Buyers Broker or not?

I always recommend a good buyer's broker. A good one can save you time and effort and also they can advise and protect you. It costs you nothing as the boat is being brokered and a commission will be paid. It's just whether the seller's broker gets it all or a broker you select gets half of it.

Now this does mean you have to select a good broker and that is a key. A bad one does nothing for you and sends you on wild goose chases. A good one will pre-screen the boats. It doesn't mean they won't send you on a wasted trip, but that will mean they were lied to as much as you were. Often they'll be able to get information that is difficult for you to get from the selling broker. Then they'll be helpful in closing, in putting your deposit into escrow, in helping you find a surveyor.

Basically, they're a professional doing this all the time. You aren't.

I would find one who specializes in the type boat you're looking for. First choice would be your area so you can "interview" them face to face. Otherwise you're doing that on the phone, but don't skip that step. Talk to them. Ask them what they'll do for you. If not comfortable or sold, move on to the next one. If they're good and experienced, they have contacts all around the country. They will scout out the market and also find out what they can about any you call to their attention. Often times you'll call a boat to their attention and they'll already know some of it's history. If not, they'll talk to someone who does. Getting on the plane should only be necessary when it's the boat assuming it passes survey or any deficiencies can be easily remedied. Obviously they can't fly all around the country to look at every boat either. The good ones though won't send you to a boat that is horribly misrepresented by the seller. Even if it's just a boating friend of theirs, they will at least get a walk by. They will question how recent the photos are and, if not recent, require some current photos. To me that is always one of my first questions, "When were the photos taken." I've seen times they were the same photos used to sell the boat 4 years ago to the current owner.

A Broker feels more comfortable asking direct questions and is far more likely to get honest answers from the selling broker. Or the broker knows from experience whether to trust a selling broker.

It really depends on how savy you as the buyer are. A good buyers broker can screen boats, but there are lots of them not as good. How do you know how good they are when they're out of the area. Also like you said the boats are spread out all over. You do get some of the benefits Olderboater has mentioned when you do have a good buyers broker. I have one owner who is looking for another yacht, he uses one broker for Lazzara's, one for Sunseekers, and another for Neptunus and everything else when he looks at them. However, he looks at a lot of boats before buying. He does tip each broker $2-500 each time they show us a boat, me as well for looking at it with him, but he's the best owner I've ever worked for.

By buying from the listing broker a lot of times you can get a better deal on the boat. If the offer is lower than what the buyer wants, but fairly close, I've seen brokers cut their commission to make the deal happen and sell the seller another boat. That's easy for them to do when they're dealing with a full 10% commission, and would usually only be getting 4% of it anyways. Buyer's broker usually gets 6% of the commission, and generally that's split 50/50 with their brokerage house.