Kevin, I wouldn’t consider POP Yachts as a scam but as an internet based brokerage that covers the entire country, they’re going to have limitations. I speak from experience having bought Half Magic, my 1983 35 Landfall through them. Bottom line, they had what I was looking for. I first made contact in the spring several years ago when I first saw the boat listed. At the time, there were very few Landfall 35 for sale on Yacht World and none in New England so when I saw this one online in my general region with a comparable price to other’s around the US and Canada, I went to look at it. POP Yachts’ broker was local in Gloucester and she came to show the boat on the owner’s property north of Boston. Being a powerboater, she had limited knowledge of the vessel and certainly couldn’t speak to its overall condition other than to recommend a thorough survey prior to any purchase. While interested, I chose to wait and many months past before I got a follow up from a different broker from POP Yachts asking if I was still in the market. At that time, I was in a better position to buy and went again to see the boat, and the broker they sent to “re-show” the boat was a sailboater from New Hampshire. His knowledge of specific issues with the boat was slightly better, but again, suggested a survey. After deliberation, I made a VERY low offer on the boat, mostly because it had been sitting on the hard for several years and assumed the owner would be somewhat desperate to sell. As it turned out, he wasn’t. And the primary reason he was rather married to his price was that he had originally listed the boat with POP Yachts at a VERY inflated price and over time had whittled the selling price to what he considered to be a rock bottom price. In a private conversation, the seller felt that I should walk away from the deal and then contact him directly after he “fired” POP Yachts and would negotiate a price that would be amicable to both of us. While intrigued at the prospect of buying the boat at a cheaper price, I had problems with doing an end around on a broker that had, up to that point, been up front with me and had taken the time to show the boat twice. It just wasn’t ethical in my mind and it may very well have held up the sale if the seller had violated the terms of his contract with POP Yachts.
So, once I made my offer, the regional broker didn’t handle a lot of back and forth between me and the seller although he was present at the survey. Most negotiations were conducted by phone through another POP Yachts agent, this time in North Carolina. I would say that the negotiator did a good job of softening the seller enough for a deal to be made, but was patient and listened to all my concerns. He was good.. Once we made a deal, got the survey done and addressed the costs associated with fixing what the survey revealed, the paperwork, contract, Coast Guard documents and every detail was completed by POP Yachts and for what its worth, made the purchase process somewhat easy. Now whether the seller considered his experience with POP Yachts as a good investment, I can’t tell. He didn’t seem thrilled to be paying a commission for their efforts and the boat sat on the market for quite a while. Then again, it was far from being in “sail away” condition and not everyone wants to invest the time and money in a 35 year old sail boat to make it serviceable. I suspect that if the boat had been a mid nineties Boston Whaler 23 Outrage with a 4 stroke Yamaha, POP Yachts might have been the answer to a quick sale and pulled in a more qualified customer than say Craigslist or Ebay who are looking for a free boat or something they can virtually steal for a few thousand. Talk to a brick and mortar broker sometime and they’ll tell you, the 25 year old sailboats, maintained by their owners are just not a hot item. And posting an ad on Yachtworld isn’t cheap by any means. Caveat emptor, right? Chuck Gilchrest Half Magic 1983 35 Landfall Padanaram, MA From: CnC-List <cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com> > On Behalf Of Kevin Paxton via CnC-List Sent: Monday, August 20, 2018 17:04 To: cnc-list Cnc-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> > Cc: Kevin Paxton <kpax...@paxdesigns.com <mailto:kpax...@paxdesigns.com> > Subject: Stus-List Pop yachts Hey everyone As you saw I just posted my '82 34 for sale yesterday. Today I got a message from Pop yachts in FL asking if I would like them to market my vessel and tack their fee on top of the sale price. Has anyone has any experience with these guys? Are they reputable? Anything I should know about them good or bad? Thanks! Kevin
_______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
