Here is what I can add as someone who purchased/owns a "too good to be true" deal. The boat in my sig, price started around $20,000. It dropped over a year or more and when I went to look at it was priced in the low teens, if I recall right. The boat was on the hard and had been for at least 2-3 years. We had 100% access to it though and actually went aboard 3 times before making an offer. We made a low ball offer contingent on survey. They accepted with the clause that it's take it or leave it. The boat survey was done in the dead of winter, on land, no option for sea trial. Surveyor found the following. - structure below the deck was in good shape. - gunwale caps showed signs of rot/cracks. - foredeck and bridge showed in good shape. - cockpit deck good, hatches in bad shape/rot. - engines started up, genset didn't, AC didn't cool but ran, trans went in and out of gear. - flybridge in shambles, no electronics, canvas good. - interior ok, worn but no damage. - surveyor noted the price we were paying was dirt cheap and he would have paid that had we walked. Maybe just a line but he seemed genuinely interested in the boat. With that said we went into it as having a lot of previous boat experience and ready to tackle whatever. Over the last few seasons we had a few issues arise. One fuel tank was full of varnished sediment in the bottom. This actually caused one engine to die out on us and required the heads pulled, one broken valve replaced and all of the valves cleaned and checked. Done by us at just the cost of the valve and gaskets. Needed both carbs redone, sent those out to a local quadrajet guy. Cutlass bearings in rough shape, sent to a local marina to pull and redo. Aforementioned fuel tank was cut out, cleaned and reinstalled. New fuel pumps, new tstat, belts, hoses, etc. pulled and checked manifolds and risers and found the existing to be on good shape. New zincs. Genset carb rebuilt, fuel pump rebuilt, and misc. pieces replaced. AC worked perfect. I'm sure I'm missing a lot but we have had it for 3 seasons now and the boat fires right up, runs perfect, cruises great, and a lot of look good stuff has been done. With that being said, I'm not sure a new boater would want to jump into something like this. The money hasn't been too bad but we tend to do as much has we can, and I tend to save dollars wherever possible (anything finish wise I can get used, I do). Good luck with whatever you decide!
