Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

[thedukeryan]

Anyone ever flip boats for a profit? The reason I ask is because I had luck with a couple earlier in the year and am going to try to purchase 7-8 over the winter and give it a Try. The nice thing about Kansas is that we are not a title state. Basically I just give the buyer the $ and they give me a signed $10/year registration and a bill of sale. I have a friend who lives in a HUGE underground missile silo that is built to last forever and probably one of the best possible places you can imagine to store toys. Anyways he is letting me keep everything stored for $250 for the winter. The city I live in is right next to Ft. Riley Military base and then we have Kansas State University here as well. Seems to make a perfect market for buyers and sellers. Lots of Military have cash to BURN especially after getting back from Iraq. Many are weekend warriors looking for toys to play with until their next deployment or being re-stationed. We also have the two largest lakes in Kansas one 15 minutes away the other 30. What do you guys think of my plan? Good, bad, risky, dumb or??? I have been shopping smart and buying boats that i know are deals. Below are what i have so far.

1. 89 550cc & 91 650cc Yamaha's with double trailer look great & run great paid $850 for the pair
2. 1980 Gastron 16' trihull with 80hp Mercury looks mint runs great but will probably need a replacement prop ~ $50 used locally. Came with all the extras such as skis, ropes, jackets etc. Have $400 in it
3. Still working on this one but it is a sharp looking 1995 21' Bayliner Capri SS with 5.0. Will come with skis, knee boards, tubes, jackets etc. We are at $2,700 plus ~ $400 in trade value so can probably get it for $3,100 out of pocket.

 

[RWilson2526]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

I wouldnt count on getting rich off of it but if you choose your purchases very wisely you may be able to keep it in the black.....I know for sure it is amazing how little work people put into their boats before they sell them and with a little cleaning and good sales presentation could probably sell them faster and for a few more dollars....on the downside I think is the fact that 20 something year old boats no matter how well they are cleaned up and running only will sell for so much.

Be disciplined and dont get in too far over your head and always consider the fact you may get completely burned on a few which will cut into your overall profitability.... only experience will tell you whats a great deal and what you can sell something for

hell I dont know what I'm saying.....go for it and see what happens, you will now soon enough......

and how do I get space in the missile silo for the winter!!!!

 

[DavidW2009]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

As part of a canoeing course, we each had to flip a canoe and get back into it.

 

[RoyR]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

As part of a canoeing course, we each had to flip a canoe and get back into it.

Don't stop you day job...

 

[Bronc Rider]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

I usually buy and sell a couple of boats a year. I try to find boats that are in good mechanical shape with soft decks or solid decks and transoms but have mechanical problems. Never both or you will end up putting too much money into them. I work professionally with fiberglass so I prefer them to need this service instead of mechanical attention. I get the materials free from my boss as long as it?s left over from a project. I have been doing this for about 6 years. One time I actually made $2000 profit. Most of the time I make only about $500. The main reason I do it is because I get to use so many different boats in a year. As a matter of fact, right now I have 3 boats. One is getting a new deck and transom, the other two are for sale. As soon as one sells it will be replaced by another one. At the beginning of the year due to my regular job being slow I was doing hull and deck repairs on anyone?s boat to make ends meet.
I have also made money on some boats just by buying in winter and selling in summer.

 

[thedukeryan]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

I wouldnt count on getting rich off of it but if you choose your purchases very wisely you may be able to keep it in the black.....I know for sure it is amazing how little work people put into their boats before they sell them and with a little cleaning and good sales presentation could probably sell them faster and for a few more dollars....on the downside I think is the fact that 20 something year old boats no matter how well they are cleaned up and running only will sell for so much.

Be disciplined and dont get in too far over your head and always consider the fact you may get completely burned on a few which will cut into your overall profitability.... only experience will tell you whats a great deal and what you can sell something for

hell I dont know what I'm saying.....go for it and see what happens, you will now soon enough......

and how do I get space in the missile silo for the winter!!!!

Im gonna give it a try. Will probably end up with 5 or so. I figured if I can get them for around $500-$1000 then I can at least get enough back to make it worth while. Not going after any big Fountains or anything. The reaso behind it all is because I sold my old $800 bayliner last year for $3,500 and had a list of people in line with cash if the deal feel through. Then I sold a $300 beat up glastron for $1000 and same thing there. Sold both the same day I listed them. Now this is way off topic but my friend bought this missle silo in 05 I think. It has a crazy story behind it. It was once set up to be the largest LSD lab in the WORLD capable of making 15 MILLION hits. I think the guy running it was funded by the Taliban. One guy was murdered in it another guy was nearly beaten and burned to death and then dumped in a ditch. Got lucky and someone found him still alive. The drug lord who previously lived in it had something like a $250,000 home theater in it. He was also running missiles I believe for the Taliban. All sorts of crazy stuff was going on like hidden safes and long tunnels. All completely secured by I believe a 80,000lb blast door. The place is CRAZY. Huge barb wire fences, razor wire, remote cameras, huge arc flood lights probably 8ft around, two 70-80kw underground generators. Crazy place. When I get a chance I will post more about it. Here is a link with a bunch of articals http://cjonline.com/indepth/missilesilos/

ETA I read on another site that it was actually enough to produce 3 billion hits and they found like 200lbs of LSD already produced.

 

[BWR1953]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

I can't say that I flipped boats, but will state that I came out money ahead this year. Started in January with one project boat which needed a motor. Found another boat a week later that was severely overpowered and was going to transfer the big engine to the big boat... until I found out that the big one needed a complete stringer job.

So, I focused on the small boat. Went through a total of FOUR engines and never did get it running. Sold the big engine to generate cash for the smaller replacement engines and ended up doing a little better each time I sold a non-working motor.

The bottom line is that I bought two non-working project boats with trailers at the beginning of the year, went through four engines, gained cash and ended up just a week ago buying my current WORKING boat and had cash and other valuables left over.

Took 9 months, but I did come out ahead.

 

[nitsuj]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

I've flipped just about everything short of real estate. The key is to buy right and sell right. And things can go south fast. You can do 5 boats and make a few hundred bucks each. Then one turns into a nightmare, and it costs all the money you made on the others. And the market is fickle for things like boats. One year you may buy and sell 10 easily. The next year, for whatever reason, maybe boats aren't big in your area, you get stuck sitting on 5 and end up taking break even money for them.

I guess what I'm saying is go for it and have fun. Just don't do it with ideas of early retirement on a tropical island in mind. ;-)

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

i have "flipped" many, more hobby than business. when i calculate the hours of my time, i did not make close to minimum wage.

 

[RickJ6956]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

Agreed, tashasdaddy. Although I haven't flipped for profit, I've fixed up a couple of boats and sold them for more than I paid. But the time I spent calculated out to about $5 per hour. (But those were done for the love of craftsmanship, not profit.)

A friend of mine bought a 20-year-old 38-footer for $12,000. He put $20,000 worth of work into it and sold it for $80,000. Another friend found a late-model Formula that had burned at the dock. The insurance company totalled it at $17,000. My friend bought it, spent $26,000 to fix it, and has been offered $120,000.

Point is ... if you have it in you to fix a $400 boat to make $1,000, think bigger: A $10,000 boat with $30,000 in fix-ups can gross $100,000.

That works out to more like $50 an hour.

 

[allpoints360]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

Buy low, sell high. It's the thing that makes the world go round.

And if you enjoy the work, the time spent is not so bad.

 

[Bronc Rider]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

i have "flipped" many, more hobby than business. when i calculate the hours of my time, i did not make close to minimum wage.

Yeah, if I put in my time spent on the boat I would be losing money. Since I would be home doing nothing anyway I don't bother to keep up with my time spent on a project.
The good thing is that I can apparently do stringers, deck and transom much quicker than some people. On the resto forum I read about people doing a stringer a day. I can do all the stringers and deck in about a day (20' boat or smaller).

 

[marine4003]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

I'll do about 3 "toys" a year , generally Boston Whalers 13' and 17'..full resto. i never make a profit,but its more about restoring a classic and making something from junk. Good Luck.

 

[DavidW2009]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

While doing searches on various boats, I'd come across ads from Europe (Britain and Spain) that had asking prices three to five times what those boats (under 21') were selling for in this country.

I don't know if that's the norm or just the ads I spotted.

Exporting inexpensive used boats to Europe would take some expertise and some cost. (How many Sea Rays will fit in a shipping container?)

Maybe there are some Nigerians that would like to buy some of our rotted stringers?

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

As part of a canoeing course, we each had to flip a canoe and get back into it.

OK,,,, didnt read any of the post did ya....

 

[DavidW2009]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

bifflefan,

I was not being serious. But that might not be apparent.

I know what the thread is about. See my post #14.

 

[scoutabout]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

...ads from Europe (Britain and Spain) that had asking prices three to five times what those boats (under 21') were selling for in this country.

I don't know if that's the norm or just the ads I spotted.

Exporting inexpensive used boats to Europe would take some expertise and some cost. (How many Sea Rays will fit in a shipping container?)
...?

A guy at work is planning on doing just that. He's going to buy good quality boats at auction here, put them into containers, ship them over and sell them in Europe through family contacts he has there. He spends a good few months a year over there says prices are crazy.

His advantage is that he's got a network set up already. It would probably be much harder to do it one-sided from North America. I can't remember what he said sending a full sized shipping container across would cost -- a couple thousand. Anyway, that and port costs were far exceeded by what he calculated would be the profit on sending four or so boats over at at time.

 

[Knightgang]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

Look up posts by Vegasphotoman. He seems to be a boat flipper. Has several at a time, buys them low, in different stages of disrepair or cosmetics needs, rixes them up, uses them a little and then sels them off. He is working on 2 or three now...

 

[marine4003]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

bifflefan,

I was not being serious. But that might not be apparent.

I know what the thread is about. See my post #14.

..Yankee's have no sense of humor....

 

[DavidW2009]

Re: Anyone Ever Flip Boats?

marine4003: "..Yankee's have no sense of humor...."

Sir,

I like your attitude. You are absolutely correct.

BTW, I always spell the 'Y' word with a small 'y'. They don't deserve the respect. Not after what they did to the South. We still live in occuppied territory.

Deo Vindice.