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I had spent significant time on Wonder during my trip to Rhode Island last December. The more I looked, the more I was certain she was The Boat. Upon my return to Minneapolis, George and I regrouped to discuss our strategy for acquiring her. While she had been on the market for some time, it was apparent from my discussions with the owners, Jeff and Wendy, that they were not motivated sellers. George and I surmised that the dynamic was something along the lines of Wonder being a lot for Jeff to manage and he was looking for a boat that was easier for a septuagenarian to handle, while they both love Wonder and were not excited about selling her. We suspected they were going to be difficult to move much off their price. That, and they knew they had a great boat, it wasn’t a case of unwitting owners selling undervalued because they didn’t understand what they had.
There are many benefits of working with a broker and a big one is access to information. Couple this with working with George who knows basically everything about the history of each of his and his brother’s creations and you can paint a very complete picture of the situation. We knew from reports of previous lookers that Wonder was not going to be let go much under her asking price. We also knew from recent market comps that she was slightly over priced. When we looked at the sum total of the condition, the equipment and the age, being somewhat over market seemed justifiable.
We decided that the strategy would be to offer 6% under the asking price with the assumption that they would counter at a number about half-way between asking and offer. When that did in fact happen, our counter was to start asking for things. I wanted to close the deal closer to spring, I needed a dingy and they had a spare that was listed as separate but for sale, and I needed winter storage and spring launch which both cost money. We countered at their price but with a February close, them throwing in the 11′ inflatable dingy and that they would cover winter storage and launch costs, pending a successful survey. The thinking was that we go for the gold and hope for silver or bronze.
We got gold and it was on to the survey!
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I had spent significant time on Wonder during my trip to Rhode Island last December. The more I looked, the more I was certain she was The Boat. Upon my return to Minneapolis, George and I regrouped to discuss our strategy for acquiring her. While she had been on the market for some time, it was apparent from my discussions with the owners, Jeff and Wendy, that they were not motivated sellers. George and I surmised that the dynamic was something along the lines of Wonder being a lot for Jeff to manage and he was looking for a boat that was easier for a septuagenarian to handle, while they both love Wonder and were not excited about selling her. We suspected they were going to be difficult to move much off their price. That, and they knew they had a great boat, it wasn’t a case of unwitting owners selling undervalued because they didn’t understand what they had. 