How to Choose your Yacht Brokers

Involving yourself in a financial investment on the grand scale of buying or selling a superyacht can be a daunting and potentially worrying time. Most transactions will exceed $100,000 and for megayachts the prices can soar into the hundreds of millions. Involving a Yacht Broker in any potential yacht investment is a wise idea, on par with consulting a CPA for your taxes or a solicitor for legal advice.

Prospective Buyers

Professional Yacht Brokers have countless resources available to them that the typical yacht buyer doesn’t, such as access to reliable listing services which will not only have a current database of desirable yachts on the market but, through the connections between a Yacht Broker and Yacht Brokerage Associations, a selection of yachts not yet on the market or not being actively marketed by their owners. This will allow the yacht buyer access to a wider range of qualified yachts in a fraction of the normal time.

A professional Yacht Broker will also offer objective information regarding prospective vessels, based on the yacht buyer’s requirements. This outside, and extremely knowledgeable, point of view can prove instrumental when making this kind of sizeable financial investment.

Once a decision has been reached, the Yacht Broker lends an expert hand in the negotiation phase of the purchase with its maze of factors including price, financing, terms, repairs, furnishings, equipment and date of possession. Involving an experienced Yacht Broker in these proceedings will set the buyer in good stead for a smooth escrow and a well-prepared purchase agreement.

A professional Yacht Broker will also have a wealth of local knowledge regarding yacht services such as repairs, inspection and dockage, saving the buyer time and money.

During the due diligence process of evaluating the buyer’s prospective yacht, having an experienced Yacht Broker involved is an immense benefit as they can recommend the extent of the survey to be used in the inspection as well as directing the buyer to the most expert individuals able to conduct those surveys. This is of the highest importance when a buyer seeks to purchase a yacht, as a properly conducted due diligence evaluation will ensure that the buyer is getting exactly what they have paid for.

Another step in the due diligence process is that of making sure the title of the prospective yacht is clear, as the title indicates ownership and a confusing backlog of past owners or access rights can mire the proceedings indefinitely. Should the prospective yacht also be foreign flagged or existing under any kind of extenuating circumstance, the expertise of a professional Yacht Broker will prove to be a valuable asset.

In terms of finance options, a professional Yacht Broker will be able to aid the buyer in ascertaining their true buying power and helping them understand the array of financing options available to them, as well referring the buyer to the lenders best qualified for the job.

In all, a buyer that makes use of a professional Yacht Broker will enjoy an entirely different purchasing experience than those of his colleagues who choose to go it alone: the choice of yacht will be well-informed, the purchase price fair, the paperwork in order and the process as a whole will be remarkably stress-free and produce peak results.

Seller’s Market

When a Yacht Broker takes on a yacht to sell, they are obligated to create the maximum exposure for it on each Central Agency listing, as well as alert other Yacht Broker’s to the possibility of a cooperative sale between Brokers, which makes up nearly 75% of all yacht transactions. Because of this, involving a profession Yacht Broker in the sale of a yacht maximizes the amount of qualified buyers informed about, and potentially interested in, the seller’s vessel.

A professional Yacht Broker may also suggest that certain cosmetic work or necessary repairs be done in order to maximize the yacht’s potential salability, as well as provide the seller with current market prices, financing options and the terms and conditions of similar vessels. This will help ensure that the yacht is sold at the best price with the minimum of stress.

A professional Yacht Broker will also know how to best advertise a yacht for sale and to whom, ensuring that only qualified prospective buyers are given access to the seller’s yacht, freeing the seller from the worries of property safety and enabling a buyer to be quickly procured.

Once several buyer proposals are submitted, it is the Yacht Broker’s job to help the seller evaluate each proposal, without endangering the yacht’s market potential, and objectively pursue the optimum choice. This will ease the creation of a positive initial agreement with a higher likelihood of making it through the entire process of appraisals, inspections and financing without the time-consuming pitfalls of extensive contract amendments.

Throughout the entire selling process, the Yacht Broker will be on hand to answer any and all questions that may arise regarding repairs, financing, a clouded title, etcetera. In addition, the considerable amount of paperwork generated by the sales agreement and settlement can be daunting and the best weapon a seller can have on their side is the expertise and knowledge of a qualified, professional Yacht Broker.

Find a Broker

Selecting a qualified Yacht Broker is a serious step and one that should be approached with care, as the chosen Broker will be charged with the weighty task of leading a prospective seller or buyer through the potentially mystifying process of investing in or relinquishing the rights to an immense financial investment. All professional Yacht Brokers will invariably offer the same essential services, but it is in the prospective buyer or seller’s best interest to thoroughly research each Broker choice to ensure that they are choosing the candidate that is best suited to their individual personality: A strong-willed buyer hoping for a quick turnover will never get the results they want with a Broker who is painstakingly cautious, and so forth.

At the end of the day, selecting a qualified Yacht Broker remains the personal choice of the buyer or seller, and what works for one person may not work for another. Those looking to select a Yacht Broker should consult friends and colleagues who have previously had dealings with Yacht Brokers in order to gain some subjective background information that will help to clarify what they do and do not require from their Broker.