Choosing a Broker (When Selling Your House to Cruise)

If you’re selling your house to move aboard and cruise, or selling a boat as part of that transition, you’re probably at least considering using a broker. And unless you already have a broker you trust, the real question might be how you’d find the right one. The process involves

• making a short list,
• viewing their listings,
• getting in touch,
• seeing how their listings look in reality, and
• meeting them to see if you want to work with them. 

In my experience, a good broker is worth every cent of their commission. Commissions typically run around 6–7% for homes and about 10% for boats. But a bad broker can actually cost you money. When a house or boat sits on the market too long, it starts to look “stale,” and buyers begin to wonder what’s wrong with it.

This is a big transaction, tied to a big life change. So here are the details for the steps I used to choose a broker, whether selling a house or a boat.

Step 1: Build a Short List (But Don’t Call Yet)

Start by gathering names from online searches, local signs, marina bulletin boards, recommendations—whatever makes sense for what you’re selling. But don’t start by calling brokers and asking them to come “take a look.” First, you want to see how they market and how they handle buyer inquiries.

Step 2: Judge Their Listings Like a Buyer Would

Before a buyer ever calls, they see the listing. So look at several listings from each broker on your list.

Ask yourself:

• Are the photos clear and well lit? Do they show the features well? Does it look like the owner was guided to declutter and clean up? Were the photos taken on a good day?
  
• Is the write-up specific and accurate? Does it highlight important features and explain why they matter? Or is it generic, vague, and heavy on “you have to see”?

Online is where most buyers start. If a broker’s listings are sloppy, inaccurate, or unhelpful, your house or boat is likely to get fewer inquiries.

When we bought Barefoot Gal, I was stunned by how many boat listings had obvious errors (like a catamaran listed as a monohull) or almost no useful details. Many descriptions were one to two sentences and ended with “must see.” Most often, we didn’t.

Step 3: Test How They Handle Inquiries (Without Telling Them You’re Testing)

Once you’ve narrowed your list to a few brokers whose listings look strong, the next step is the most revealing. Contact them as if you’re a potential buyer, with specific questions about one of their current listings.

This isn’t about “what can you do for me as a seller?” yet. It’s about seeing how they respond when a buyer raises their hand.

Pay attention to:

• How quickly do they respond?
• Do they answer the questions you asked?
• Do they provide helpful details without being pushy?
• Do they sound like someone you’d want representing you?

Basically: is this how you want questions about your house or boat handled?

Step 4: Look at the Real-World Presentation (Houses and Boats Differ Here)

If you’re selling a house, take the extra step of driving or walking by some of that broker’s listings, especially ones similar in price to what you expect to sell for. Don’t simply rely on the “showpiece” properties.

Is the signage professional and easy to spot? Is there an information box? Is it stocked? Grab a flyer. Does it look like something that would help a buyer?

For boats, the same idea applies, but it shows up differently. Does the broker provide complete specs, clear contact info, and an easy way to get details, such as a QR code? Do they seem to know the boat and present it accurately?)

Step 5: Then Schedule In-Person Meetings (Compare Two or Three)

After you’ve done the listing review, inquiry test, and (if applicable) drive-by checks, you’ll usually have a clear sense of who’s worth talking to.

Now set up in-person meetings—ideally with two or three brokers—so you can compare. This is where you find out whether they truly understand your market and how they plan to sell your home or boat. And this is also where you’ll often discover a key truth: some brokers are great at selling certain types of properties, but not others.

When Dave and I sold our house, it was a lake house. After going through the steps above, we realized that none of the local realtors we evaluated seemed to really understand the lake or what mattered to buyers looking for waterfront property.

Two friends who had sold houses on the same lake had the same experience. Their houses sat with little interest while listed with realtors, and both ultimately sold “by owner.”

If You Decide to Sell It Yourself

There’s a common assumption that “for sale by owner” means the seller is too cheap to pay a broker. That wasn’t true for us. We simply felt we could market the house more effectively ourselves than any of the brokers we’d evaluated.

And in our case, it worked. We got a great offer just 12 hours after we put it on the market.

I’m not down on brokers at all. A good broker has contacts, experience, and know-how that can absolutely earn their commission. But if you can’t find the right broker, it may be time to tackle the job yourself.

Keep in mind, choosing the DIY route doesn’t mean you have to do everything on your own. You might find it worth hiring specialists to help you, for example, an attorney to handle the closing.

One Last Warning About Price

One final note from personal experience: don’t automatically choose the broker who suggests the highest listing price. If a broker suggests a price well above what your gut says is realistic, go with your gut–even if they’re “confident” they can get it.

An overpriced house or boat often sits, grows stale, and eventually sells for less than it might have if priced realistically from the start.

Choose the broker—or the approach—you believe will actually get your house or boat sold, in a reasonable time frame, at a fair price.

Learn More

If you’re thinking seriously about selling your house, you’re probably also trying to figure out where this fits in the bigger picture of making the move to living on a boat. Is this something you should be doing now? What needs to happen before it—and what comes next?

Our online course, From Dreamer to Cruiser, helps you map out the major decisions and steps involved in getting from where you are now to actually cruising, so you can build a realistic timeline and understand how the pieces fit together.

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