That's great, assuming the surveyor is in fact independent. This is not always the case. Surveyors often work very closely with brokers and surveyors need to stay on good terms with the local industry. That's why we counsel that you NEVER use the surveyor recommended by the seller/broker. Find a fiercely independent surveyor who understands the type and class of vessel to be surveyed. "Deal-breaking" surveyors are a better choice for independent surveys. If the broker groans when you tell him who you hired, that's a good thing <G>. Remember that you the buyer, have the ultimate decision making power. You do not have to follow your surveyor's advice and you can discount his findings as much as you wish. Now, if you have such an independent surveyor and he takes you aside to tell you this is a good boat (more often he will tell you to run away from this boat), you have a pretty good chance that what he says is true. That's why we counsel, after the survey, you take your surveyor to lunch and in an environment where you are both talking off the record (that's important, a surveyor will be very reticent to make judgments on the record) you then try to get his judgments and reasoning. Finally, before you go back to the buyer/broker get a very rough estimate from a local boatyard to fix deficits your surveyor found. Now you have a dollar figure, albeit very rough, from which to negotiate. Beware if the owner offers to fix the deficits. At least any serious deficits. Your insurance company and/or your lending company will want a copy of yet another survey, showing that the more important of any deficits have been corrected. They will sometimes insist that these corrections be done by professionals. We have gone over this in great detail on TWL before and this detail is in the archives. Joe Engel Portland, OR -----Original Message----- From: Nick Meloy [mailto:mulatfl@att.net] Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 9:44 AM To: Joe Engel Cc: GYMKIDD319@aol.com; trawler-world-list@lists.samurai.com Subject: Re: TWL: RE: Survey Tip When we surveyed our current vessel, the surveyor developed the usual long list of things. What I found interesting was that the surveyor, at the close of the survey, called us to one side and told us that if this vessel met our personal wants for a vessel (and if we had looked at enough boats to know what we were doing), then we should strongly consider purchasing the vessel. snip > Unfortunately a surveyor has an incentive to list every last (minor) > flaw, > snip -- Nick Meloy 44' Custom Trawler "Serendipity" mulatfl@att.net 30 32.855 N 87 07.550 W (850) 994-6165