Sell boat yourself or through broker? The pros and cons at a glance

In the digital age, it is easier than ever to bring buyer and seller together. So too when buying or selling a boat. Therefore, with the right preparation, you can do this perfectly well on your own these days. Yet selling a boat through a broker also has many advantages. In this article, we list the benefits of both options for you.
Advantages of selling yourself
In another article on our website, we share ten tips for selling your boat yourself. Here you have been able to read that a lot of time and effort goes into it. Yet it also has advantages. We mention four of them.
1. Continue to use boot
When you sell a boat through a broker, it (usually) ends up in the broker’s marina. This leaves you without access to the boat. Or at least less easily. So if you want to continue using the boat while trying to sell it, selling through a broker is not ideal.

2. Cheaper
Like any specialist, yacht brokers do not offer their services for free. Most brokers take a share of the profits; some (in addition) want a fixed price for selling your boat. Whatever the construction, at least you may not keep the entire proceeds of the boat itself.
3. Direct contact
Selling a boat is an emotional affair. You had many special adventures with it, priceless memories with it and always maintained it well.
Consequently, for many owners, a boat feels like a very special possession. And of that, you do want this one to be in good hands. An advantage of selling a boat yourself is therefore that you have direct contact with the buyer and can decide to whom you do or do not want to sell the boat.

4. Control everything yourself
Many sellers like to stay in control. If you have to do it right, you have to do it yourself – or so they reason. That way they can be sure that the photos will look the way they have in mind, the text will do justice to the special features and the viewing will go as it should. Would you like to control everything regarding the sale of your boat? Then choose to sell them yourself.

Benefits of a yacht broker
Engaging a yacht broker brings a lot of interesting benefits. Many obvious ones, but also some you might not have thought of. We call them all.
1. Market Knowledge
With years of experience and continuous insight into the market, a broker knows better than anyone what a realistic asking price is for your kind of boat and its condition. This ensures that you get a fair price for your boat.
2. Trade-in old boat
Just as you trade in your old car when buying a new one, this same principle is possible with many yacht brokers. Therefore, to finance the purchase of a new boat, the old boat is often traded in with the relevant yacht broker.
3. Greater reach
In practice, individuals sell mostly to other individuals. However, a yacht broker has many more buyers. For example, a yacht broker is also in contact with foreign and business buyers. They are simply not as quick to step up to private sellers.
But individuals also like to buy from a licensed company. Especially when large sums of money are involved. Thus, they have greater assurance that the documentation is in order, that serious errors are listed, and that they are generally better guided in their purchase. The fact that objective online reviews can be viewed from other buyers is also a great advantage over buying from a private individual.
4. Active sales
A broker actively searches for a particular type of boat for his clients. This allows the broker to show multiple boats during a viewing, and a buyer may fall in love with your boat even though they initially came to look for another boat.
Also, a yacht broker’s marketing is no match. For example, Jachtmakelaardij de Maas advertises on 45 different websites at home and abroad, in two national magazines and has several advertisements in industry magazines.
5. No show
Not showing up at a viewing. It’s more common than you think! Sometimes even without letting us know anything in advance. You set aside time, cleaned your boat thoroughly beforehand, cleaned everything up and made it neat. All for nothing.
When selling a house, a no show is also annoying, but is less stressful. The house is there anyway. But a boat has to go to port, has to be washed, and is generally much more intense. At Jachtmakelaardij de Maas all boats are washed at our marina at least every week, so they are always in tip-top condition and you as the selling party do not have to worry about them.
Sell boat through broker or do it yourself?
In practice, cheap boats up to 20,000 euros are mostly sold themselves for online marketplaces. More expensive boats are almost always sold through mediation.
Selling your own motor yacht or sailboat can be a fun adventure, but it can also bring a lot of stress. Viewings cancelled at the last minute, selling for too low a price in hindsight, not getting sold due to too high a price, and so on. And, of course, continue to make time for viewings, communication with potential buyers, test drives and cleaning.
If you want to save yourself a lot of time and effort, engage an experienced specialist and choose to sell your boat through a broker. Please feel free to contact us for your options.