To Buy New or Used?

For me, my experience with new has been similar to what your going through. The worst time I ever had was a brand new house being built on five acres of land. It was about 80% finished when we found it on the market. It was everything we wanted. Plenty of land for three kids and two dogs to play on. Five bedrooms, three baths. Big garage. What more could I want.

After closing on the house and giving a punch list the the builder of things to repair, the horror story began. One rainy night sitting on the couch, fireplace going, I looked up and to my surprise I discovered a bonus feature. I had a built in water fall coming down the brick chimney. How great is that, freebie!
That leak turned into several leaks and months trying to resolve. Three years trying to get screens on the windows. Years five and six consisted of multiple visits to E.R. For strange illness and respiratory problems. My daughter stayed in ICU for two weeks, two different times totaling $160,000 in medical bills. I started having health problems as well and unable to work. Had to close my business.

Turns out the house was full of mold. We ended up having to get out to save our lives and four years later we are still dealing with the effects of it. The house still sits there empty and unable to sale because it is unsafe. Builder went bankrupt and said sorry about your problems.

I moved back into my old house that I was renting and no problems. I do miss that waterfall feature though.

It's not unusual. Here's a few thoughts though.

1. You say that the inverter doesn't run the A/C, if you mean air conditioning you definitely should not be trying to run the air on an inverter system. Shore power or generator only unless you have a bilge full of a few hundred batteries.

2. I'm not sure how the gas gauges are on your boat but mine have a toggle switch to read the amount of fuel on board, they do that so the gauge isn't constantly bouncing. Water tank gauge works the same.

Did they give you a run through on the boat on how to operate every system? Are you plugged into shore power? If so I don't know why you're trying to use the inverter.

I never buy used cars. As my daddy used to say "You're buying someone else's problem". However that does not apply to houses, boats or motorcycles. Those I'd never buy new, because there is such a huge markup, they get very light usage, and there are so many 'New_____bugs' to deal with.

Besides the markup on boats there's everything else you've added to it that no buyer will consider the value of. Things like electronics, furnishings and equipment may make your boat more appealing to a resale buyer, but they add no value to the boat. A buyer will assume he'll be changing all of that sooner rather than later, even though that "sooner" may be 5 years and another sale down the creek. It's easy to find a boat that went for $500K new and the owner put another $50K into for $300K a few years later. I can do without that new boat smell for $250K in my pocket.

Some people have money to burn and they always want to be the only one who has slept in their bed (they should only know what can happen pre-sale). For them there's the new boat or new house, if they don't mind dealing with the punch lists and settling that comes with new, along with giving up a lot of money.

A little O/T but I'm with you on the House thingy.

We rebuilt a 15th century farmhouse when I was a kid. The builder who screwed us for so much got his comeuppance. After he had fitted the waterfall feature inside all the light fittings and the added free-fall cement, Mom was not happy. After living in a trailer, with 3 kids, for 2 years on site while Mr. Chuckles and his clowns did their tricks, she had had enough.

As Mr Chuckles drove to work up our very tight and wiggly country road, Mom was taking us to school in her wagon. She then saw him coming the other way. Her eyes must have turned red, then she just rammed the side of his BMW in the road.

SMASH!!!!

She reversed out, and I swear she was going to have another run at him, luckily my elder brother knocked it out of gear. The insurance covered it as an accident, but there was pure hate involved.

I feel your pain.

Hi,

This has been a huge problem in New Zealand, from my understanding of it - some boffin decided in the 90's that Kiln Dried Lumber would resist rot just fine , no need for all those pesky chemicals any more was there.

Around the same time new building styles came along and soon enough they had a phenomenon called Leaky Building Syndrome. City building depts who had approved the plans and materials compensated some but could not handle the lot, Builders folded People got sick and a new mould was discovered never before known to science living happily in the rotting wood.

I have not lived in NZ for many years but am there quite regularly. I was curious one day a few years ago about what looked like an abandoned apartment block, a friend told me it was a building where folks bought off the plan, before it was finished it was condemned becuase of the leaking problem - the Owners never got to move but you guessed it the finance Co still wants their cash.

I don't buy new cars but like them 12 months old with less that 15,000 miles on them. Boats - not planning on owning one but if I do it will be a used Tinny, Motorcycles- had a few new ones of those but probably next one will be used as it will be 40 yrs old. Houses - had a few old ones and just bought one 3 yrs old.

Congratulations on your new boat!

Allow me to toss in my 2 cents. New boats pass in two stages after being built; the first is "Launching", and the second is "Delivery". Both get kind of mixed up in smaller boats but it is still the same. Between launching and final delivery is the check of performance and treatment of bugs and what not, some owners even do a complete survey during the launch period, (some also monitor and inspect the production process and retain the right by contract to cancel the purchase under certain terms and conditions), to make sure reality conforms to plans and agreements. So what you are going through is normal, and as far as I hear, Carver backs their product and have a good reputation and support. So, let the worries go, soon the bubbly will flow and these days now will be a memory to joke about.

An extra penny: If I were you, I would hire a captain, (Not a throttle pusher that will tell you: yeah boss, I'll call someone that knows what is going on), a master that will spend all this stressful time on your behalf on the boat with the guys fixing the bugs, and he will be able to eliminate any possible headache that might pop-up down the road so you don't live the nightmare again in couple of month's, (not saying there would be a reason to, just sayin!), and as an experienced skipper, he/she, (until Olderboater finds us a unisex pronoun! ), will be able to grasp the operational sequences of all the equipment and control boards, then after all the hassles and fuss are over, would outline it to you in written and hands-on manner on your leisurely comfort while you and your family interact and enjoy the new toy. I imagine that the tips and tricks a captain will tell you about regarding operating, understanding and maintaining your boat, alone will worth every penny.

Congrats again and cheers,