Quote Originally Posted by kvand347 View Post
That is a difficult question to answer. In my situation, my boat was being offered for $13,500 and I was not willing to finance that much due to what I wanted my monthly payment to be. I offered what I could afford which was a few thousand less than the asking price. I was honest and told him that I could only afford that much and he accepted my offer. His boat had not sold all summer, so he was ready to come down on price.

Each situation is different. Offer what you feel the boat is worth after you have looked/driven it. $10,900obo means that he will take his best offer.
Well, I went and took a look at it. The ballast system is ready to take a 2nd bag in the trunk. The engine compartment looked decent and didn't seem to have obvious signs of corrosion. there are a few cracks on the center windshield piece. Supposedly the seller has a friend that might be parting out the same model boat, and is going to hit him up and see if we can get that replacement for the cracked glass.

The boat had been winterized, de-winterized 2 weeks ago and started. Then re-winterized. He de-winterized it today and when we put it in, it started on the first try and seemed to run strong. We took it out on the water and the ballast, heater, perfect pass, and everything else worked fine. It had a nice shape to the wake. We also filled the bag and I got to see the wake with the ballast. I didn't take a pull behind it. The water was like 51 degrees and I figured I could tell enough by observing the shape of the wake at various speeds.

The black on the clear coat is a bit cloudy in person and you can see some ghosting from where the OEM supra decals were, but it's nothing I can't live with. He has a depthfinder that he's going to give me that is the type that you don't have to cut into the hull. The stereo deck in there wasn't anything to write home about but it was a name brand (Kenwood I think) and had a USB that would control an Ipod, play songs from a flash drive, and an Auxillary input on the face. it even has Pandora compatibility, so that's sweet. So that will be good enough to have me rockin' on the river.

He seemed pretty honest about where he was on price and other offers he'd been given. He wanted to see $10k for it, but he also wanted to get his replacement boat (Malibu V-Drive) from his parent's place and back over to his house. He said he had been offered $9,500 at the end of last season but didn't take it... So, I focused in on that number and told him that 1st thing Monday I'd be hitting up my credit union if he was willing to do the $9,500 for me. So that was our deal--------->$9,500.

I feel pretty good about it. between a little I'd saved and my tax return, I'm keeping my boat payment really low. So that's pretty awesome.

I think it'll be enough boat to keep me happy for some time! I'll post up more pics after I get it in my possession!

Thanks to everyone that gave be advice. I'm looking forward to being a part of this community.