Yea, we have plenty of parts boats for sale down here. The problem is that people advertise them as being in turn key condition & they ask full book value for them. Some of the sellers even advertise factually incorrect information. As an example, one guy listed his motor as being a 2003 that was dealer maintained. The date code in the model number on the block indicated that is was actually a 1981. The old style choke on the carburetor tipped me off to take a look at the numbers.
There are a lot of bad boats for sale down here. One of my neighbors is in the market to buy right now, but he's on a budget. I've been looking at several possibilities with him over the past few months. So far, none have gotten to the point of needing to call a surveyor. Caveat Emptor.
Edit:
Another example from the other side of the fence:
About 3 years ago, I listed a boat for sale at a price that I thought was fair, but not generous. I put it on Craig's List. I had a call within 2 hours. The first guy that showed up, brought cash & ended up giving me my asking price. He didn't even take me up on my offer of a sea trial. The whole deal was done in less than 6-hours from when I listed the boat for sale. I think that I threw in 2 life jackets & an anchor, so that the guy & his daughter could take it straight to the ramp & go out for a joy ride. That's how tough it is to find an actual turn-key boat down here for reasonable money. People race to get to you before someone else buys it out from under them.
Down here, just about everybody wants to own a boat. We have the right weather for it.
