Another satisfied customer

It's been a while since we posted anything here, sorry about that, it's been a very busy summer.  We received another nice testimonial in the email inbox this week as follows:

Dear Simon

SALE OF CAVATINA

Following the recent sale of our yacht Cavatina we wanted to let you know how delighted we are to have achieved such a quick sale and to have met the new owners for a handover.

We appreciate the professional brokerage services you have provided helping us through the selling process and taking care of all necessary details, keeping us fully informed throughout this period. We were impressed by the quality of the marketing materials (photos and description) which led to a an offer being received within 2 weeks of the boat being advertised. Having accepted an offer we were glad to be able to stand back whilst the vendor's survey was completed and matters arising resolved through your professional advice and guidance. 

We would have no hesitation in recommending Harbour Yachts to anyone wanting to sell their boat as you advertised and delivered a personal service which was so important and appreciated.  

Yours sincerely 

Andrew and Briony Cherrett

Well, Andrew and Briony, thank you so much for writing the above and we're delighted that you were so pleased with how everything went!

Whatever the weather...

We love to talk about the weather in the UK, and it's nice to have a bit of nice weather to talk about for a change.  The temperature on the sunny South Coast has been higher than parts of Greece recently.  It's nice to gloat about that when we get the chance!  The blue skies have certainly brought out the boat buyers and we've had offers on four boats being accepted over the past week.  Fingers crossed for successful surveys and sea trials so we can have four sets of happy sellers and buyers before too long.

Wimbledon starts next week so I expect we'll be back to the rain before the fortnight is out.  In the meantime, get boating!

Goodbye 2013, hello 2014!

I had all but given up with updating this blog because it gets far fewer page views than the website at www.harbouryachts.co.uk, but a few people have been into the office recently saying they regularly keep their eyes out for updates, so here we are with a review of the year just past.

We had a very successful year overall, selling over a million pounds worth of vessels all told. Sales were split approximately two thirds power boats to one third sailing yachts, which reflects the typical balance of types of vessels here in Poole. We sold a couple of highly unusual vessels over the year, for example the classic gaff cutter built in 1896 which I'm delighted to say was taken on by a South Coast buyer, so will remain in the area.

Any one boat can take a highly unpredictable amount of time to sell, and during 2013 we sold some boats which had been on the market for over a year, and at the other end of the scale, one Poole-based boat was sold into Germany within 12 hours of going on the open market (and that's not including sales where we are able to put a client in contact with one of the many potential buyers whose details we hold on our database).

Things definitely have an out-of-season "January feel" about them at the moment, but we're looking forward to the start of the new season and the peak of market activity which that invariably brings.

Summer Scorcher!

What an excellent summer we've had - the best since 2006 according to the Met Office. It has triggered huge increase in buying activity with almost half of the stock list being sold and changing hands over the past 3 months. This makes up for the unusually quiet months of the year from January to May where figures were significantly down on last year. This just goes to show how weather-dependent the boat selling business is. With such a lot of recent sales we're keen to take on new listings so please spread the word if you know of other owners looking to sell.

We're still finding the number of walk-in buyers is low, with most buyers making appointments and travelling from a distance, having first spent time scrutinising details & photos of the boat on the internet. Some boats are sold purely on the basis of the online details to foreign buyers who don't come to view at all. This highlights the importance of getting the internet content accurate for each boat and we try very hard at all times to make sure the information is accurate and the pictures are representative.

More advertising exposure

We constantly monitor the effectiveness of our advertising strategy for all our listed boats for sale on brokerage. We've always used a number of internet boat portals to get maximum exposure for our vendors, and these have included boatshop24.co.uk, boatsandoutboards.com, friday-ad.co.uk, rightboat.com, theyachtmarket.com, and ybw-boatsforsale.com. We've also placed the occasional advert on apolloduck.com to monitor the effectiveness of that portal, and following a successful trial we're pleased to say that from now on, all our boats will have their own featured advertisement on apolloduck.com and apolloduck.co.uk.

New listings this month

Several more boats have been added to the selection on our website recently - sailboats include a Hurley 22, a Moody 27 and a traditional antique gaff cutter dating from 1896. There's also a fantastic 36' Sealine Statesman motor yacht.

 

Sealine 360 Statesman

 1896 Gaff Cutter

Moody 27

On the market and under offer within 48 hours

When we get a new listing, we often add a blog entry about it to announce it's arrival on the market.  With this boat it's a little different as the boat is already under offer!

The owner of this Merry Fisher 655 walked into the brokerage to discuss selling his boat on Friday. We had the details of people looking for such a boat on file, and quickly contacted them. We also got a listing on to the website the same day, complete with 29 photos. Two viewings were conducted on the Saturday, and by the end of the weekend the boat was under offer -- what's more, the buyer offered at the asking price. Now that's what I call a result!