Deals
WALL STREET JOURNAL – NATIONAL EDITION – FLORIDA DEALS
Each week I pick my favorite deals and advertise them in The Wall Street Journal (national edition) under yachts for sale, which is published on Saturdays and the following Wednesdays.
Wall Street Journal 8/8 & 8/11
FLORIDA DEALS
135’ Hargrave 2011 – 5 staterooms + crew
112′ Westport 2006 – mint, local, try $6.5
101’ Hargrave 2011, ships Oct, save $1.0
Inc. one year free dockage in South Beach
Call Pete Cola cell 954-629-7371
WHY SHOP FLORIDA FIRST?
Think of South Florida as the Wall Street for yacht sales and service and the center of the yachting industry in this hemisphere. If you are looking for a deal on a motoryacht there is no better place to shop than South Florida. I can show you more great yachts in one day here in Florida than you will see in Europe or in Asia/Pacific in a week!
WHAT MAKES A DEAL?
LOW PRICE is the most obvious answer. If there are six Hatteras motoryachts for sale in the same size range and one is 30% under the market then you are probably looking at the next boat to sell in that segment. Price is the first thing we look for when searching the market for deals, but it is not the only thing.
QUALITY matters to you in many ways. In terms of maintaining your yacht and operating it, quality built yachts cost less to run and less to maintain. Quality shows up in the design of the yacht, how it handles, and how it is laid out. The equipment onboard can vary widely from boat to boat and while two boats make look almost identical, one could have $200,000 or more in options and upgrades. From builder to builder the interior and exterior fit and finish variations can often make a big difference. Some have all custom hardwood interiors while some just have select accent panels and then fill in the rest with vinyl materials, leathers, or even fabric wall coverings which cost much less to produce. If the price catches out eye then the second thing we look at is the quality of the yacht in relation to the competition.
CONDITION is hard to describe, but you sure know top condition when you see it! Those rare yachts look different, they feel different, and they even smell different. When you look at 4-5 yachts of the same length from the same builder, the overall interior and exterior condition can often make the boat a real deal. Maybe the boat is so well maintained that it looks like it just rolled off the production line – that’s worth money. Maybe the boat just had a new $150,000 Awlgrip paint job – that’s worth money to you. Maybe the boat just had a new $200,000 interior installed with new fabrics, furniture, and even new design details – that’s worth money to you.
EQUIPMENT can make one boat a real deal if you understand the cost implications. Five yachts from the same builder may be listed for similar asking prices and yet one has an upgrade on the main engines that could cost $100,000-300,000 more. Or it could be that one boat has a hundred thousand or more in equipment added after the boat was delivered that help make it a deal when compared to the rest.
VALUE is a word that we hear a lot but is not easy to quantify. At the end of the day, it takes more than just a low price to make a yacht a deal. Sam Walton once said, “All things being equal, price wins every time”, but you’ll notice he said all things being equal, which they seldom are in the world of yachting. We find that when you lay out all the yachts under consideration on a table and begin to study them carefully for all the different criteria mentioned above, one boat begins to stand out as being the best value – what you pay and what you get in return, and it is generally not the boat with the lowest number on it.
OUR THREE PRONGED APPROACH TO GETTING YOU A “DEAL”
1. Help you quantify your actual needs and wants with our exclusive Matrix System
2. Help you identify the top three brands to consider in each market segment
3. Help you protect your investment by ensuring that resale is always a top consideration
