Friends of ours, have listed their boat for sale and Maria was curious as to what they should and should not leave on the boat. Since I’m (Ally) in the boat business, I thought I would answer her question here in this week’s blog.
Should you stage your boat?
Take time to clean the boat and get it ready for a showing. Maria did ask me if it should be “staged”? Great question! Depending on the size and type of the boat, determines if staging in necessary. When we sold our Bayliner 3055, we did stage it for photos, but not tours.
When we sold our Bayliner 4087, we did stage a few extra things like wine for photos, but we did make sure all of the towels and pillows were set up properly. At the end of the day, it’s up to you and how you want your boat to look.
There are two rules when it comes to selling your boat.
- Remember that selling your boat, is not much different than selling your home. Do not leave any personal belongings on the boat. This includes valuables, personal photos and clothing. Potential buyers are going to be opening lockers and drawers, so unless you want to share your stuff with them, take it home.
- If it’s on the boat when you list it, it’s FAIR GAME. That means, the potential buyer assumes, that the price includes everything that is on it. Back to the first rule – if it’s personal or meaningful to you, remove it.
So what do you leave on the boat?
This brings us back to Maria’s original question, which was “Should we leave all of the galley ware on the boat?” Really, it’s up to you. When Scott and I sold both boats, we left everything on (except a few items). We left dishes, silverware, cups, glasses, utensils, towels and cutting boards. Why? A few reasons.
One, we wanted to make the boat turn-key for the new buyers. Second, we didn’t know how much space or what the set up might be on our next boat. Example, maybe your dishes are too wide for the drawer or cabinet of your new boat? Maybe the utensils are too long? You get the idea. We would rather buy these again for our next boat.
Things we did take home were our personal PFDs, custom pillows and our sleeping pillows. No one wants to use those.
Other items
We also left all of the linens, towels, cleaning supplies, safety gear, charts and spare boat parts on the boat. If we didn’t want to store it or have any use for it, we left it on. Our last boat came with all kinds of spare parts and we bought a lot too. All that stayed on board.
Original Boat Accessories
The other thing we made sure to put back on the boat (we stored it in the aft cabin), were the original boat linens and pillows. Our broker had told us not to remove anything permanently as it lowers the value. Instead, we vacuum sealed everything and stored it tightly.
The other thing we recommend, is remove any clutter or old cleaning supplies. For some reason, both owners we bought our boats from, left over 20 solvents on each of our boats and no one wants that.
So in the end, what stays on the boat is really up to you, as to what you keep on the boat and what you take home. Just remember, if it’s on the boat while it’s being shown, it’s included with the boat!
We hope this was informative. Watch our quick video that goes a bit more into detail below!
As always, thank you for following our boating journey! Scott and I have some great blogs and vlogs coming up, so please be sure to subscribe to get notifications. Follow us on social at @boatingjourney too!
(video below)
Cheers, Scott and Ally
