My first offer was declined by the seller. I had kind of got my hopes up that they would take the low offer and so I hit another mental roadblock, even wondering whether I should just shelve the whole boat project and let Sasha live out her life on land. Then Banks reminded me that I’d only made the first offer with the intention of solidifying the seller’s informal mention of a number some thousands off the asking price. True that. So I went back this last Thursday and offered slightly less than that number. I also started preparing myself to look for another boat. The offer expired Saturday night, and Friday and Saturday came and went without any word from the broker. At that point, I felt it was safe to assume the deal was off, and emailed Tom (the broker) that I’d like to take another look at the other Westsail that’s for sale here. Took Sasha out for a walk this morning and decided to stay local rather than drive to the beach, so I headed down toward the marinas. On the way, I checked my email and had an answer from Tom–the offer had been accepted, he’d just been out of the office all weekend. So, I headed straight down to the office, got a copy of the acceptance and a briefing on the next steps. Tom’s arranging for the pre-splash mechanical inspection, which should take place later this week, and hopefully it will be splashed Monday or Tuesday. In the meantime, I need to make arrangements with the surveyor to get the dry part of the survey done before that if at all possible. I’ll also need to make an escrow deposit tomorrow. Well, yay! Now I’m just hoping nothing big comes up in the survey or, more accurately, I hope nothing big is there to be found. If there is a problem, naturally I want it to be found.
Assuming the boat passes the survey and the sea trial and nothing comes up that necessitates a renegotiation of the price, I pay for the boat and it’s mine. I’ll need to find someone to help me take it offshore for the actual transfer, both to observe Mexican legalities and to allow me, on my eventual return to California, to avoid the use tax.
W00t w00t w00t!