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Home-brew Surfgate Boat Resale?


Arctic Slalom

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Just curious what others have experienced on resale to their boat when you have installed a homebrew surf gate system.

I understand with a controller like Martinarchers and all the parts you are in (+/-) $2,000.

Is resale pretty good for these boats assuming the work is in a "workmanship like manner" and not hacked together?

Does anyone have experience building a surf gate and then selling a boat to buy a factory set up?

Just curious if it was much easier to sell the boat? Were you able to get $3-5K MORE out of the boat because of the surf gate?

Can a well done homebrew surf gate hurt your resale?

Why aren't people buying pre-gate Malibu's, building a nice factory like gate and reselling for profit?

Just curious?

I've got a '04 Sunscape which we built a slurpee-gate on last summer and are very happy with how it works. Yes, turning boat is a pain.

Sorry if this post already exist…..

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The only example I know of is KWebster on here. I'm not sure if he's sold his boat yet, but he has a very nice gate setup, but I don't know how that impacted his list price and if it has sold yet or not. My guess is it probably helps, but I seriously doubt you are getting anywhere near $3-5K more out of it. I bet you'd be lucky to break even, but that is just my gut feel.

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I plan on getting the gosurfassist. Any ideas why more folks don't do that? All of the DIY stuff on here functions extremely well but it's kind of inelegant.

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I plan on getting the gosurfassist. Any ideas why more folks don't do that? All of the DIY stuff on here functions extremely well but it's kind of inelegant.

Price and as mentioned you're not going to see that money back when it comes to resale. Isn't the gosurfassist around $3500?

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I don't know why you couldn't get most of it back with a proper install. It seems there are always new threads about guys wanting to trade in perfectly good boats for high dollar brand new ones just for better surfing. I may be looking into go surf assist soon too.

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I plan on getting the gosurfassist. Any ideas why more folks don't do that? All of the DIY stuff on here functions extremely well but it's kind of inelegant.

I was thinking of listing mine to see what it would bring with GSA installed simply because I wanted a newer boat with surf gate. I finally road behind my first gated Malibu (15 VLX) and realized the ONLY benefit to trading up would be a newer boat. I would take my 07 LSV GSA equipped wave over the VLX any day. To be completely fair, I do not think the owners are maximizing the wave as I would but the difference would not be huge. If touchscreen and all the bells and whistles are what you are really looking for along with convenience of a gated boat then a newer gated boat should be your target. If it is truly surf wave and you love your current boat the GSA solution is spot on.

Just be prepared to throw plenty of weight at it....................No different than a newer boat.

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I think the only way a nicely installed surf gate styled boat would fetch anymore money would be if a person was looking at 2 similarly priced boats, one with the surf gate and one without. He would likely spend a bit more on the surf gate boat if surfing was in his interest. How much more obviously would be up to the buyer. Now if the boats were the same price and everything else about equal, I bet the surf gate boat would be the one he went with.

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If it's the bolt-on to the swim platform (bought or DIY) / suction cup mount deal, it won't add any resale.

If it is a nicely integrated, automated setup that looks OEM (or OEM-ish), I could see it adding real value. Whether you get same/more/less than what you have into it is another question, but there is value to a number of buyers.

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I don't think a gsa equipped boat makes the boat worth $4k more. But it does make it more attractive to buyers who actually know what it is (which I think is probably 5-10% of the market max).

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I don't think a gsa equipped boat makes the boat worth $4k more. But it does make it more attractive to buyers who actually know what it is (which I think is probably 5-10% of the market max).

Exactly this. Consider like a stereo install. You're not getting that money back when it comes to sell. Just makes it more attractive than a boat without. Of course this is all new, so me being me, I'd worry about how well the install was done.

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I plan on getting the gosurfassist. Any ideas why more folks don't do that? All of the DIY stuff on here functions extremely well but it's kind of inelegant.

GSA does not market their product very well IMO... I have had it installed and it is worth every penny I spent...

I was thinking of listing mine to see what it would bring with GSA installed simply because I wanted a newer boat with surf gate. I finally road behind my first gated Malibu (15 VLX) and realized the ONLY benefit to trading up would be a newer boat. I would take my 07 LSV GSA equipped wave over the VLX any day. To be completely fair, I do not think the owners are maximizing the wave as I would but the difference would not be huge. If touchscreen and all the bells and whistles are what you are really looking for along with convenience of a gated boat then a newer gated boat should be your target. If it is truly surf wave and you love your current boat the GSA solution is spot on.

Just be prepared to throw plenty of weight at it....................No different than a newer boat.

Malibu's in general need plenty of weight no matter what surf system you use... I do believe that it will add much value to the boat and enhance its position in the market making it easier to sell...

LOL... I was going to list mine this summer and see what happens... If it sells, I am custom ordering a 23 LSV without surfgate... and having GSA added to it instead... That wave rocks and is way more adjustable than any other surf system out there IMHO....

I will be getting a set this weekend behind a G23... so I get to compare to another system now and hopefully back my claim :rockon:

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Someone on here had an older (2000-2004ish) with a nice surf system installed and was asking what I would consider a ridiculous amount for the boat. If memory serves me correct the boat was about a 20-25k boat and he was asking like 40k. Anyone else remember that thread? I wonder if the boat sold and for how much?

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Someone on here had an older (2000-2004ish) with a nice surf system installed and was asking what I would consider a ridiculous amount for the boat. If memory serves me correct the boat was about a 20-25k boat and he was asking like 40k. Anyone else remember that thread? I wonder if the boat sold and for how much?

This one?

post-16917-0-87058800-1454014551_thumb.p

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That's it. I thought he was asking somewhere in the high 30's originally but I could be wrong. That price is a little more realistic for an asking price IMO. Fwiw. I would think that an integrated surf system would bring more $$$ than a stereo upgrade.

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I do think I remember seeing it up in the $30's at one point. That may actually answer the question of the O.P. assuming this boat sold. He started well above market, then dropped to asking at least $2000-4,500 above market just guessing. If it did sell, the buyer probably tried to negotiate a little so maybe assume he sold for $26-27k? If he sold it for that, then I would definitely say it added some value along with helping sell faster after the price got more along the lines of similar models. Now, if dropping to the $28,500 still didn't sell it, then he either waited to late in the year or you could say the gates don't help resale since from the pics, that boat looks really clean.

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I agree. Very nice boat with some very desirable modifications ( integrated ballast, FAE, nice sound package ) and the surfgate system seems to be one of ,if not, the best out there. His price is about 3-5k above similar boats and it appears as though it's still for sale. So, like I said, this is just one example, but you can draw your own conclusion to the original question. Generally speaking, you will not recoup the time and money spent in modifications.

Edited by Simo
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Anytime you modify a car, boat , plane or anything from stock you risk losing value on your toy. Unless you're adding something offered by the OEM and do the installation to OEM specs/quality it's a roll of the dice as to if it will add, be neutral or depreciate value from the item. This is especially true in emerging technologies and trends. One only need look at the early towers or DVD players that were added to boats 10 years ago for a classic example of what the possible negative impact of some "custom" installations may be. I clearly remember seeing a Wakesetter at the boat show that had 3 or 4 DVD displays throughout the boat that were fed through a DVD player in the dash or a camera mounted on the tower. It looked cool at the time but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that's not adding value anymore.

The biggest concern any knowledgeable buyer is going to have when buying anything not OEM is "how am I going to service this thing 5 years from now when the manufacture of the aftermarket component is out of business?". Unless the upgrade can be unbolted or removed without damage then that item is a risk not a valued feature for me. But that's me......

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IMO i would pay 2k more for a GSA boat than an all-other-things-equal non-GSA boat. i definitely wouldn't pay the full amount of the surf system cost over an identical boat. with the example above of a martin archer-type homebrew system--if it's a quality system that's fully automated and i can see it work before buying, i'd probably pay another $1k for that boat over an identical one. that boat above at $27,500 seems way high though, considering the market seems to have the early 2000 model boats in the low 20's.

in general you don't ever get the full cost of an upgrade when you sell your boat/car/jeep/etc., but it makes the vehicle more marketable and you get to enjoy the increased functionality of it while you own it.

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