Frequently Asked Questions

• What is AffordableBoatsOnline.com all about?
  
  The Web site Tropical Boating established AffordableBoatsOnline.com to serve an underserved market: The buying and selling of affordable boats in Florida. Yacht brokers throughout the state commonly receive inquiries from individuals needing to sell a used boat that won't bring in enough of a commission to make it worth the broker's time to list it. Many yacht brokerages, in fact, require a minimum commission of $2,000 or $2,500, or even more, which puts professional yacht brokerage sales out of reach of many boat owners, whose boats may be worth $5,000 or $10,000. Even the monthly listing fees at sites such as boattraderonline.com or usedboats.com may be too high to make it worth listing these boats.
  
  AffordableBoatsOnline.com recognizes that there are thousands of Floridians who have affordable used boats to sell, and who need a way to reach potential buyers without spending all of their anticipated sales prices on advertising and marketing.
• Register for your free account and list your boat today!
• So what's with the free listings? Is there a catch?
  
  Nope, no catch. Because Affordable Boats Online is a new web site and needs to get listings in order to get traffic, and we need traffic in order to get listings, we are offering listings absolutely free of charge to get the ball rolling. If you're a boat owner needing to sell your boat, you don't have anything to lose — just place your ad at no cost.
  
  Affordable Boats Online will eventually charge a (very reasonable) listing fee, but we will likely continue to offer free basic boat listings even after we begin offering paid listings. Once paid boat listings are being offered, the paid listings will allow for photographs and more detailed descriptions of the boat for sale, and will include additional paid options such as highlighting your ad or making it a featured listing.
  
  But for now, all ads are free, whether or not you have a photo of your boat available to include with your ad.
• How long will you be offering the introductory free listings? And how much will the paid listings cost when you start charging?
  
  Frankly, we're not sure. Our offer of free listings for boat owners wishing to sell their boat will continue at least until we have a reasonable number of listings in each category. When we do start charging for listings, we will always charge less than the "big boys" (e.g, boattraderonline and boats.com), because we want this site to serve as a resource for people looking to buy and sell affordable boats. At some of the other sites, if it takes 6 months or more to sell your boat, you could end up spending just as much as you would if you listed it with a yacht broker. We don't believe that's an affordable expense for people selling affordable boats.
• Does Affordable Boats Online charge any transaction fee when the boat sells?
  
  Absolutely not, and we do not plan to. Potential buyers contact the seller directly using the listing contact form, and the rest of the transaction is between the buyer and the seller. It's completely up to the buyer and seller to make any arrangements for a boat survey or sea trial, if desired, and to agree on a price and handle the paperwork involved in the sale. Affordable Boats Online merely serves as a vehicle to bring the buyers and sellers together.
• What about yacht brokers? Do you allow yacht brokers to list their boats?
  
  Sure, yacht brokers are welcome to list affordable boats for sale on this site — as long as they are listed for sale at $25,000 or less. Most yacht brokers deal primarily in sailboats and motor yachts above the price range we're focusing on, so most brokerage boats probably won't qualify under our definition of "affordable boat" — but any yacht broker can place boats for sale on this site. If there is sufficient interest on the part of yacht brokers, we may offer special multi-listing packages for yacht brokerages and used boat dealers.
• Why $25,000? What makes a $24,000 boat "affordable" and a $26,000 boat not?
  
  Well, we had to draw a line somewhere, and that's where we chose to draw it. By focusing on boats for sale under $25,000, we are allowing for the inclusion of some of the larger cruising sailboats and motor yachts. Naturally, the smallest boats, such as canoes, kayaks, and jet skis, are likely to be listed at much lower prices.
• So what's in it for you? What do you get out of doing this?
  
  As noted above, Affordable Boats Online plans to charge for boat listings eventually, and yes, we do hope to turn a profit from this site. However, we do not intend to lose sight of the core mission here, which is to offer a way for buyers and sellers of affordable boats to find each other, without the onerous fees and commissions of yacht brokerages and other boat sale sites.
• Register for your free account and list your boat today!