Finding and Buying a Boat Online- Four Useful Websites

The old adage "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence," is apparently true when it comes to buying a boat. That is, just by the nature of regional supply and demand, it is often possible that a specific type of boat is cheaper and more plentiful in one area of the US than another. But, unlike that old cliché, it is often possible to take advantage of a favorable market in a remote location, and you can do it without getting your head stuck in the proverbial fence. As most have learned by now, the internet is a powerful tool for purchases, both big and small. Here are four websites that are excellent resources for tracking down boats for sale across the nation.

www.boattrader.com. The Boat, Auto, Truck, Cycle and RV Trader magazines (I probably missed one or two) are apparently a thing of the past. Competition from other online classified sites that do not charge for ads was probably too much to compete against, at least with the cost of printing and distributing magazines. So now, Boat Trader and all of the other company's categories are found only online. However, the website remains a top place to search for boats for sale. You can refine your search by region, manufacturer, price, size, type of power, year, and the list goes on. The site is simple and easy to use. Plus, because there is a cost for putting up an ad, you know the person posting the ad is serious about selling a boat.

www.ebay.com. It should come as no surprise that the website that is great for buying so many other things is also great for buying boats. Oftentimes, good deals can be had through both auction and "buy it now" options. However, the time-sensitive format leaves less time for questions, exchange of more pictures, and the opportunity to check the boat out in person if it comes to that. Still, it remains perhaps the best place to get a really good deal on a boat, especially if you know what to look for and what sort of prices you should be expecting.

www.boat.jaxed.com. Jaxed boats is really just a website that searches craigslist sites across the nation for boats that match the parameters you enter in the search fields. It will also search ebay at the same time. Using this website is not nearly as thorough as searching the actual craigslist for each city, but with so many different cities, who has the time? This site does not allow you to enter too many search options beyond price, year, manufacturer and keywords, but it saves you a lot of time searching city by city on craigslist. However, if you know a city that is a mecca for a certain type of boat sales, it would probably still be best to search those sites directly.

www.iboats.com. By the time you get to iboats.com, you will probably start to notice some redundancies in the boats you are seeing for sale, especially if you are searching for a very specific make and model. However, iboats is still worth checking out, as it gives you lots to look at, with boats for sale broken down by manufacturer, model and year.

Using a combination of these websites should yield a thorough collection of boats for sale nationwide. Hopefully, your hunt will be as successful as mine was.