Don't be surprised if you can buy the boat at 80% of asking. If you start
there and the owner counters then you will be higher then 80%.

Look at the boats value in the books. Look at the original price. Look at
other similar boats. Without knowing more I would probably start at some
low ball at 60% of asking. Look at the boat and get some of you buddies who
know boats to look also. A 5 year old boat should be in great condition
anything that deviates from that should be brought up as a bargaining point.
The owner either bought a new boat and/or wants to get rid of the old so he
is motivated to sell. A lot of times he will dicker some and sometimes not.
If the boat is bought out from under you don't worry another will be
available soon and remember its a buyers market.

You will need a survey for insurance. That said some surveyors do a great
job some do a poor job.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 02 May 2004 00:03:22 GMT, "sciman"
wrote:
This is probably a pretty newbie question, but I have found a boat I like
at
a somewhat reasonable price. We are talking a 40FT boat that is 5 years
old
so this is a considerable investment. In my offer, what should I be
asking
for? The obvious is pending an independent survey, but are there other
things? In today's market, assuming this is an average asking price, is
coming in with an initial bid at 80% too low?
=========================================

80% is not too low, might even be a bit on the high side for an
initial offer. You can always increase your offer but it's difficult
to go down.

Standard procedure is to make you offer subject to survey and sea
trial, with acceptance or rejection by a certain date, usually two or
three weeks. If you are putting down a deposit with your offer, make
sure you have the ability to reject the boat for any reason and get
your deposit back.