The process of purchasing a new or brokerage yacht can seem daunting, although it has many parallels to the real estate industry. Northrop & Johnson BVI brokers are available to work with you through every step of the process from initial viewing to sitting on your new purchase.
A buyer works closely with an Northrop & Johnson BVI broker to cull through the listings presented to determine which yachts are worth viewing. An important part of this process is having the right broker – one you are comfortable speaking with and have confidence in so that you can have productive give and take about each of the yachts you are considering. Yachts today are muli-listed (similar to real estate) and broker can work with you on the purchase of any yacht. What is important to the process is to find a company with a strong history & reputations of handling yacht purchase transactions as well as a specific broker that you would like to work with.
After determining the type, style, size & price range you select priorities of yachts, viewing those both high on your list & with the easiest access to personally inspect after viewing the listing information. Occasionally you will have such a clear idea or previous knowledge of a yacht that you move right ahead with an offer before inspecting the vessel.
Upon making a written offer with token deposit, the broker presents the offer to the owner through the listing broker. Each transaction is different – your offer may accepted or there may be a period of back & forth negotiations about price, timing, location until there is an accepted offer.
Upon an accepted offer, you as buyer must put the full 10% deposit amount into the brokerage escrow account. At this point there will be an agreed upon number of days for the buyer to inspect the yacht, take the boat out for a sea trial to see how she handles and to be surveyed. At each point the buyer has the option of rejecting the yacht and withdrawing the offer with the deposit being refunded. It is important to keep to the contractual agreement with regards to the timing of each step.
The buyer arranges & pays for the cost of hauling the vessel & having her surveyed, both hull and machinery. The surveyor prepares a report (quickly) and lets the buyer know if there are any items in the yacht’s condition that need to be addressed. This protects the buyer from purchasing a yacht with potential structural issues. Often these are small items and the sale moves forward, but occasionally larger issues can arise. There are a variety of ways to resolve this – the purchaser may reject the vessel, a new price may negotiated to reflect the needed repairs or the seller may commit to making the repairs himself so that the surveyor can check they were done properly and resolved the problem and the sale moves forward.
Upon acceptance of the agreement, buyer moves forward with arranging payment, registration, insurance and crew with a date set fro closing. It is customary that a buyer has been pre-qualified or has the funds on hand before making an offer.
The brokers at N&J BVI work to make sure the transaction remains on track, that the schedule set forth in the accepted offer is adhered to & that you have the right experts to set up your new yacht’s registration, full insurance coverage and the hiring of your crew
