First time posting...about to go look at a 2000 21V

[BurnMac42]

Come on man……are you really buying that sales pitch. If so I have some great Ocean front property in Arizona I'd love to talk to you about. Thats one of the oldest ones in the book. Give you the old hard sell. "If you don't buy it today there are 10 other people waiting to take it." Ask how long the boat has been for sale. Must have just went up the day you put a deposit on it!! LOL Come on!!!!

Honestly in this case yes. The dealer I dealt with was not pushy at all, very professional, represented the boat with 100% honesty, and genuinely a dude that has a love for wake/surf boats. I know it's really hard to fathom sometimes but there really are good dudes out there still. He actually had a phone call about one of the other interested buyers while we were finalizing the paperwork.

I had the same experience with my truck. It was a small, family owned dealership like this one that based their sales on quality, not quantity. Truck has been bullet proof since day one and I bought it with 92k miles on it....it has almost 150k now (1/2 ton) without a hiccup.

The guy called me the day before I showed up because he found one very small, hidden, 2"x1" tear on the bottom of one of the seats. He wanted to make sure I knew about it before showing up because initially he had told me there were no tears. I NEVER would have found the tear without him pointing it out....

[nmriordan]

I don’t really have an opinion on the pricing – high or low. As you’ve already seen opinions – even educated ones – can very on the topic. I really only have two thoughts on the topic:

1. As other members have already pointed out, it will serve you well to take a patient and measured approach in your boat search and buying process. Go through the test drive and negotiation open-minded. If you can be objective, both on the good and bad, it will keep you from making an impulsive decision. I’m not saying you shouldn’t make this buy… I’m simply saying that you should take all the feedback you’ve received – good and bad, not be overly reliant on the seller’s comments, and not gloss over anything that sends up a red flag.

2. On the other hand, you don’t always have to get an incredible deal when you make a purchase like this. I’m a bargain shopper on almost everything, but when it comes to something really important that I’m going to use regularly and for a long time (house, boat, car), I adjust that approach. Would it be nice to “steal” the boat for a rock-bottom price? Absolutely. But the reality is many of us have other constraints or factors that keep us from being able to get the absolute bottom dollar price.

I bought a house at the bottom of the housing crash. I got a good deal on it, but probably could have negotiated the price down another 5-10%. However, I weighed the benefit of knocking of those dollars against the risk of losing the house that met every single requirement we had (and the wife had a lengthy list). In that particular case – after looking for 2+ years – I was pretty risk-averse and, as a result, was not willing to risk losing the perfect house.

I had a similar experience in buying our boat. I had a long list of criteria and took a couple of years browsing different options. I kicked some tires, but any time a red flag came up I was finished and moved on to the next option. When we found the boat we eventually bought, we inspected it, water-tested it, reviewed the documentation and service info, and made sure it met all of our requirements (also a long list). I bought during the off season and probably could have stopped the negotiations and waited a couple of months and gotten a couple thousand knocked off the price after the seller sweated for a bit. However, I also would have risked losing a boat that finally was the perfect fit. Having requirements like a single-owner boat, a full history of maintenance, and a long list of specs narrowed our options. But, I was willing to pay market – maybe even a slight premium – to get exactly what I wanted and make sure no one stole it from under me (that’s always a risk, whether the seller mentions it or not).

So, all this said, there’s nothing wrong with waiting and waiting and finding a great deal. As Boardman and others have mentioned, if you have patience and can afford/are willing to wait, there will always be a deal. However, I personally don’t believe there’s anything wrong with paying a slight premium for the perfect fit; you just have to be honest about whether or not that is truly the case.

I’ve seen boats similar to mine trade since we bought for a couple thousand less than we spent. However, because I went through my process open-minded and didn’t settle for something that didn’t perfectly match what we wanted, I don’t lose any sleep over it.

Good luck!