Time to Purchase

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Fisher@1

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Hello,
Looking at purchasing Grady 285, 307 or 325 in southwest Florida. Can anyone tell me what time of year is best to buy, and if buying used how many years old is to old?
 
As written, that is a tough set of questions to answer.

I run a 2003, which does not seem at all too old. But for those models you list, I'm not sure when they were first sold. A well cared for used boat can be a much lower cost than a brand new one, and without knowing your budget, or mechanical ability etc., it is tough to say - even new boats need maintenance, but older ones typically have systems and features with more deferred maintenance.
 
I imagine the spring and summer would be the "peak" season for selling and is going to likely be the time of year where the seller will get the most money for selling their boat. That being said, it really just depends on where you live and where you're buying the boat from, if they have "seasons" and so forth. Up here in the Seattle/PNW area, the peak season is spring/summer and then boating almost comes to a standstill in October/November when it turns to winter, the weather gets worse and fishing ends. I imagine other parts of the country are similar, but considering you're looking in southern Florida, I imagine you must have boating/fishing almost year round, which I imagine won't drop prices down considerably or anything. I personally bought my boat back in Maryland in October of 2021, which seemed like it was the tail end of the season and like the GW dealership that I bought it from was trying to sell it off before the winter. If possible and you can shop around, winters up here or elsewhere are typically the best time to buy and will get you better prices as opposed to being in the peak season. In regard to ages of boats, I've got a 2004 GW 228 Seafarer that's just over 21 years old now and she's still going strong, knock on wood. I always recommend that everyone pay to have a surveyor inspect the boat for them before purchasing so that you don't get any surprises. But as long as the boat checks out, I don't see any issue with a 20 year old boat, or those that are even older than that. I will say though, if you do plan on financing a boat, a lot of banks and/or credit unions won't loan on anything more than 20-25 years old. So, that might be something to consider if you plan on going that route.
 
I am told buying a boat in summer months in Florida is best time to buy. Looking at a boat that is 3-4 years old. Thinking 307 or 325 as 285 is a little on small side.
 
It's all about maintenance and condition. Well-maintained with good records vs. poorly-maintained with no records. A 5 year -old boat that was stored in the water and outside in SWFL probably won't be in as good of condition as a 10 -year old boat stored in indoor dry rack storage its entire life. Too many hours on the engine for its age? Too few for it's age? It's hard to apply a rule of thumb. You need to know the boat's history and check for known potential issues (e.g., transom) that can arise even in newer boats depending on how they are used, stored and maintained.

I run a 2012 307 in SWFL that I bought in 2020 (then 8 years old) that was in better condition that almost all newer ones that I saw (until you reached the barely-used, <3 years old examples which were twice the price). It's all about condition verified by a quality survey.

And I highly recommend the 307. It serves us well from family boating to fishing offshore.
 
Time to purchase is when you find the "right" boat. Could be tomorrow or in weeks or months.
 
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