When you have a boat for sale, eventually you’re going to need a bill of sale. In fact, you may want the bill of sale even if you never end up selling the boat. It gives you the capability to transfer any liens or fines to the new owner along with ownership. Of course, as we’ve mentioned in the past, there is no standard bill of sale form. However, there is information that you will want to include in that bill of sale. We’ll touch on what would go into a bill of sale in addition to some Coast Guard boat for sale rules and tips that can make your boat that much more attractive to potential buyers.
Bill of Sale Explained
We have many different forms of vessel documentation available at our site. You will notice, of course, that there is no bill of sale form available. There’s a reason for that: one doesn’t exist. There is no set, standard format for what a bill of sale should be. However, there is some information that you want to include. Make sure that it has the hull identification number of the boat. The make and model of the vessel are important, too. Include how much the sale cost, as well as the date when it occurred. Be sure there’s space for the signatures of everyone involved in the sale, too.
Coast Guard Boat for Sale Ideas
Selling your vessel can be exciting, but it can also be frustrating, too. There are so many different vessels out there, and it’s not always easy to make even a great one stand out. Some of these tips may seem like common sense to you, but they may be revelatory to someone else. One of the first, most effective tips for making your vessel attractive to potential buyers is to clean it up as much as possible. If you think it’s clean enough, considering cleaning it some more. We don’t just mean the vessel itself, either.
For example, even if the hull and exterior of the vessel are shining, if the dock lines look substandard, that could ruin the entire first impression of your vessel. If there’s grime in the corners, if the bilge is full of gunky water, it can reflect poorly upon you as well as the vessel. The first thing that comes to mind for a potential buyer isn’t: “Oh, this can easily be cleaned up,” rather it’s: “what’s worse about this vessel that they aren’t telling me?”
This can be even more important in our internet age, where potential buyers will see your vessel online first. If the vessel doesn’t look good in the pictures, they probably won’t want to see it in person. Likewise, if it doesn’t look as good as it did in the pictures, that can raise red flags with potential buyers, too.
Remove Clutter and Doubt
Even if you only are on your vessel during certain seasons, it can start to feel like home. It can also feel like your car: a place where you’re comfortable when you’re there. Unfortunately, for many of us, we tend to have too much clutter in both. If you’re like most vessel owners, you may not have gone through the storage areas of your vessel in some time. Truthfully, this is good advice for spring and summer as well as when you’re preparing to sell your vessel. Cleaning these out completely not only makes the vessel look better, it typically makes it go a long way towards smelling better, too. In fact, if you really want to go the extra mile, many vessel owners also repaint the storage areas once they’re clean.
Documentation for the Sale and Beyond
We all know that if you want to make your vessel attractive to buyers, you want to fix the big things. However, it can make quite a different fixing the little things, too. If one of the lines is old, one of the windows has a slight crack, if one of the life jackets is becoming a bit threadbare – these are all the little things that may not occur to you in your day to day operation of the vessel. However, for someone new to the vessel, they could be deal breakers.
At our site, you can find all of the documentation you’ll need to help with the selling process. Transfer/Exchange, Preferred Ship’s Mortgage, Satisfaction of Mortgage/Lien and more are all easily, readily available at our site. You don’t have to search too far to find them, either: they’re on the left side of our home page. In fact, many of our forms are right in the middle of the page, too. We’ve built everything to be as convenient as possible for our vessel owners. To see all that we offer, give us a call at (866) 981-8783.