Salty Podcast #65 ⛵ Born on a Sailboat & Still in the Game as Sailors & Yacht Brokers

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Capn Tinsley (00:01):
Hey everybody.
So we're having some technicaldifficulties my guest Melanie
and her sister Carolyn, so theyhad to go out and come back in.
So I just thought I'd go aheadand go live and let some people
come in.
I'll go ahead and I guess Icould go ahead and read the

(00:25):
intro.
They're rebooting theircomputer so they're having
problems hearing me.
Everything else they'rerestarting, so let me tell them
I already went live.
I went live, so come on in whenyou can.
Okay, so basically, I'm in myvan in Jensen Beach, I'm using

(00:48):
Starlink.
It's pretty stormy out.
Hopefully we're going to makeit through, but this is going to
be all about boat buying.
My guest was on the show beforeepisode 22.
This is episode 65, which ispretty unbelievable.
When I started this, you know,back in November of 23.
So she's bringing her sister on.

(01:09):
They both are with SunshineCruising Yachts, which is a
brokerage, and I've got my catswith me, by the way.
I guess you guessed.
Anyway, I'm going to go aheadand read this introduction and
hopefully they'll come back insoon here.
So, oh, here we go.
Maybe they get to hear it, butnow we're on my computer and we

(01:31):
don't have the camera.
We are live.
I just went for it.
We are live.
So you work that out and I'llgo ahead.
And can you hear me?
Yes, oh, excellent, okay, allright, you work that out and I'm
gonna go ahead and read theintroduction, okay awesome all
right.
Um, we got about six peoplewatching, so watch your language

(01:54):
.
Just kidding, okay.
Um, today's episode is allabout boat buying and I've got
the perfect guest for that looks.
Looks like we've got two of youhere, which one is which I'm
going to take this one, okay.
Oh, y'all are echoing.
Okay, can you?

Melanie Neal (02:11):
hear me.

Are we all good?

We're really good.
We've got to get you in there.

Go ahead and move over.
Are you echoing a little bit?
Let me do something to your michere.
I can hear myself echoing.
All right, I'm going to muteyou so I can read this
introduction.
Okay, still having difficulties, anyway.

(02:36):
Okay, so today's episode is allabout boat buying and I've got
the perfect guest for that forit.
Joining me is Melanie SunshineNe neil, a yacht broker,
lifelong sailor and returningguest here on the podcast.
You might remember her fromepisode 22 where we talked about
life growing up on a sailboat.
Where is she?
She can't hide.

(02:57):
Now.
She um, helps buyers throughevery step of the process and
just released, or just releasing, a brand new book, right, boat
Buying Basics, which breaks itall down in plain language.
There's a link to it in theepisode description.
If you're going to order thatbook, please use the link in the

(03:17):
description.
It's kind of a preorder thing.
It's coming out August 5th, Ithink, thing.
It's coming out august 5th, Ithink.
Uh, this time she's back andshe's brought her sister,
carolyn, who also works in yachtsales and shares that same
salty upbringing.
That's what I did there after.
Oh my gosh.
Echo, echo okay, ready usingone computer.

(03:44):
I think it's okay, okay, ready.
Using one computer.
Let me see what I can do Editmic setting.
All right guys.
All right, let me try that,okay.

We did all tests, everything earlier.
Yeah, all right, we said,whatever happens, we're just
going to go with it.

Yeah, all right.
We said, whatever happens,we're just going to go with it,
okay.
So Carolyn, she also works inyacht sales and shares the same
salty upbringing.
I think that's pretty cool theway to say it.
After college and chartering,on course, carolyn found her way
to the boating world in her ownright.
Together, we're diving deepinto what it really takes Maybe
that was you, mellie, togetherreally takes um.
Maybe that was you, melanie, um.

(04:23):
Together we're diving deep inwhat it really takes to buy a
boat in today's market, fromqualifying to closing and some
things you might not see coming.
I'm captain tinsley of sailingvessels, salty, abandoned, and
I'll unpack it.
320 and this is the saltypodcast, episode 65.
Please help me.
Welcome melanie and carolyn.

(04:43):
I hope we don't echo.
Welcome, all right.
We should have probably done atech test before.
What is that behind you?
Is that a camera?
What is it?

Carolyn Dean (05:05):
Is it a?

camera.
Oh man, Okay, we got to getyour mic working here.
Let's see what's going on here.
I'm going to uncheck all thisstuff Now.
Try it.

All right, can you hear us?
Okay, that's better.

Okay, I unchecked a few things in there.
Oh, she turned off her mic.
Okay, we got eight peoplewatching.
Let's see what they?
Um.
Right, we cuss like sailors.
I think these are some peopleyou might know.

(05:41):
All right, so I do have somequestions, but feel free to take
over.
You're the boat broker.
I'm in real estate, by the way,so if you think that we need to
cover something, you guys jumpin, okay.
So I have some questions thatwill kind of steer us.
If you want to talk about somelistings, all that, you can,

(06:04):
okay.
So anything you want to do likethat, um, first of all, say
hello, introduce yourselves goahead.
Hi, I'm carolyn denman and I ammelanie's little sister yeah and
I now work for her yeah, howlong have you been selling
yachts?
Is this a new thing for you?

um, I believe it about a year and a half.
I started, yeah, I started umlast february, yeah how do you
like it?
Um, I love it.
I I was apprehensive at first,just because I never really
considered myself um someonethat would you know sell things
yeah, it just really camenaturally, because it's

(06:48):
something that I just kind ofwas raised with and know so much
about and care so much for,that it just kind of worked
itself out, yeah, and if anybody.

If you don't know who these girls are, melanie
wrote a book, boat Girl which Iread and it's fascinating.
So these guys grew up on asailboat with their parents.
Melanie, from the age of zero,and she was your mom was
pregnant when they got on theboat right, and so you spent 18

(07:21):
years and I assume you did too,caroline on the boat.

Yes, yes, actually 19.

That's incredible and it's just fascinating
because you did the boat school,the hunt school, whatever, and
that was before Internet.
You guys had to mail in yourtests and everything.

Yes, snail mail.

That is so awesome , and if you want to read that
book, I should have included alink to that one that one's boat
girl and you can get it, youknow, on amazon or wherever.
I listened to it.
It was a great.
It's a great listen, so Iappreciate that.
Now we didn't get carolyn'sside of things, so feel free to
correct anything in this podcast.
Um, melanie, melanie, you wantto go ahead and introduce

(08:06):
yourself, melanie?

Yeah, it's funny too, because I know we talked
about the book last time.
I was on here a bit and youknow it's it's.
The book is a memoir.
Is one person's point of view,right?
It's one person's point of viewof what happened, one person's
memory.
More as one person's point ofview, right, it's one person's
point of view of what happened,one person's memory.
So there are a lot of thingsthat Carolyn has and my parents,
of course, have completelydifferent memories of that.

(08:36):
You know, we, we just the wayour minds work.
But yeah, we grew up livingaboard a Gulfstar 47, cruising
up and down the east coast andbahamas in the winter, and homes
we've never never went to aregular school, so so, um,
homeschooled all the way upuntil we went to college.
And, uh, carolyn and I sharedthe v-birth, which was, you know
, basically our our feettouching every night, her trying

(09:02):
to keep her stuff on her sideand me trying to keep my stuff
on my side.
We had a little curtain inbetween.

It must have been unbelievable when you went, like
when you went to a dorm orsomething.
I think you were living on aboat, Melanie, when you went to
college, but it would have beenlike, oh, there's so much room
here, yeah, in a dorm, yeah,Okay.
So I don't want to take up thetime of that.

(09:30):
I know you wrote the book in2013, and I know you're probably
like I've written other bookssince then, right, so, but it is
a fascinating.
Everybody should read it.
It's awesome If you want tolearn about kids growing up in
Georgetown or on the boat is socool, oh yeah.
And so that gives you someunique qualifications to sell

(09:51):
the dream, which is I call it toother people.
So we want to get into some ofthat.
But let's start with the basics.
What should a first time boatbuyer be thinking about before
they ever call a broker?

So it's, it's good to, it's good to go from the
beginning, and that's the book,and we'll stop talking about my
books, but the book Boat BuyingBasics that's exactly what we
start out with.
And so what should a personthink about at first?
And the biggest thing is whatare you going to do with the

(10:26):
boat?
You know what are your plans.
Are you sailing around theworld with your family?
Are you spending weekends?
You know sailing.
Are you looking for somethingto just live aboard at the dock?
You know what are you going todo.
And a lot of people don't evenreally, you know, have concept
of that.
They may, um, they may justwant to be trying it out.

(10:46):
They may want to get a boatthat they can just learn how to
sail on, and then, in a year,they decide they want to do it
full time, or in a year, theydecide they're sick of it.
But you know, just sitting downand like even making a
checklist of you know what do Iwant to do, where do I want to
go?
Who's playing with me?
You know am.
Am I going to have crew?
Is?
You know is is.

(11:06):
Do I need an offshore boat?
And you know, just just goingover all those things and then,
assuming that you're workingwith a buyer's broker, you know
you would, you would call thebuyer's broker and you know they
would set up an initial meetingwith you to go over those
things and we both, I thinkbecause of our you know our

(11:27):
background, being both kids andall that really like working as
buyers, brokers for families.
I mean we, you know we both like.
Yeah, I feel like we know whatthe kids want.

Exactly, yeah, so.

Yeah, okay, well, well, what's?
What's one thing buyersconsistently underestimate
during the buying process?

Repairs yes, sometimes, yeah, yeah.

And that's, you know, I think, the the cost of
owning a boat.
The typical you know, typicalformula is that the boat's going
to cost you about 10% of itsvalue every year.
But that's just kind of anaverage.
And the first year that you owna boat you're going to have a

(12:21):
lot more expenses.
Because you expenses becauseyour surveyor is going to let
you know if anything major iswrong.
But there's going to be a lotof things that you didn't
realize were wrong or that youhave to repair unexpectedly or
all that.
So I think that's somethingthat people don't really think
about.
You don't just buy the boat andyou're done, yeah.

Right and they might underestimate the regular
repairs that come up on a boat.
Carolyn just sighed.
She went.
I did, I mean, but you guys gotto see.
I mean you were living it andyou got to experience fixing
things yourself.
I mean, you guys learn.

(13:05):
I mean your dad wasn't justletting you off easy.
I mean, it's just like when youdrove the dinghy, you could
drive the dinghy by yourselfonce you changed the car.
Did you hear?

that.

We're still having some issues hearing.

That's all right, we got people here.
How do we sound, you guys?
Let us know how we sound.
I hear an echo on your side, soare you hearing me?
Now?
Test one, two Is that a goodcopy?
Yeah, okay, okay.

(13:48):
So I like how your dad.
Oh yeah, go back over there,put your foot in the middle, go
back a little more.
Yeah, good, good, okay.
We're going to be doing clipsfrom this, so you need to be
centered.
Marcy Lynn says I hear an echo.
I kind of dig it.
That's funny, hi, marcy.

(14:08):
Thank you, I like it All right.
Let me see if I can fix thatreal quick.

We can start.

Echo, how about that?
Okay, I don't know what youjust said, but I think the
echo's gone.
How about it?
Marcy, greetings from PuertoRico.
Okay, but what I was, what Iwas saying is, well, the echo's
back.

(14:37):
When your dad would she's stillthere that you could drive the
dinghy when you were able tochange the spark plugs, right,
yep, yes, and so and more yeah.
So tell me about that.

Well, it was sort of, you know, the thingy was our
car.
Basically it was the way to getoff the boat and go do things
and, you know, go see other kidsand all that.
So it was a lot of incentive tolearn how to do things.

Yes, yes, it was a lot of.
What incentive?
Incentives, oh okay, like whatdo you mean incentives?

To get off of what you understand.
Get off the boat, get away frompeople.

Oh, okay, I got you Okay.
I got you Okay.
So back to the buying process.
Is there a sweet spot size orprice range that tends to work
best for liveaboards or cruisers?

I would say I mean , that's a tough question, but I
would say kind of in the40-foot range is good, or above,
to start out, unless you'rejust single-handing.

Yeah, okay, like if there's a family.

Yeah, I mean it depends on the size of the
family.
I mean there's really no onesize fits all.
But I always tell people, ifyou feel like you have just
enough space now, you're notgonna have just enough space
when you're on the boat.

Okay.

Plus you sound waves completely um I didn't
hear that.

I think you're muted.
I think you're muted, you'remuted.
So ScreamingFrog68 says Wax ahat I don't know what that is,
but I can't hear you.

(17:05):
So we're having somedifficulties here.
But y'all just hang in with us,ask some questions, because
they can definitely read.
Let's see what's going on.

(17:26):
Oh Hi, so you have two openthere.
You must have something open onanother device, maybe.
Well, now we're on my phone.
Oh, because we can't hear youon this.

(17:48):
Oh, wow, that, wow, that's somuch better.
Okay, everybody hang in therewith us.
Yeah, that's, that is a lotbetter, good, good, all right
cool we're good, yay, cell phone, just just so, just so.

Uh, the viewers know, since you're doing this
from your van with Starlink, yes, we're doing it from a boat out
in the middle of nowhere inVirginia, also on Starlink.
But it's okay for us all tohave some technical difficulties
because this is… that's sailing.
This is sailing.

Yep, that's right, and I'm getting prepared for….
I'm hoping that I will be able.
Um, I I lost my husband eightmonths ago, so I've been uh just
going through a really hardtime, but I'm hoping that by
october I'll have uh, the mentalcapacity to go on my boat again

(18:41):
with.
Well, I'm grieving a lot andit's just, it's just really sad,
you know, but with my, I'mgoing to take.
Did Leslie tell you?

Yeah, yeah, and I'm just, I'm really really
sorry to sorry to hear.
I know it's been thinking aboutyou, thank you.

We were together 25 years, so it's been.
It's the the worst day.
I don't wish this on anybody.
So the podcast helps.
You know that I can get on hereand and talk to people like you
and uh, but I'm hoping to godown to the exumas this october
and he was he's not here to takecare of my cats, so they're
going to come with me.
Great, that's good.

(19:23):
Cats are good, they really are.
Yeah, so I'm gonna be doing thepodcast from there.
So I'm, and I've got starlinkon the boat as well, great.
So, um, you know there's gonnabe a lot of podcasts like this
with, uh, technical difficulties, I'm sure, but, um, anyway, I
hope you're there.
I know I know that you're.
Oh wait, hello from urbana v onon a boat.

(19:46):
Very sorry for your loss, thankyou, thank you, I'm gonna start
crying um, oh, maybe you'll bedown there one of the things
that you know.

We were kind of just talking about before well
yeah, before all the uh, thetechnical stuff is you know what
, what's a good size boat andyou know your, your boat.
You've got the 350.
320.
Oh okay, that's even better.

I I know that you know you were used to sailing it
together, but that's a perfectsize to single actually I mostly
single handed, I was mostlysinging, and but it was big
enough for him to come with meand it was great yeah yeah, but
that's, that is a really.

You know, that's so sometimes, and my you know my
theory on on the size of a boatis, you know, no matter who's
aboard, you know, you, you, you,everybody needs to be able to
run it on their own.
So that's a good yeah, so we'reproud of you, thank you.

Well, I learned it that way I was when I took my
lessons.
The um, I said you need to showme how to do this by myself,
and then I kick him out of theway and he goes.
Okay, you know.
So I didn't want to.
I didn't want to have to waiton anybody to be in the mood or
to get off work or anything.
I just wanted to be able to go,and so that's just the way it's

(21:13):
always been for me.
Now it is nice when the wind'sblowing and you're trying to
come into the dock and you gotsomebody on board.
Okay, so how do you coachsomeone through the pre-approval
and the qualifying process fora boat loan?
So I know you probably got yourbig cash buyers I do in real

(21:34):
estate but then you got peoplethat even when they're rich,
they still want to get a loan.
You know.

Well, and the funny thing is, too, that you
know it's all proportionate,right it's?
You know the person who can putdown you know half a million
dollars cash on a boat that'sprobably probably have a lot
more money than that, whereasthe person who is putting, you
know paying you know 60, $70,000on a boat that might be their

(22:01):
whole retirement right, thatthey might have cashed in their
401k to do this or you knowwhatever.
So the money almost mattersmore to people with a smaller
budget, and I'm sure you see thesame thing in real estate.
But boat loans, you know, justlike anything, you know people
should look at, obviously.
Look at their credit score.
Look anything, um, you knowpeople should look at, obviously

(22:24):
, look at their credit score.
Look at, you know the.
The interesting thing is thatlenders will do a longer term,
kind of like they do for rvs.
Um, so, yeah, so you know it'snot uncommon to get a 20-year
boat loan um interest rates havebeen running.

(22:45):
I get updates every but I thinkin a seven and a half to eight
percent right now, which is notgreat, but it's not terrible.
But but you know, the buyershould connect up with a lender.
We work a lot with Lori Kaiserat Ocean Point Lending at ocean

(23:08):
points lending.
So lender who's, you know,specifically works in boat
financing and this, thepre-approval process, is that
it's like buying a house, butit's a lot more simple.
It's, you know, it's uh, youknow, they're basically just,
you know, shopping, shoppingloans for you and there's sort
of a you know boat loan broker.

But um, maybe I'd like to talk to her sometime and
have her on the podcast.
Yeah, absolutely, yep, Ihaven't had a lender on so that
would be great, so maybe yeah,she's fantastic.

I'll connect you up with her um, but you know
it's, it's the thing that'sunlike real estate, people don't
have to be pre-qualified beforethey start looking at boats.
A lot of times with real estate, I think you have to have a pre
qualification letter and allthat um, and that can be
frustrating, because we do workwith a lot of people who you
know find the boat that theyabsolutely love and you know

(24:00):
their credit might be good, youknow, but for whatever reason,
uh, they can't get a loan.
So you know that's that can bereally disappointing, uh, for
people.
So it's, it's.

It's something which she'd be a great person to
have on the podcast absolutelyyeah, and so it might be good uh
, a good thing to getpre-qualified to have someone.
Let's see.
Let's see what marcy says.
Best recommendations have aprospective buyer speak.
Speak with a lender before theyselect a boat.
Helps the buyer be a wiser boatshopper.

(24:32):
Is marcy a boat broker?

so so we have a team almost all in and we've got
some marcy.
She's on your website yeah yeah,okay we have some really great
guys on the team, but we uh oneof the things that when I set
out to start this brokerage uh,five and a half years ago, I'd
been working for another brokerfor a long time um, you know, I

(24:55):
I wasn't going to be like, oh, Iwant an all women team because
there are many wonderful men inthe industry but there aren't
very many women.
The industry is still about 98%male.
So I've got this group of, youknow, really wonderful women,
like my sister.
You know, marcy was really myfirst broker when I started and

(25:18):
she's awesome yeah.

I saw her on the website you posted when people
sell stuff Carolyn's on thereand Marcy's on there, cool, hey,
marcy, we'll send you a link.
You can come in too.
What changed in the loan worldin the past year or so,
especially in terms of interestrates and lender expectations?

(25:43):
It's affected real estate, forsure.
You know I felt mostly secondhome, so that's an interest rate
that is about 1% higher than ifsomeone's buying a home.
So we're talking about 7.99 andthat makes people push back a
little bit.
Is that the same way?

Yeah, it's, it's been pretty much exactly the
same with boats.
I mean it's, you know, or fouryears ago you know, but you know
people were getting interestrates under 5%.
So you know, it's sort of.
But I think and I haven'ttalked to Lori about this

(26:23):
Usually I try to get an ideafrom her what's going on it
seems like they're going down alittle bit again and the things
that affect that are the samethings that affect interest
rates everywhere.
And there's been a lot of, youknow, in the boat buying world.
There's been it's been a reallycrazy year because it was very
slow for the first part of theyear.

(26:44):
People are sort of in that youknow, election post-election
paralysis where they nobodyknows what's going to happen.
And you know it doesn't matterwhat, what side of the fence
you're on there, it's a you knowit's.
People don't want to spendtheir money, um, so now that
that's kind of settling down alittle bit, um, I think we're
going to see interest rates godown, but that's just.

(27:06):
You know, that's kind of anoutsider perspective.
Yeah.

Yeah, they need to .
So it's probably similar toreal estate, where the sellers
you're having to have a talkwith the sellers and say you
know, we got these challenges.
Does that happen with the boatsas well, where you have to have
those talks with them?
Like you know, probably gotthese challenges.
Does that?
Does that happen with the boatsas well, where you have to have
those talks with them?
Like you know, probably notgoing to get that high price.
That a couple of years ago.

Yeah, so the thing that happened and Carolyn jump,
jump in.

I feel like I know .

Well, a lot of people bought boats during COVID
cause they just wanted to, youknow, get away and be out on the
water, escape the craziness.
We all know how wild it was andhard and because of that it was
definitely a seller's market.
So now people are wanting tosell their boats and it's just

(28:07):
not the same.
Yeah, the person who bought aboat, you know three years ago
for $200,000 is now realizingthat their boat's only worth
$150,000.
And it's just.
It's not because of the boat,it's just because the market
changing and you know they wantto sell it and they're upset
that they can't get that$200,000 out of it.
And I think one of the thingsthat you know, I say to people

(28:29):
all the time is that I mean, Ihave this conversation almost
every day A boat is not aninvestment.
It's, you know, it would benice if it was, but it's never
an investment.
It's an investment in yourdreams and your quality of life
and your time and your joy.
You know, but investment andhappiness, it's not going to be
a financial investment.

(28:50):
You are going to lose money ona boat around it, and brokers
don't like to tell you that, butit's true.

By the time you get, you know the things that
break you really got to, you gotto want to be in there to.
You got to understand thatthere's going to be lots of
repairs.
And oh, espy, do you know thisperson, bogumila True that.

Yes, yeah, that's, yeah, the Swiakis.

Hi, all your fans are here.

I mean, there's something about boaters and you
know I've never been a powerboater.
You know they're fun to ride on, but I can speak to sailors.
We got repairs and we have toplan on them and it's something
you have to budget for, right.
Do you talk to people aboutthat?

Yeah, we do.
One of my favorite things toask a seller is if you were to
keep this boat for another year,what are the things that you
would do?
What are the upcoming projects?

(30:09):
But we do, you know, we tellpeople all the time and you know
again, just like you, itbehooves us to sell a boat for
more money.
But if you know, we think ifthat person has a budget of
$100,000, you know, we'reprobably going to go in and say,
well, don't spend that all onthe boat.
Oh yeah, and $75,000 orwhatever, because, a you want to

(30:33):
have some cruising money and Bthere are going to be things
that you want to fix.

So yeah, yeah, you want to have a little cruising
fun.
Cruising kitty, yeah, okay socan you break down the typical
timeline from inquiry to closing?
So, carolyn, why don't we getyou to answer that one, okay?

Inquiry to closing .

Well, it's usually about a month or five weeks in
total.
But the buyer will look at theboat, decide they want to make
an offer and then there'susually a little negotiation
period and then it takes usuallya couple weeks to book a
surveyor.
Um, surveyors are very busyalways, um, so there's a lot to

(31:27):
schedule there and then afterthat usually what a couple of
like a week and a half.
So, yeah, I mean there's a lotof nuances and things that are
different and unique for eachdeal and so it's hard to really
put it into a box, but usuallyabout four to five weeks.

Yeah, okay.
So so your, your surveyors arelike a week out or two weeks out
.

They've been.
I mean, most of the folks thatI've talked to now are, you know
, two or three weeks out, andyou know, if you find a surveyor
that's too available, you maywant to think twice about that,
that's true.
So, but we also, you know, weas brokers, you know we don't
recommend surveyors.
We will guide people in thedirection of how to find a good

(32:24):
surveyor.
You know, at Asian Goat there'sthe Society of American Marine
Surveyors.
Credit to Marine Surveyors,there's different Stamps.
Yeah, so you know we'll advisepeople to do their own research
on surveyors.
Um, but that, yeah, thatprocess from offer to survey can
take three weeks, yeah, andthen, once the survey is done,

(32:46):
you've got to wait for thesurveyor to write up the report.
You may have to wait on oilsamples from the engine to come
back, and then the closingprocess takes about a week
because it is, you know, a lotof people are like, oh, it's
like buying a car, I want myboat today, and it doesn't work
like that because you know we'reas brokers, one of the things
that we do is protect you as abuyer or a seller.

(33:09):
So we're making sure all thepaperwork is legal and correct
and making sure that we've doneit abstract and we know there
aren't any liens on the boat andwe work with it.
Who does that for you?
So we actually work with atitle company.
We work with ASAB Marine inMiami.
Everybody, I like them becausethey're actually owned by a law

(33:32):
firm, so they're very thorough.
They've got a lot of differentclosing companies, so it's kind
of like real estate working witha title agency, so that's the
best way to describe it.
But it's a team process.
At that point we're all usuallyshooting back and forth 10
emails a day and you know, okay,it's time for this paperwork

(33:55):
and all that.
But, um, we try to make it aseasy as we can.
I mean, it's all you know.
People, I think, still expect aboat closing to be a, you know
a happy day where everybody youknow brings a bottle of
champagne and we sit around thetable in the salon and sign
paperwork and all that.
I mean that sounds really fun,yeah but really afterwards.

(34:18):
Yeah, realistically, everybody'susually in different locations,
so it's all, it's all remote,it's.
You know, buyer could be incalifornia, the seller could be
in virgin islands and the brokercould be in virginia.
And you know, no problem, we'llget it closed right okay.

So that's that's kind kind of like with what I do
as well because I sell frontcondos and the owners are
everywhere you know, and thebuyers sometimes don't come to
closing either.
Those are fun.
Oh yeah, so then you got thechallenge of when it's absentee

(34:56):
buyer and seller then taking theboat, the possession of the
boat, and where's it going to?
Is it going to stay in thatslip, and all that.
That's just some challengesthat you have to work out with
buyer and seller right.

Yeah, especially um, staying in the slip because,
like, marinas are pretty full.
So that's always something wehave to kind of educate the
buyer on.
You know if the slips availableto be passed on or not.
And yeah, go for it, yeah It'll.
You know every handover isdifferent.

(35:30):
A lot of times, if nobody's inthe same place, the seller will,
you know, leave.
Lot of times, if nobody's inthe same place, the seller will,
you know, leave the keys in themarina office.
And you know, in an idealsituation, you know, buyer and
seller can get together andspend a day, you know, going
through the boat.
But that's, that is pretty rareactually it is yeah.
So you know, yeah, the handoveris different every time and

(35:53):
it's just a matter of beingorganized and you know, getting
explicit instructions.
I mean, I just sold a boat thatthe owners had it on a mooring
down in Coconut Grove in Miamiand they, literally, the day
they sold the boat, they wantedto take the boat off the mooring

(36:14):
and anchor it.
Well, the water taxi from themarina won't take you to an
anchored boat, it'll only takeyou to a moored boat.
So you know they're like okay,you know, call Joe at this
number and he can run you out tothe boat and you know the key's
hidden here and all that.
So yeah, uh, yeah, this prettyinteresting scenario.

(36:35):
Every deal is unique in its ownway and memorable yeah, so it's
always a lot of problem-solving.

Yes, yes, yeah and sometimes quickly.

This is funny, this is.

And sometimes what Quickly.

Yeah, and this is funny.
This is not like a, you know,women are better, men are better
, kind of thing, but I thinkthat you know, women tend to be

(37:18):
pretty.
It was a um, another brokersurvey that I wasn't there for,
but I was actually on my way toa different one, but, um, it was
really hot.
We're in virginia, we're on thechesapeake bay right now.
The our brokerage is based outof florida but I'm cruising the
chesapeake this summer andcarolyn's visiting because their
mom's birthday is a few daysand we're.

(37:48):
We had, we had three, three guys, right, we had the buyer, the
seller and the surveyor, sothree guys and a boat yard that
darn even paid in advance tohaul the boat on survey day.
You know there was a ton ofcoordinating involved to get the
boat to where it was going togo and buyer flew in from
Colorado.
They had the survey date, youknow, way ahead of time.

(38:10):
Well, massive heat wave likethere's been in a lot of areas,
you know, a huge heat wave,virginia.
The heat index was like 114degrees or something like that.
So the surveyor at the lastminute was like nope, it's too
hot.
You know, I don't want to,don't want to do the survey
tomorrow.
It's too hot and the boatdidn't have air conditioning.
So you know, we've got threeguys the surveyor and byron

(38:32):
seller trying to figure this out.
They're all calling me and I'mlike I'm like, okay, go to home
depot, buy a window unit, airconditioning, put it in the
companionway, pull the boat off,do the survey.
Are you serious?
Yeah, yeah, I'll be wrong, butit was.
It was.
That's the kind of thing abroker did.
Who paid for that?

(38:53):
Who paid for that?
And they did it.
It worked.
Boat sold, survey went well.
But you know, it's just these.

Well who paid for the air conditioner.

Well, it was $120 unit.
The buyer paid for it becausehe was going to keep it for a
while.
Had I been in town and not onmy way to North Carolina for
another survey.

I would have gone and bought the air conditioner
myself.
As a realtor I've done thingslike that and some things are
disgusting that I had to do, youknow, clean things up or
whatever.

Oh yeah, there is.
There is some of that in thisindustry as well Refrigerator
nightmares, whatever.

oh yeah, there is, there is some of that in this
industry as well refrigeratornightmares yeah, I mean, that's
toilet nightmares.
Yes, yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
You do.
You do what it takes to, uh, tomake the sale.
Let's see, marianne, too funny,your mama is not going to give

(39:56):
you that.
Do you know what that means?
I don't, oh, okay.
So Marianne said this questionwhat's the best boat to buy for
a 14-year-old to sail away fromher mom and her fiance?
And Lori said too funny, yourmama's not going to give you
that.
So there's a whole conversationgoing on over here.

(40:19):
I assume that you know thesefolks.
We're glad they're here.

Mary Ann is my daughter.
She's my daughter.
She wasn't all the way from.
Okay.
Okay, thank you, mary Ann.
Yes, all right.

And so who's Lori?

Lori is a friend, okay.

All right, let's see Biggest mistakes you've seen
buyers make during surveys orC-trials Maybe overlooking
something.
You know like, oh, that won'tbe a big deal, because you get
so excited, it's so emotional.
Yeah, trials, maybe overlookingsomething.
You know like, oh, that won'tbe a big deal, because you get
so excited, it's so emotional.

Yeah, emotion, and you know Carolyn, you you had
Carolyn was working.
I'll let her talk about it, butyou know she was working with
some buyers that she worked withfor a year that were very
emotionally invested in their,their search.
And then things, things kind ofwent know a little, a little
south in the end because at thatpoint they were so, you know,

(41:21):
they'd been searching for a year, they had two kids they were
and they were working with usspecifically because we grew up
on those.
Yeah, like we work, you know,we have kids, we want to go
cruising.
Let's work with carolyn, let's.
So they got really emotionallyinvested in the search.
I don't know if that's they did, um, they they really did.

(41:42):
And I mean we we researched somany different kinds of boats
and um went all over florida andthey, you know they eventually
decided on what they wanted,which was kind of a rare boat to
find.
So eventually you know we foundher and they bought her.

(42:02):
Yeah, but that the challengewith that one is that you know
we knew exactly what they wantedand you know we've been working
with them for a year, a year.
And then you know, not notevery boat, not every broker.
You know most brokers work verywell together and co-broker
together and all that, but whenthey got to this point it was
with a broker who I guess hadgiven a discounted commission or

(42:23):
something and didn't want towork with another broker.
So you know, refused, so theydidn't have the representation
that they wanted.
You know we'd go close Like itwas kind of painful and you know
we couldn't help them with thesurvey process.
We couldn't help them, you know, with the closing process.

You got cut out.

Yeah, but you know , again, it doesn't benefit them
.
So if somebody's looking for abuyer's broker and you know you
have, you have a connection, andyou know, then at the very last
minute it's like, oh, you can'tbe there on the survey with us,
like we, you know, and whenthat happens, when you, you know
, don't have an advocate, youknow buyer's broker is an

(43:07):
advocate, you are more likely tomiss things.
Yeah, we're likely toabsolutely find things that have
been glossed over.
So, yeah, um, so I think youknow, yeah, one of the biggest
mistakes people can make isgetting so emotionally caught up
and being in love with the boatthat maybe they don't, you know
, don't look closely enough atcertain things, or you know they
just they're ready to go do youever say this one might not be

(43:32):
for you because of A, b and C?

You know, you said that you wanted a boat to have
this and that and this one hasgot broken, this and that or it
doesn't.
You know.
I'm sure you've had to talkpeople out of a boat before.

Oh, yes, yes, or just offer solutions.
I mean, if it's really the boatfor them, you know, be very
realistic about it.
Yeah, one of the things that'smost helpful is to have a pretty
good, pretty good idea of whatthings cost.
Like, you know, if you're, ifyou're going to, you know, have

(44:10):
to replace the engine at somepoint, you've got a budget 20
grand to do that, you knowyou've.
So, generally knowing and Ithink most brokers do, you know,
generally have ideas as to, andmost surveyors do too you know
this is a, you know here's,here's a price range of you know
you've got to replace theboat's chain plates.
Well, in one yard it could costyou 10 grand and another yard it

(44:32):
could cost you 50.
So you know you've got a,you've got a tape.
We have to sort of take thatinto consideration with people
and again, I, you know we neverwant to.
We want everybody to be happy,right, the best deal is a deal
where the buyer's happy and theseller's happy, exactly at the
end of the day.
Yeah, so nobody feels like theygot ripped off, nobody, nobody

(44:53):
feels, you know, bitter orwhatever, and you know that's,
that's what makes a good deal.

Sure, okay, what kind of person makes a good boat
owner?
Maybe, who maybe shouldn't buy,or who shouldn't buy a boat.
Have you ever had that come upwhere you're like, hmm, this may
be not the best thing for you.

Well, well with me , I mean, as far as somebody
looking for a boat, I think thatwhat I've run into is sometimes
people they want a boat andthey want to buy a boat right
now, and they want to buy a boatright now.
And then you start working withthem and they ask to see your

(45:39):
you know sailboat listingbeneteau maybe or whatnot, and
then they start talking aboutmaybe getting a carver, um motor
yacht, you know, like, like so.
So I think I think likespontaneousness, either they've
got to really kind of slow downor just yeah, they haven't
really thought about it whatthey want.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's ourjob to help them, guide them

(46:03):
through that process.

Yeah.

And I always say I mean it's.
You know we're not here to tellthem how to live their lives
Exactly.
We're not moral police.
You know, if you are you, youknow somebody who's fragile,
health wise, whatever, it's notmy job to say, oh, you shouldn't
be on a boat, but it is my jobto say, okay, this boat has
these features that might behelpful to you.
This boat is easy to singlehand and you know, if you do buy

(46:28):
this boat, hire a captain andthis is so important.
You know, if somebody's not,they don't, they're not
experienced, and all that.
And if you're, you know andthere are people that buy boats
that you know we genuinely worrylike you need, you have a lot
you need to learn, um, and werecommend that they, they hire
captains and work with them fora week or so, help them to learn
about it, um.

(46:49):
So you know there's, I thinkthat there's a boat for
everybody.
I think, absolutely.
You know there's no likethere's.
No, there's no wrong person fora boat, there's the wrong boat
for a person.

So yeah, and I, I I experienced that in real
estate.
Like you know, we're in ahurricane zone and we get hit a
lot on the gulf coast of alabamaand if someone is so concerned,
everybody's a little concerned.
But if they're just obsessedwith the next hurricane I've had
, I've said you know, a golfcondo might not be the best

(47:22):
thing for you, right, exactly,some people are just not that
concerned.
They just know it's gonna, it'sgonna happen, you know.
If it's not this, year.

It might be next year.

Right, it's not this year it might be next year
and I'm like I think it might bein the mountains or something.
But you know, look whathappened this time this last
year.
But sometimes I can tell bytheir personality that this is
maybe too stressful for them.
You know, and I don't know,maybe that comes up when

(47:53):
someone's trying to decidebetween a power boat and a
sailboat yes, yes, absolutelyyeah, yeah.

Typically they haven't weighed all the options
and you know, don't it's?
They don't realize that a powerboat is going to cost them a
whole lot of money in fuel, orthat a sailboat, you know, costs
10 grand to replace a set ofsails.
None of it's, none of it'scheap.
Right, right, right.

But we love it right, yes?

yes, do it because we love it.

How often do buyers think they're ready to
cruise full-time and thenbackpedal once they see what's
involved?
You guys could really speak tothat.

Yeah, a lot.
And it's funny we were Caroland I were just talking about
this.
You know, yesterday Everybodygoes through that panic mode.
They buy every boat I've everbought.
I go through it.
You know it doesn't matter howmuch people know, whatever, but
you buy the boat and a monthlater everything's breaking and
you're freaked out and you'relike, oh, my God, what did I do?

(48:54):
What did I do?
What did I do?
Yeah, so she has some clientsthat are going through that
right now and we were talkingabout it.
It's just like the freak outpoint that everybody has, um,
and you either get through thator you don't.
And you know most people getthrough that and my clients will
get through it.
Yeah, they'll get, they're off.
Yeah, most people, you know,get through it and things are
wonderful and all that.
And it's good to have a friendtalk you down or a friend or

(49:15):
broker or whatever talk you offthe cliff.
Yeah, but if, like, that monthor so hits and they're just too
overwhelmed, you know somepeople, living in a house is
easy you have laundry, you havewater constantly running, you
have air conditioning and youdon't realize how easy it is.
Yeah, so you're not doing it sothere are people that you know

(49:37):
thought everything was going tobe palm trees and coconuts and
pina coladas and realizing it'sall you know changing an
impeller and rough seas and thatkind of stuff.
I mean that glamorous stuff,yeah they just don't want to do
it anymore and that's okay.
Yeah, you know, it's, it's said.
We're not here to judge or tellsomebody.
You know this is how you shouldlive your life.

(49:57):
We're here to support them andyou know, if they buy a boat
from us and we have a lot ofpeople that come back and, you
know, have them have a, selltheir boats for them for trying.
Yeah, exactly, yeah, there's noshame, there's nothing like
that.

Yeah, yeah I mean, I've known people that buy a
boat, get it all set up, goaround the world or whatever
they do across the atlantic,whatever and then that they're
done and they knew they would bedone.
That's all they wanted beforeand now they're rving or
whatever.
Yeah, exactly, so you can helpthem too.
Do you help people, do youguide them, um, how to set up a

(50:40):
boat for each specific situation?
I'm sure you do.

You know what it takes to stay on a boat for
three months in in the exhumantsyeah, and, and I think you know
yeah, because, like equipment,you know, do we need a water
maker?
Do we need?
You know, one of the biggestmistakes people will make is
spending too much money at first.
They think they need newbatteries.
They think you know that andyou can live without those
things.
Um, but one of my favoritethings to see is when people

(51:10):
will buy a boat and, you know,cruise for a year, two years and
love it so much that they wantto buy a bigger boat and they're
just like you know, I've got alot of several folks that we're
working with now, you know, inthat, such that situation.
So it's like you love to seefamilies, especially families
with kids, you know, adjust toit and embrace it, and you know

(51:33):
those are, yeah, those are,those are the stories.
Like, that's why we do this.
You know that's that's why so?

he says it's all palm trees and cocktails by your
second cruising season.
Exactly, exactly, yes.
So do you guys?
Uh, do you get asked about, um,when people want to think about
raising their kids on the boat?
I'm sure you guys get those allthe time.
Yes, cool, tell me about that.
What kind of things have youhelped people with?

Well, just things that they would never really
think of at first, and justdifferent, like different
scenarios with different kids.
I mean, not everyone's the same.
So the thing, the thing aboutkids is they grow, exactly yeah,
yeah.
So if you, if you think thatyou know they fit, now, just

(52:29):
science doesn't work that way.
So they said they're going toget bigger, right Like, so, so
gonna get bigger, right like.
There are a lot of folks thatmove from a monohull to a
catamaran, exactly yeah, and andone of the most important
things that you know, that sortof we know from our life and and
, is that everybody has to havetheir own space and it doesn't
matter if it's a 35 a boat or a55 foot boat.

(52:50):
You know, I'm horrible.
People needs, kids, need tohave an area where they can go
and feel like it's their own anddecorate like it's their own
and all that.

so I like leaning towards charlotte you're all
amazing rock stars, so how didyou guys handle that, with you
being in the v-bird together?
You had your side and I had,you, had, you had the, the
little curtain, my mom made thisnice netting, I guess.

Yeah, it was a separate setting the curtain.
So, yeah, we could see throughthe curtain.
I remember shutting you off,like many times, and I would
listen to my music oh yeah, andboombox and then she listened to
her, yeah, yeah, yeah, but wehad our own space to do that.

Right If you listen to a boombox.
How did you?
How did that work?

Because unless you had headphones on, Sometimes
that's trying to drown eachother out.
Whoever has the better one.
But you know, giving kids,giving your kids space to do
what they need to do, right?
You know we both love music.
But you know I recently wasworking with a couple who you
know, moving up from a ourfamily, moving up from the

(54:07):
Monohull to a catamaran andtheir son is all about playing
Dungeons and Dragons.
And so, yeah, it's great.
Son is all about playingDungeons and Dragons.
I love Dungeons and Dragons.
It's great.
He's going around on the cataround that we're looking at
picking out his space.
Okay, this is where I can fitup.
Oh, my God, I love him.
It was great and the reallywonderful thing was that the
parents were listening to thatand open to that.

(54:28):
And if you're thinking abouttaking your kids cruising, you
can't take everything away fromthem.
You can't.
You know, if they've got ahobby, you can't take it away
from them.
If they like to play the guitar, then you need to make sure
that there's room on the boatfor the guitar, if there's.

So I think that oh , I just had something.
No, I've lost it.
Oh, I know, I know there'sthree of us.
We like sailing but as you know, there's a lot of women that
the man's trying to pull thewoman on and she's just not into
it.
So I'm sure you have to dealwith that, because if the woman

(55:07):
is happy, you know the man'strying to make that woman happy,
so she'll come on that boat.

The man's trying to make that woman happy so
she'll come on that boat andsometimes they get kind of lost
by just not like the woman needsto feel like she is part of
everything.
So like when we're working witha buyer, we make sure, like in
that kind of situation, youdon't just show the, the wife,

(55:35):
the galley, I mean you, you showeveryone everything and just um
, you know, I've actually pulledpeople like the wife's aside,
sometimes just kind of, andtaking them around the boat just
to kind of show them the thingsthat sometimes you know they

(55:56):
they just don't know because noone's told them.

it's not that they don't want to do it, yeah, um,
they just need to be likeincluded sometimes yeah, and
listening to her needs, becausethis, if it's not taken care of,
it's going to be a problem well, yeah, it better be.

It's amazing.
It's amazing how many peoplewill you know?
I think this is one of thereason why you know a lot of
female brokers do really well,but yeah, it's amazing how many
brokers will, uh, take a coupleon the boat and, you know, take
the guy straight away, steve atall, and then you know, straight
to the galley and um, but it'swomen are really decision makers

(56:34):
in the process because, likeyou say too, yeah, but because
she doesn't want, guy wants tobuy a boat.
He doesn't care what kind ofboat it is, as long as she's
happy with it and she'll go.
This is true or vice versa.
You know it's uh, but you know,yeah, you always, I mean I've
done the same thing that Carolyndoes when I'm showing a boat to

(56:54):
a couple.
You know really just, you know,be more talk with the, you know
the woman, you know you just,with any couple in any dynamic,
you can usually see exactly,yeah, you kind of have to like,
judge the situation and thedynamic.
You know there's no one sizefits-fits-all way to to work

(57:16):
with them but it's well.

Before I started sailing, I did a lot of research
and one of the books I readtalked about that.
Um, it's important for thewoman to know how to sail, not
just taking orders, because youknow, I mean, I've seen couples
on boats and sometimes it's kindof funny when they're blessing
and inviting and everything.

(57:38):
I would always encourage thewoman to go take separate
lessons.
Don't expect him to teach youor vice versa In my case it was
vice versa and that she needs tofeel comfortable if something
happened to that man who felloff or something that she could
handle, the boat.

Exactly, yeah, and that's very, very important and
that's, you know, so kind of inthe beginning, like you're in
the situation of sailing soloand you know it's, yeah, I feel
very strongly about everybodybeing able to do a man overboard
drill to dock the boat to.

(58:19):
You know, take turns, okay, youdock the boat today, I'll dock
it tomorrow.
You drop the anchor today, I'llyou know.
Just to know, and there'salways going to be, you know,
one person's going to mightnaturally be better at something
.
Yeah, that it might naturallybe better at something, yeah,
but yeah, they're, they're uh,it's, it's kind of horrifies me
a little bit when when uh, yeah,yeah yeah and and and um.

You know the woman just doesn't want to be bar.
You know it can get stressfulon a boat and if the man or vice
versa is just barking ordersall the time if she doesn't know
, it's just not going to be veryfun.
I mean you kind of shut downand it's just not.

You don't feel included.
Yeah right.

Yeah, and just for everybody, let's see, tell
oliver to come get me.
That's all of her sailingphoenix, sailing with phoenix.
Show me the boat ropes.
I love him.
You know who that is?
No, I didn't see.
No, not Jessica, but um, she'swhat.
What she's talking about issailing with Phoenix.

(59:25):
He.
He left Oregon with, uh, 30,000followers and he got there to
hawaii he had two million and,yeah, anderson cooper was
talking about him.
I mean every like the world andand you know.
And then there were some trollssaying, oh, he didn't really do
anything and million peoplehave done that, but people fell

(59:47):
in love with him and his story.
Yeah, anyway, I love oliver hemarketed it right, he did he
works at it.
Yeah, it's awesome, yeah that'swhere I found him.
She loves oliver.
Um, okay, um, let's see if youhave one piece of advice for

(01:00:10):
someone who's about to buy theirfirst sailboat.
I know we might've alreadycovered that.
What would it be?
Think about what you want to dowith it, right?

Melanie Neal (01:00:18):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah when.
Where are you going?
Who's going with you?
How fast do you want to getthere?
All that stuff.

Capn Tinsley (01:00:32):
Okay, I got some rapid fire questions.
Okay, you ready, you ready,okay.
Green Boat under.

So because we're on the phone now, we're not
really able to hear thequestions.
Okay, what's up?
Yeah, if you see us looking,the letters are very small, so
we're trying to read them.
I hear Jessica talk with Oliverevery day.

Carolyn Dean (01:01:03):
Yes.

That's what I heard, yeah.

He thinks I'm fake .
No's what I heard.
Yeah, he thinks I'm fake, no,marcy.
Marcy heard the questionVagabond 39,.
Is that what you're saying,marcy?
The question I asked wasdreamboat under 100K.

Yeah, the Vagabond just sold was nice.
I love island packets.
I had a 35 island packet.
Well, first, first generation,and I loved, I loved that boat.
I regret selling it becausekids grow, exactly because kids

(01:01:45):
get bigger.
So when I owned that boat, itwas that we lived aboard.
It was my daughter and me.
She was like seven when webought the boat and then so 11
or 12 when we sold it and boughta bigger one.
It was and there were otherother factors that you know were
that he got a doll.
Yeah, there were.

(01:02:06):
There were other you know,other silly factors that
shouldn't have.

So how old was she when you sold the boat.

So she was.
When we sold the 35, she was 11, but we bought a.
I bought a Irwin 43 at thatpoint, which was also so.
These are all you know.
In the the under, well, under ahundred thousand dollar boat
range moments are great cruisingbut yeah, that erwin 43 was so
much space, but again, an oldboat that needed a lot of work.

(01:02:41):
That you know I I didn't, I hadthe desire to do, but I also,
you know, between running abusiness and growing a teenager,
you know you get pulled fromhere, ariane how old is she?
14.

okay yeah, yeah, all right, I'm putting it all
together.
Now she's 14 of a fiance.
Okay, all right, I know whatyou're gonna say about this mono
or cat actually there's.

There's something for everybody.
I'm yeah, I'm a pretty hardcoremonohull girl but I love I mean
, there's this space on a cat.
You can't beat it.
Yeah, I mean, I sold a a cat toa couple and they had three
kids and they wanted to cruisethe Caribbean for like seven

(01:03:39):
months and that was just perfectfor them because they I mean,
they're good, yeah, they all hadtheir own space.
It was a great time and theywere able to move off and just,
you know, it was a really goodexperience and I think for them,
with the monohull, it wouldhave been harder to find in
their budget like that amount ofspace.

(01:04:00):
But like long term, um, I thinkmonohulls are.
I don't know, there's justsomething about monohulls and
catamarans.
Yeah, yeah, can you see that?
What did you?
say I said I lost my train ofthought.
What about you?

(01:04:23):
We know you're a monohull girlright now, but would you want?

a cat.
Well, there's just a lot ofproblems.
I see, Like where would I putit?
There's not a lot of place toput it.
They're also a lot moreexpensive, I thought.

Isn't that right?
Yeah, and you're paying for twohauls instead of one.
Exactly, you know where do youhaul it out?
You know, a lot of these bigcats have beams that are, you
know, 22 plus feet and mostboyards can't haul them out.
Um, I'm up in the chesapeakeright now and I've been just
thrilled to see so many boatyards here that, uh, you know,

(01:04:58):
oh my gosh, if you need to storeyour catamaran or work on it,
come to the chesapeake.
But that's awesome, it's goodto know.

But, um, the day right here, everybody heard that
if you have plenty of places toget hauled out on the
Chesapeake, yeah, yeah, but it's.

But yeah, a lot of times if you dock, you're
paying for two slips, you know.
Or you're paying for if theyhave two slips, yeah,

(01:05:49):
no-transcript end up through theBahamas and back here.
It was perfect for them.
But yeah, long-term, like onthe East Coast, you know it's
got its challenges, but it'sworth it and it's gas, right,
it's gas.
Well, the extra cost of fuelyeah, yeah yeah yeah well, some

(01:06:14):
of them are gas, yeah, some haveoutboards, yeah, but yeah, and
there's super comfortable.

You know, I've been on them and um, it's just
it wouldn't be practical for me,but I'm you know a lot of
people do have them and theydon't seem to have trouble
finding a place for them.

So yeah, they're great for families.
I mean, it's like we're sayingit's you know, give, give your
kids a space.

So okay, here's one for you, carolyn, I'm going
to throw this one at you.
What's worse?
A sketchy survey or anindecisive fire.

Make you think I didn't hear you Okay.

What's worse, a sketchy survey or indecisive
fire.

I think that there's no worse or better A
sketchy survey.
I mean, we kind of have toadhere to what the survey says.
So if a survey is bad, I meanif it shows up a lot of stuff,
there's no failing a survey.
But it's really the survey andthe buyer.

(01:07:33):
Um, if the buyer isn'tinterested in, you know,
understanding the survey orwhatever, um, I, I'm trying to
understand exactly what thequestion is.
Yeah, sorry, yeah they're,they're two different, they're
two different situations.
Yeah, yeah, okay, but you know,an indecisive buyer, I, you

(01:07:55):
know I don't like that either,because then you, you know
they're, if they're not surethey want the boat, then they're
probably going to regret buyingit.
You know, yeah, like we, wecan't, we can't talk somebody
into spending a hundred grand orwhatever on a boat.
Just you know they're, we can't, we can't talk somebody into
spending 100 grand or whateveron a boat, just you know,
they're they're.
If they're having doubts,there's plenty of boats out
there yeah, yeah, or maybe theyshouldn't buy one at all.

Yeah, yeah, so that happens in real estate.
It's like they didn't reallythink of what was all in and
then they start looking.
It's like, well, you know, theydidn't really think of what was
all in and then they startlooking.
It's like well, you know um,okay.

So, um, melanie, what's the first boat you ever
sold?
Uh, it was actually a camper,nicholson 31.
Um, I always, I was working foredwards yacht sales and it was
a listing that the other brokerin town didn't want.
So he's like, hey, new broker,yay, you know, let's give her
this and.
And that's how you learn.
You learn to sell boats withthose, uh, those you know,
challenging.
This one had been sitting inthe yard forever and ever.
It had, uh, lots of rat poop init.

(01:08:57):
So I went and, you know,cleaned up the rat food.
Two photos, so you know, again,it's like you work your way up,
you start, and I want, I wantto tell you that melanie made
sure that I understood that whenI became a burger, the first

(01:09:18):
couple listings that I wasgifted, you know they were big
challenges, yeah, they were bigchallenges.

So yeah, so you get the listings.

It's not the cream of the crop, it's the more
challenging and the brokers arereally responsible for you know
getting their own listings andthat you learn how to do.
You do that we get listed inthe earth, yeah yeah, we'll get
a listing lead and I'll knowthat.
You know, okay, mars is inPuerto Rico, this boats in
Puerto Rico, so I'll send thatlisting lead to her.
But you know for the most part.

(01:09:47):
You know, okay, mars is inPuerto Rico, this boat's in
Puerto Rico, so I'll send thatlisting lead to her.
But you know, for the most part, you know, you start building
your reputation and people cometo you.
I mean, most of our business isreferrals but, yeah, those
challenging boats are the onesthat you learn the most from and
probably the ones you'll spendthe most time on.
Yeah, exactly Because they arechallenging, and especially when
they're lower priced.

(01:10:08):
Yeah, sometimes they look toogood to be true, and that they
are, you know.
Yeah, I think it ended up sothe Camper Nicholson sold for
like 15 grand or something likethat, you know, but it's.
Yeah, there are a lot ofchallenges.

Let's see what do you love most about working with
boat buyers.

With working with boat buyers.

Your commercial right here.

Pretend like you're talking, to Just helping
people find guiding them in theprocess of sometimes discovering
what they need to buy on theirown, but just kind of guiding
them along.
Yeah, yeah, that's kind of howI see it they may come into it
thinking they want a catamaranand a monohull might be better

(01:11:10):
for that.
Yeah, you can't tell them.

you know, no, this is what I'm going to pull up
your, your website.

Awesome, so we can see your inventory Awesome.

Yeah, it's a little bit about this and this
is your chance to yeah great.

Oliver needs a new boat.
Call us.
Does Oliver need a bigger boat?

with room for two.
What's going on?
Yeah, you can sell Oliver aboat.
You'll get a lot of publicityif you do that.
I think he was even well, Iknow he got interviewed by some
national.

Yeah, Okay, so here is there, we are all right,
so we have, we have tell usabout these here.
Yeah, all right, they're verytiny right now.

The pictures are tiny.

The pictures yeah, but so the one that you can
kind of see from a distance,that's basically.
I refer to it as the pirateship.
It's a 1969 Sparkman Stevenswooden boat.
So it's been on the market fora while, but that's a boat for
somebody who really loves woodenboats and plans on having a
boat that they work on a lot asa labor of love.

Yeah, I'm trying to get the picture, okay, so
there it is right there, yeah,the pirate ship.
Yeah, I'm trying to get thepicture Okay, so there it is
right there, yes, yeah.

That's the pirate ship.
Wow, oh my gosh, she isgorgeous, I know.
And the master.
It's 144.5, 1969 custom 60spark yeah yeah, oh my gosh it's

(01:13:15):
got to be somebody who reallyloves a wooden boat, though, and
wooden boats are hard, so it's.
I've had a lot of dreamers.
Look at that boat, but there'salways one person out there just
takes the.
Yeah, yeah, that's the boat.
There's the person of everyboat, the boat for every person.
Oh my gosh.

This might be your next boat yeah.

It's kind of like Captain Ron's boat.
Look at this right here.

It's totally a Captain Ron boat, absolutely Is
this brick, it's got a fireplace.
It's an actual wood burningfireplace, that's amazing.

Okay, this is awesome.
There it is out of the water,yeah, it's full keel, yeah, and
it's 60 foot.
Yep.
Amazing.
Have you sailed it there?
You are sailing it right there.
What are you doing?
Amazing.
Have you sailed it?

There, you are sailing it right there, I have
sailed it and it's a moves.
You know, it moves kind of likean Island Packet.

People think they're not going to move that
well, and they move great, yeah,so great.
Yeah, well, I just tell peopleI'm not out there to win a race
you know.

Okay, so let me get this other one here.
Let's see what else you got.
This is what you do, right?
Yep, sorry it's taking so long,okay, oh, another 60 foot.

I love that boat.
That's a Winship 60.
Very gorgeous, Two of thembuilt.
It would be an amazing boat fora family.
It's like circumnavigation yeah, Solid fiberglass, built in
Florida.
Just absolutely stunninginterior, Florida, Just

(01:15:10):
absolutely stunning interior.
You know, again a good.
That would be a great boat fora family wanting to cruise on a
large monohull.
It's got three staterooms andthat's that's rare, so that's,
you know, if you've got two kidsor whatever, you know it's yeah
, it's a yeah that that boat'sgorgeous.
It's in saint augustine.
And they are asking I think wejust reduced it to 319, yeah, so

(01:15:36):
it's yeah it was built incampbell, florida.
Wow, you got some classic boatsyeah, and it's funny, I think,
because of our backgrounds, youknow, people do come to us with,
you know, classic cruisingmonohulls.
That's just sort of what ourGreat niche.

Yeah, this one must be Marcy's, because this is
Puerto Rico.
Yeah, that's 142, so that's acat.

Yeah go.
Yep, that's 142, so that's acat yeah, 51 foot, beneteau 1986
for 49, 49 000.
Which one is that?
Oh, that's darryl's.
Yep, yep, that's into adifferent screen, so that's
that's.
That's logan's listing.
Yeah, that's, uh, yeah, so someof these, some of these we're
not going to know a whole lotabout because they're some of my

(01:16:29):
other yeah, they're brokers,but that's that.
Look at him, he's a littlehottie logan I hope he's
watching.

Hey, logan.
Oh, um, marcy has something tosay.
She said salinas catamaran 53foot.
Custom airx core 53 footcatamaran, 50 years old, rock
solid, but needs lots of tlc.
Blueprints are on board.
She sounds like real estateagents and that's you know.

That's the thing with all of these boats you have
to be honest about what theirfaults are like exactly.
This beneteau is huge, it's agreat deal, but it also has been
sitting in a marina for a longtime.
But project put a wealthyproject, so have to be realistic
.
She's gonna need work.
But you know you're not gonnaget a 50-foot boat for you know
50 grand or where that doesn'tneed a lot of work.
So I've never seen a beneteaulike this.

(01:17:22):
It's a.
It's a cool boat.
So, um, kind of an old schoolbeneteau.

I mean, it's right , 1986 radio, exactly dirty
hardware, bulletproof riggingand speedy sailing.
Interesting, and it's a projectboat apparently yeah, that's
not.

You know, it's not a project boat like you'd find
abandoned in a boat yard.
Yeah, I mean she's gonna slipand that's not a bad thing.

Uh, you know, it's like when I'm selling condos.
You know if they're, if they'rehandy buyers, that's a great.
Exactly.
You know, if you're a handyperson, you can fix up a boat.
This is vastly.
It could be a good deal.

I don't know much about the boat, but well,
another, another thing with thatone and with a lot of boats,
like we talked about thetransition from owner, you know,
owner seller to buyer like thatone is in a slip at a
liveaboard marina so somebodycould, you know, come along and
buy it, and you know, liveaboardmarinas are very, very hard to
come by.
So that's a plus for that boat.

(01:18:23):
Yeah, it really is Okay.

All right.
So let's look at a couple more.
Which ones are your listings?
Man, you got some big boatshere.
You got all right, it's it.
It's it's because it takes youto a new screen I have to share
every time.
You know, that's the way thewebsite's set up.
Um, all right, so I'm justgoing to kind of brush through

(01:18:48):
these.
Yeah, hey, 47 foot formosa oh,I love that boat.

I love it so much it's actually more of a captain
ron boat that is beautiful okayit's beautiful wow, it's got a
um estate room in the back thereyeah, that that, actually.
If I were boat shopping rightnow, so where my fiance and I
are on an island pack at 44,it's his, his boat, and it's

(01:19:15):
wonderful.
I absolutely love it.
You know we're we're not at alllooking for another boat, but I
almost called him when I was onthat one and said hey, what do
you think you should have?
Because it's uh, it doesn'thave air conditioning, the
bottom hasn't been painted in 12years, but it's in beautiful
shape.
The interior is stunning.
Anyway, you got it.

(01:19:36):
You got it.
You got to tell people the goodwith the bad, so sure, sure,
I'm in 1981, and then you got a2006 47 foot Hans.

yeah, that's Marcy's listing, so yeah.

And.

Marcy man, you're doing great, okay.
47-foot Bristol yeah, 1979.
These are classic Yep.
46-foot Island Trader oh, herewe go.
That's a cool boat, whiskeyRiver.
46-foot Irwin yeah.

Wow.

Yeah, that Irwin was my old boat actually.
Ah okay, it's been bought andsold by multiple people since I
owned it, but that's always alittle sentimental 45 foot.

Hatteras, 45 foot Prout.

Can you talk about the 440 Island Packet?

Oh my gosh 357.
She is stunning and, honestly,the sellers are the most amazing
people.
They take such good care of her.
She is, she's, gorgeous.

Wow Okay, you guys really.
I mean, you got your niche here.
Gulf Star 43-foot Slocum.
How do I know that name?
That Slocum is who?
Somebody famous went around theworld in that, in those right.

Well, actually it was Joshua Slocum who there the
design is named.
I don't know the name.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the boat'snamed after him.
Um, wow, it's funny too, youknow, being in a niche, we don't
.
You know, we, we selleverything.
We've sold a lot of power boats, but, you know, we kind of by

(01:21:25):
default these are sort of thelistings that we get but, um,
we're, uh, you know, we've got alot of catamarans, we've got,
you know, and again, we're,we're kind of working with
everything and we've got areally cute I'm shocked.

Look at that I'm shocked.

Look at that concordia 40 foot, 41 foot
dickerson.
So that dickerson is actuallywas mr dickerson's boat that he
had built himself in thechesapeake bay to go to tahiti.
He never made it quite there,but the really cool thing about
that other than the fact thatshe's awesome, she's got a great
center cockpit layout.
She even has a rum tank, a10-gallon tank, where you put

(01:22:17):
mountain gay rum in and it justlike a spigot.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's wild.
She is amazing.

It wasn't built during prohibition, so just big
bay has ultimate cc cruisingdesign layout with a rare,
unique pedigree and she also hasa transferable liverboard slip
oh my gosh, so let's just, let'sjust look.
My gosh, so let's just, let'sjust look.

(01:22:53):
You know we're talking aboutsailboats, so I could just sit
here, look at that deck.
I wouldn't know the, the seats.
Yep, they got port and starboard, red and green little marks on
them oh, I wouldn't know whereto start if I was going to buy a
big boat like this.
Oh my gosh.

(01:23:15):
Well, you guys, and it justkeeps going.
How many, how many listens doyou have?
Or you may not even know, we'vegot I think 29 right now.

Yeah, I think I I have personally eight.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,congratulations.
We usually carry anywhere fromlike 25 to 40, um, so that's,
you know, that's pretty, prettytypical.
There's some power boats yeah,it's, it's fun.
Like I love this, we're doingit because we love it, like each
one of those boats, like I'msmiling when I talk about them.

(01:23:51):
The story, the story is the, uh, the wooden one that we looked
at first.
Uh, lynn and larry party sailedacross the atlantic as they
delivered it.
Um, as, as as a delivery crew.
Like these boats have so manygreat stories to them.
The rum in the Dickerson, it'sjust like, how cool is that?

I know that's a good selling point.
So you got the main ship.

Yeah, okay, a lot of sailors eventually will go to
that, make the transition, andthat is totally fine, it's sure
just stay on the water as longas you can.

34 main, 35 uh foot caliber, 37 foot beneteau,
40 ah 40 foot lagoon.

That's a nice one, gorgeous yeah that that's this
one?
Yeah, that's one.
It's a.
It's a replica of a BarnegatBay cat boat and it's I think
it's the biggest cat boats outthere.
I don't know there's, there's a.
There's a cool story to thatone too, but it's, it's wooden.

(01:25:01):
It's just oriental NorthCarolina.
Emily Emily's listing.
She's another one of our rockstar lady brokers, right?

lady broker.
Look at that thing, that isunusual oh, she got to sale it.

I was so jealous, oh man, yeah, she posted
pictures oh my gosh, I want tosee the inside.

Lots of outside pictures.
She did a great job.

It's more, it's more of a day sailor, I'm trying
to remember in person.
But uh, but there is the.
You know, it does, it does have, it does have.
Um, again, I can't, I can'tpicture the inside because I
haven't seen it, but okay, so$65,000.

Okay, well, the bottom line is you have a lot of
really great listings andyou're very qualified to help
people, so what a pleasure ithas been for you guys to come on
here.
Thank you, the pleasure has beenours Well, and hopefully I'll
see you out there in differentplaces and um as soon as I get

(01:26:11):
back on my um, my, my husbandpassed away like while I was on
the boat, so I've been havingtrouble getting back on it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
My friend dana said it's notthe boat's fault, so she likes
the day sailor.
So anyway, I'm working on that.
I'm trying to get back outthere.

(01:26:32):
But what a pleasure, carolyn.
It's so great to finally meetyou.

It's awesome to meet you too.

Thank you so much for including me yes, and I will
definitely um try to sendbusiness your way.
I know a lot of boat brokersbut, but you guys have a great
niche, you really do I mean yourexperience, and look at all
these great listings you got youguys have.
You have a great team.
All right, I'll stop sayinggreat, it was great meeting you.

(01:27:00):
Uh, carolyn, it's good to seeyou.
Melanie, yes, we'll have to dothis again and come back on,
definitely.
Yes, maybe you guys could comeon with the lender, that would
be awesome.
Yeah, all right.
Well, all right, we'll go aheadand end this, and the way I
always end things is to saysalty abandon, thank you.

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