How to price your boat on boatsales

Realistically, your boat is only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it. It’s up to you, then, to try and determine what that price is.

Settling on a sale price comes down to research. The good news is that there are a number of options out there that can help you determine what is the best price you can ask for your boat while still keeping potential buyers keen. 

Here’s our list of the best options available.

The Redbook website has a comprehensive list of almost 100,000 boat models sold in Australia. Something it also may have is an estimate of the price you’re likely to get if you were to sell your boat.

Redbook is also good for establishing what was fitted as standard equipment on your boat, and what was an option. It also may let you know the engine options for your boat to establish if the horsepower rating of the one that is on it is from the more desirable performance end of the range.

Note that some manufacturers may list the price of the boat as the hull only, with no engine or trailer included in the listed price.

One trick is to visit boatsales and search for anyone selling the same boat as yours. 

Once you have the list, go to the “sort by” menu and choose to view the list of boats by “last updated”, meaning the listings that have had the most recent changes made to them will appear first.

This will flag where sellers have dipped back in and modified their ad to make it more appealing to buyers. Look at the prices and see how they stack up against your estimate.

You can also save the boat to your favourites, and boatsales.com.au will show you if there’s increasing interest in a similar boat at a certain price level. The big bonus is that if the seller changes the price on a boat you’ve saved, you’ll get an email letting you know how much it has been reduced by.

You can also search boatsales to see if your boat is listed among the more than 2600 models reviewed and assessed since the late 1990s.

It’s pretty easy to work out a price for what you’re selling based on looking at the three main components of your boat – the hull, the engine and the trailer – and then calculating how much it would cost to replace like for like.

In the scheme of things, the hull isn’t all that important. If it’s a fibreglass boat it can be repaired, and if it’s an aluminium one it can be welded. As long as the hull is in good shape, you should be right, although it potentially isn’t the big ticket item.

Soft transoms and spongey floors in fibreglass boats are huge roadblocks for buyers as they are big-ticket items to fix. It’d be like buying a car without a roadworthy certificate; you’re never going to know the true cost until you try and get it registered.

Likewise, a leak in an alloy boat could be as simple as a corroded pinhole or as complex as a stretched transom or cracked keel.

If the hull is okay, the big cost for most buyers is the engine.

If you’re selling your boat because the engine is at the end of its life, chances are buyers will notice, particularly if the engine is a two-stroke or a brand that hasn’t been on the market for more than a decade.

If the engine is still good, the new buyer will have two choices; keep going with the one that’s on or in the boat, or replace it with a new one.

Again, do your research on the replacement cost of a new or used engine, even if you need to phone your local boatyard and ask them what second-hand engines they have in stock. Remember, though, it’s not just the cost of the engine, but also the cost of having it fitted to the boat.

The other big-ticket item if it is a trailer boat is the trailer. There’s no point in having the best boat and outboard engine if it is going to be sitting on the worst trailer.

Again, the best way to add this to the price you set is to look for a replacement. If the trailer is at the end of its useful life the buyer is likely to be looking at a secondhand replacement, or even a new one.

Electronics are a bit tricky because even though you’ve potentially spent thousands of dollars on getting the latest cutting-edge technology that you like, the person looking at your boat is likely to have loyalties to another brand.

That said, technology such as joystick control and electric steering will likely have more buyer appeal than the latest fishfinder. 

Once you have all this information, add it all up so you have a packaged number. It should sit somewhere near the replacement cost for your boat.

One of the easiest ways to gain an idea of how much your boat is worth is to ask someone who has a clue.

The best time? When you get your boat serviced. This is usually at your local boat dealership where trading in used boats is a familiar part of doing business.

There are several ways to broach the subject. The easiest is to ask directly, with the upside being that they may know of another customer who has come in asking about a boat like yours.

If you want to be more subtle, you can ask for an estimate of your boat’s value for insurance purposes.

Note that boat dealerships are in the business of making money, so any estimate of your boat’s value may be less than market value. 

There’s nothing worse than a seller who won’t tell you if a boat is in seaworthy shape. If you’ve ever asked that question from a potential buyer, best be honest with the answer.

Tasmania is paving the way to ensure that all used boats sold in the state are seaworthy, requiring both the buyer and seller to agree that the boat is trouble-free at handover.

If either side disagrees, the boat’s registration will be cancelled.

The upside to this is that if the boat you sell ever heads out and it and the people onboard never return, you’re not going to have to front the coroner to explain why, as the seller, you are not responsible.

Being honest with yourself will also temper the price you ask for your boat. If what you have looks better than everything else out there, it could well be worth seeking a premium. Likewise, if yours looks the worst one on the website, best lower those expectations, and the price.