer that was based on the condition and care of the sailboat that I observed during my inspection. It was basically rejected out of hand. At the suggestion of several PMs, I will renew the same offer in 1-2 months.
I have observed a strange phenomenon in my long and often tortured search for Cape Dory sailboats. Most of the sailboats I have looked at, whether Ty Weekenders, 22, 25D or 27 were on a mooring or at a dock or on the hard at a marina. The owners were paying a monthly fee for dockage/mooring or storage. Very few were in the seller's backyard with no fees being incurred. Dean A. was a rare exception.
If a seller is, for whatever reason, selling his/her sailboat and
not using it during the selling process, it seems like the monthly dock fees (which for a 25D are around $350-$400 a month in most places) are monies being thrown away. There is another phrase I was going to use but thought it impolite for mixed company.
On a few occasions I have suggested to the seller and/or broker that a particular sailboat has been on the market for some significant period of time (say 12-14 months or longer) and that the seller has reduced his "profit" on the sale or increased his "loss" by not reducing the price to avoid continued dock/storage fees that do not provide any value to the sailboat. This has generally been met with blank stares.
I am not an economist, nor a broker, nor very smart, but this does not make sense to me. If I owned a sailboat that I was selling
and it was not in my backyard, I would factor in my monthly dock/storage fee as a strong incentive to sell my boat, especially if I was not sailing her during the selling process. It's one thing to spend $200 a month for real maintenance, keeping the hull clean, washing the decks, etc. It seems, respectfully, foolish to throw money away on dock fees IF the sailboat is not being sailed by the seller during the selling process.
By way of example, I know of one CD 25D seller who had his sailboat on the market for 2 years. It was on an inland lake and he paid a significant monthly dock fee. He never used his CD because he was working 70 hours a week to advance his fledgling career - understandable. I had offered $13,000 or $14,000. I forget which. He rejected it and stuck close to his significantly higher asking price. He eventually sold his CD 25D for $12,500
That is not a typo. I believe this is the correct selling price because he sent an email to several people and said "the first $12,500 takes it".
By my math, assuming he paid as little as $200 a month for his dock fee, he shelled out $4,800 in dock fees during the selling process that he could never recover. So, instead of selling for $12,500, by my logic (if wrong I hope someone shows me how and where) this seller actually realized only $7,700 at the time of the sale. I may be slightly off on the exact numbers but the relative numbers are, I think, correct.
I assume I must be wrong on this and would like to be educated. Am I wrong to consider dockage/mooring/storage fees as an "incentive" to a seller to want to sell
As you can tell from the lengthy post, I just finished my third cup of Italian espresso.
The owners (Alice and Chris and Alice's father Jack) were very nice people. If I recall correctly, they also owned a Shannon 28 and decided to sell the Cape Dory and keep the Shannon.
