If you have been in the market for bargain boats at all online then you’re probably well aware of the often touted boat liquidation sales available from Uncle Sam. Government sources like the U.S. Marshals Service and the General Services Administration (GSA) regularly liquidate surplus or seized boats as well as about any type of forfeited or surplus asset via. internet or via. state or local auctions houses.
What’s usually the case however, is that many of the sources the Government uses to sell off their assets are what I call ‘transparent’ markets. These types of markets unfortunately easily enable bidders to compare the particular asset with a similar one and thereby decide very quickly about how much they should bid. And often times they overbid. For example one of the transparent sources you frequently find government boat auctions is bid4assets.com Since there are already thousands of other non-Gov’t yet similar assets being auctioned off on this site to the general public it’s difficult to really get a great buy since everyone has clear view of the market.
What I’ve tried to do is to identify state and local Government auction sales close to home that auction off boats Live, on site and with few bidders. Especially local Police and DEA auction events. The reality is that most don’t realize that each day across the U.S. a landlord, business owner, or some creditor is awarded an order from the court directed to the Police department, requiring him to seize the debtor’s asset or property so it can be promptly liquidated at auction. The proceeds of course are used to pay down the creditors as much as possible. Surprisingly whoever attends these ‘must sell’ sales events (and they come and go all the time) will frequently have opportunity to walk away with an extremely cheap asset.
With regards to finding these Gov’t boat auction sales take a deep breath…you can try and keep up with sales events on your own. Agency websites and newspapers advertise when they are scheduled to occur. However, there are time-saving membership auction database sites that regularly keep you on the cutting edge on a regular basis. I’ve found them a big time saver. These sites offer members access to their regularly pruned auction sales data banks for a nominal, one-time fee.
I’ve subscribed to five of these sites since most tend to focus on a particularwide or deep range of assets. Alternatively, others focus on particular types of auction sources. Strangely most membership sites are strictly Government related ..which in my opinion is too limiting since there are so many other types of auction venues to take advantage of.
The real key with any auction is to once and for all pick your particular asset, focus on it by consistently exposing yourself to listings so you can make legitimate comparisons and offers. When it comes to finding a steal at any Government auction sale or repo boat auction event, you have to be able to really know when you’ve come across a super deal. And you can only do that by constantly comparing assets so as to recognize an undervalued asset when no one else can.