Transporting a boat after buying from out of state

[Asmodeus2112]

i would say go look at the boat first I tried to buy a boat in Utah and had several pics sent and everything thought i was good he even had a carfax type thing for the boat. looked great it was an 08 with 33 hrs this was in 2010 and i drove Pittsburgh pa to salt lake city straight through. got there found the boat not like in the pics to poorly fixed tears in vinyl, and the boat had been totaled which he failed to mention. fixed improperly basically a peice of $hit. I was out $1000 in Diesel for the trip but better than i would have been if i found this after having it shipped to me in PA and the headaches that would have gone with it.

Wow, that's terrible. I can't imagine how mad you were.

[Asmodeus2112]

I bought my boat in near Tampa Florida and drove from Michigan.

Had the guy tell me which dealer it was serviced at. Drove out after work one day, 20 hour drive. Met the guy in the morning at the dealar. Drove it on the lake there, did a compression check, winterized, wrapped it up and drove him. In 72 hours I slept maybe 6 hours. I was close to dellusional when i got home. I'd have a hard time buying a boat sight unseen!

Yeah, I don't think I could go through with it unless I had a very trusted third party review it, or incredible high res pics of almost every thing.

[Asmodeus2112]

As much a pain in the butt buying a boat is, I still really enjoy the hunt. Still, with the beautiful spring we're having I'm itching to get out on the water and do some wakeboarding. Kids are ripe to learn, and I can't wait to see them out there.

[Timmo]

My Malibu probably had one of the longest journeys to its new home, Santa Barbara, California to Renmark, South Australia. I purchased this Response from a private seller in Santa Barbara and he was good enough to drop it off at the docks in LA for me. It was then shipped via Japan, Korea, Singapore and Perth to eventually be unloaded at Melbourne, Australia. My wife and I drove to Melbourne (1600kms round trip) only to find our quarantine people would not release it because it supposedly had some Californian water in the bilge. The boat had to be bubble wrapped and transported to a cleaning agent where it was steam cleaned and checked again, all at great cost to me. This took an extra week and so it meant another trip to Melbourne, by myself this time. I left home for Melbourne at 5am and intended stopping on the way back and sleeping in the car, however I was so pumped that I just wanted to get home and drove back stopping for petrol and toilet breaks only, arriving home at 11.30pm. Took a bit of a chance driving at night without a bull bar as the kangaroos can make an awful mess of your car if they jump out of the bush in front of you but luckily made it OK. Got up the next morning and gave the Response a thorough inspection and found it was just as the seller described, perfect. Had it for nearly two years now and it hasn't missed a beat.

[G-Mack]

i would say go look at the boat first I tried to buy a boat in Utah and had several pics sent and everything thought i was good he even had a carfax type thing for the boat. looked great it was an 08 with 33 hrs this was in 2010 and i drove Pittsburgh pa to salt lake city straight through. got there found the boat not like in the pics to poorly fixed tears in vinyl, and the boat had been totaled which he failed to mention. fixed improperly basically a peice of $hit. I was out $1000 in Diesel for the trip but better than i would have been if i found this after having it shipped to me in PA and the headaches that would have gone with it.

Something about Salt Lake... I bought an 08 in SLC and the seller BS'd me pretty good... the guy was an anesthesiologist so you would expect a level of professionalism (or not) ..no money changed hands until I inspected the boat after a 1000 mile drive... he started to admit things once I got there... and failed to tell me many others... the deal was very good and I had all the issues fixed under warranty. Our local dealer made the purchase successful based on how they managed the repairs.

As always it is buyer beware.... specific to the shipping... I am like others I actually enjoy the adventure of going to get it and in a private sale I want to lay hands on the boat/car/truck and the titles before money is exchanged.... we have bought and shipped vehicles sight unseen but always from a dealer which has a bit more security to it form a transferring funds perspective.

[wakeboarder3780]

I guess I failed to mention with my boat pickup that in the discussions that led up to it, after we got through the normal ok tell me about your boat and how great it is, yep ok. Had him send me his normal stock of pictures (and he had a video walk around of it). Then I called him up the second time and said ok we've gone through the normal shpeel, you and I both know every boat has at least a few minor things wrong with it. I want you to tell me every single thing that is wrong with the boat because it's not that big of a deal if I know about it ahead of time, but if I show up and find things you haven't told me about I'm going to feel cheated and I'll be p*ssed.

The owner did a pretty darn good job of telling me everything that was wrong and that he had fixed at that point which summed up to a couple "head of a sewing needle" sized holes in the vinyl in a few spots and a (minor IMO) scratch on the outside of the hull. He told me everything he had to have fixed while he owned it, etc. When I showed up I noticed a few things he left out like spider cracks in the gel coat and some ink staining on the sunpad vinyl from the crappy stock sunpad (which I promptly replaced back home).

I guess you're likely to have a few surprises but you can decide what it's worth to you when you get there. If I felt someone objectively mislead me like a few have mentioned above, I'd be within a few seconds of beating the life out of them if they weren't willing to drop price on everything that was wrong. If someone tries to mislead you and you invested a great deal of gas money to go out there they "stole" that money from you and they should have to fear retribution. Not that anyone on this forum would ever do it, but I'd be very careful when listing my boat about misleading someone. You might find out your potential buyer is quite unhappy and wants to take it out on your face.

I've never understood anyone that would try to mislead someone. I would honestly fear for my safety if I did that when listing something.

[srintx]

My Malibu probably had one of the longest journeys to its new home, Santa Barbara, California to Renmark, South Australia. I purchased this Response from a private seller in Santa Barbara and he was good enough to drop it off at the docks in LA for me. It was then shipped via Japan, Korea, Singapore and Perth to eventually be unloaded at Melbourne, Australia. My wife and I drove to Melbourne (1600kms round trip) only to find our quarantine people would not release it because it supposedly had some Californian water in the bilge. The boat had to be bubble wrapped and transported to a cleaning agent where it was steam cleaned and checked again, all at great cost to me. This took an extra week and so it meant another trip to Melbourne, by myself this time. I left home for Melbourne at 5am and intended stopping on the way back and sleeping in the car, however I was so pumped that I just wanted to get home and drove back stopping for petrol and toilet breaks only, arriving home at 11.30pm. Took a bit of a chance driving at night without a bull bar as the kangaroos can make an awful mess of your car if they jump out of the bush in front of you but luckily made it OK. Got up the next morning and gave the Response a thorough inspection and found it was just as the seller described, perfect. Had it for nearly two years now and it hasn't missed a beat.

Wow, this has to be the best one YET! Crazy, what we will do...

[Deephaven]

Worked out a deal on the Malibu in my avatar with a dealer in Tempe AZ. Contigent on compression/leak & wet test. Tested okay, flew out and drove okay. Uship back to MN was $700. NOT on a flatbed, but our test drive included a 50mi trip to the lake so I was able to check out the trailer in that process.

[jkendallmsce]

Wow, this has to be the best one YET! Crazy, what we will do...

I thought Malibu built/has a plant in Australia?? I guess it is cheaper to do what you did, vs buying a boat in your country??

Edited April 5, 2012 by jkendallmsce

[Asmodeus2112]

Wow, this has to be the best one YET! Crazy, what we will do...

I agree that I don't understand why people mislead potential buyers. My best guess is that they are so anxious/desperate to sell that anything they can do to get a buyer on step closer might mean they can sell. I prefer to do things the opposite, and post really good pics and as good of a description as possible. That way I don't have to go through the spiel over and over on the phone and even worse meet people that look for 5 minutes and bail. Sure, I'm not getting the same amount of calls, but, the ones I get are better qualified. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir on this here though.

[Asmodeus2112]

Wish I lived in Louisiana where there is no sales tax on boats older than 10 years!

[jwl019]

Yeah, LA has it's benefits sometimes!

That part has actually changed for the better, if the tax office is correct.

Boats bought from individuals, (no matter what age) if sales tax has been paid out of state or in state, no tax due! If bought from dealer, then tax has to be paid. That is a huge savings when you have to pay 10% taxes!

[flapjack]

you long road trippers.... what do you do about money? I'd feel strange driving around with $50,000 in my wallet.

[jwl019]

I don't drive with cash, I take cashiers check made out to seller. If the boat is no good, I just turn it back into the bank and it only cost me the price of check a a day or two loan interest and loan fee if I have to borrow money. Small price to pay for some security. We do the transaction at a bank and get everything notarized at the same time!

[Bill_AirJunky]

you long road trippers.... what do you do about money? I'd feel strange driving around with $50,000 in my wallet.

Cashier's check..... although I've had a problem with a seller not accepting that too. Apparently there is a problem with people forging cashier's checks too.

We had to wait till Monday to do the deal at the bank.

Edited April 5, 2012 by Bill_AirJunky

[Malibudude]

I thought Malibu built/has a plant in Australia?? I guess it is cheaper to do what you did, vs buying a boat in your country??

Yes much cheaper, crazy after all the expense it's still cheaper but it is. know many that have shipped boats there.

[Timmo]

you long road trippers.... what do you do about money? I'd feel strange driving around with $50,000 in my wallet.

In Australia electronic funds transfer from account to account is the norm, just jump on the laptop and transfer the money from my account directly into the seller's account once you've agreed on a price etc. That's how I paid the seller for my boat although this method of payment doesn't seem so common in the US. It's how we pay for most of our goods and services over here.

[Timmo]

I thought Malibu built/has a plant in Australia?? I guess it is cheaper to do what you did, vs buying a boat in your country??

Certainly can be cheaper at the moment with the AU$ above parity against the Greenback. Local Malibu people do not like us importers, however not only Malibus, have also seen imported Tiges and Mastercraft. Would also love to get my hands on one of the latest Ford Mustangs and bring it over!!

Unfortunately Australia is now one of the most expensive places in the world to live. Petrol (gas) is nearly $7.00/gal where I live.

[MalibuAdam]

Adam, you bought a canadian boat and towed it to the states or you bought a boat in reno and towed it back to BC?

I bought a boat in reno and brought it back to BC

[MalibuAdam]

you long road trippers.... what do you do about money? I'd feel strange driving around with $50,000 in my wallet.

I have purchased 5 boats out of the US now

Malibu Response $12,500

Tige 22v $29,000

Malibu 23 LSV $33,000

Mastercraft X Star $42,000

Malibu 23 LSV $35,000

For all of these boats I have just setup a money wire transfer for most of the money before leaving and brought $5-7k cash with me for negotiation. Once I have inspected the boat and come to an agreement on price I call the bank and give them the go ahead to send money wire.