How To Sell A Boat - A-Z Boat Guide

During the boating life cycle, the time will come when you want to sell your boat or even upgrade to a new one. Everyone wants the best price and return on the original investment. You may be interested to know how to maximize your return. At Skier’s Marine, we desire to be your trusted boating education source.

How-to Video on How to Sell A Boat:

There are many reasons people may sell their boat. You may want to upgrade to a newer model, or maybe you need something larger; Perhaps you want to try a different kind of boating. Another reason to sell a boat is due to financial constraints, or maybe you no longer have the time and/or energy for boating. As your trusted education source on all things boating, we’ve created this comprehensive guide on how to sell your boat to help the process be as smooth as possible. 

Important Definitions

When selling your boat, you may find some terms you are unfamiliar with. Below we’ve defined these terms to help you prepare for the boat selling process:

• Private Party – Refers to selling your boat on your own to another individual. 
• Trade – Refers to selling your boat to a dealership through the acquisition of another boat/RV/auto in which you get your boat’s value reduced from the price of the new vehicle. 
• Wholesale – Refers to selling your boat to an entity purchasing your boat and intends to resell it at a lower value than private party or trade pricing. 
• ACV – Your boat’s “Actual Cash Value” at this time. 
• Title – The state’s way of tracking ownership of a vessel; allows taxes to be imposed on the vessel in an ongoing manner. 
• Bill of Sale – The legal document used to transfer ownership from one party to another. 
• Warranty Transfer – The transfer of a boat’s warranty from one party to another, usually for a fee. The new party gets the benefit of the boat’s original remaining warranty. 

What Impacts the Value of Your Boat?

Many factors can impact the resale value of your boat. As owners, we don’t have control over all of these factors, so we’ll focus on the ones we can control in this section. 

Brand Perception

When selling a boat, brand name matters. Boats with higher brand perception (think well-established brands such as MasterCraft, Sylvan, Chaparral, etc.) will usually sell faster and for more money. You can minimize the depreciation of your boat by purchasing popular brands and boat types for your market. For example, suppose you boat on Lake Martin in Alabama. In that case, you’ll find that MasterCraft, Moomba, Supra, and other wake boats are popular on this lake. You will see a good return if your boat is one of these brands or similar. Take note of your neighbor’s boats and what your local boat dealer offers. This will help you determine how easily your boat will sell! 

Condition of Your Boat

Second, keeping your boat in great condition significantly impacts your resale value. We recommend keeping your boat indoors or undercover (boathouse, dry stack, garage, carport, etc.), as this will help protect your boat from potential damage. It is also a best practice to clean the boat with mild soap and water after each use. In addition, drying the boat before covering it will keep mold and mildew to a minimum. 

Along with general cleanliness, you should always maintain your boat according to the manufacturer’s service intervals. Follow the manufacturer’s recommended service schedule and keep those service records in a safe spot. Providing these documents will make the next owner feel more comfortable purchasing your boat and allow you to ask a little more for it. 

Warranty

Finally, any remaining warranties and a used boat inspection at the time of the sale will help you receive more of your initial boat investment. Clients are more comfortable purchasing a boat with a favorable inspection report available, and remaining warranties help them ensure they aren’t getting a lemon. 

How Much is Your Used Boat Worth?

It can feel like a guessing game when determining how much you should sell your used boat for. Skier’s Marine found an easy way to always come to a fair price for you and your Buyer. 

First, we recommend visiting NADAGuides to find the value of your boat based on the bank’s valuation. When building your boat on NADAGuides, the best place to start is to select only the correct engine and trailer listed with no additional options. Remember, brands and boat types popular when you sell can bring in more than NADA, while less popular brands/types may bring in less than NADA. 

To find the exact price your boat should sell for, we suggest comparing NADA to a local (if possible) and a nationwide comparable. To do this:

1. Go to boat-selling websites like Boat Trader, Only Inboards, IBoats, or other similar sites.
2. Search boats for sale that match your exact model.
3. Remove the highest and lowest priced boats before averaging the sale price of the rest of them. This average (less 5% for negotiations) should be the actual sales price of your boat.

Keep in mind that if you trade in your boat, the dealer will expect to make a fair profit on your boat. So, expect to deduct another 10-13% from that average to come to a reasonable trade number.