Why Aspire
Why Choose Aspire Yacht Sales, Buying or Selling
Buying or selling a yacht is a considerable undertaking, and a great deal of how it goes comes down to the brokerage sitting in the middle of it. We are a small firm in Fort Lauderdale, and every one of us came to this from the water rather than from sales. Here is what you can expect from us, whichever side of the deal you happen to be on.
What you can expect from us
Buying and selling ask rather different things of a broker, and we have written about each of them in full elsewhere. What follows holds true of us either way.
Every one of us came to this from the water
This is the part we would put before anything else. Every broker at Aspire has spent their life around boats. Between us we are licensed captains, engineers, and people who have crewed aboard and stood their watches, and our founder holds a USCG 100 Ton Master license. We are not salesmen who happen to have ended up selling yachts. We love being at sea, we love talking about boats, and you will work that out within about five minutes of meeting any of us. In practice it is the difference between being able to tell you how a particular hull behaves in a short chop off the Stream, or what that noise from the engine room is likely to be, and simply reading you the brochure.
The sale is the beginning of it, not the end
We are not looking for a single transaction. Most of the owners we deal with come back to us, and a good many of them call long before they are buying or selling anything: a yard needed at short notice, a captain, a surveyor worth waiting for, what a repair ought to cost, whether the boat somebody has offered them is worth the trip to go and see. We would far rather be the people you ring when something has gone wrong aboard than the people who sold her to you and were never heard from again.
You will always know who your broker is
We are a boutique brokerage by choice and we intend to stay one. You will work with a named broker who knows your yacht and your circumstances, who answers their own telephone, and who sees the deal through from the first conversation to the closing table. You will not be handed to whoever happens to be free that morning.
Every one of our brokers is licensed and bonded
Florida law requires a yacht broker to hold a state license and to post a bond, and a good many people selling boats hold neither. Every broker at Aspire holds both, and we are members of the International Yacht Brokers Association. You are welcome to check any of it before you call us.
We will show you the whole market, not only our own listings
Our site carries thousands of yachts from every member brokerage, not just the ones we have taken on, and we will tell you honestly when the right boat for you belongs to somebody else. A brokerage that shows you only its own listings is not helping you choose. It is selling you what it happens to have.
Your deposit is in escrow, and releasing it is not our decision
Your deposit is held in Aspire's escrow account, exactly as the purchase and sale agreement requires. Releasing it, though, is not the broker's call. Every document goes to an independent closing coordinator who runs her own documentation company, and only once she has reviewed them all and holds the originals in her hand does she authorize the funds to move. The person earning the commission does not get to decide when they do.
We pay to market your yacht, and recover it only if she sells
Photography, video, drone footage and distribution across the major listing networks are paid for by Aspire, up front. There is no retainer and there is no marketing invoice. We recover the cost from the commission when your yacht sells, and if she does not sell, we do not recover it at all.
Your closing is handled in house
Documentation, title and registration, sales and use tax, escrow and the closing itself are all dealt with by our own closing coordinator rather than handed to a stranger. Most buyers and sellers never meet her in person, but she deals with you directly throughout, and you will always know who has your paperwork and how to reach her. The final few weeks of a boat deal are usually the most anxious, and that is precisely the part we would not dream of outsourcing.
We are where the boats are
Our brokers are based across South Florida, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, and we will travel anywhere to sell a yacht. Fort Lauderdale is the center of this business and we are in the middle of it: on the docks, in the yards and at the shows, most weeks of the year.
When we act for both sides
On a boat we list, the buyer and the seller are both ours. We say so in writing before anyone offers, we deal straight with both parties, we do not carry one side’s negotiating position to the other, and the commission does not change because of it.
Our job in that position is a deal both people are content with. A broker who squeezes one party to please the other has one sale and no reputation. If you would rather have separate representation, say so and we will arrange it, inside the firm or outside it.
Wherever you are starting from
If you are buying
A broker aboard at every showing, access to the boats that never reach a listing, valuations drawn from what comparable yachts actually sold for, and the survey and sea trial arranged and attended on your behalf.
How we represent a buyer →If you are selling
No fee unless she sells, a price set by what comparable yachts actually closed at, a proper presentation completed before she goes on the market, and a written valuation back with you inside 48 hours.
How we sell a yacht →Would you rather just have a conversation?
Tell us what you are looking for, or what you have to sell, and we will give you a straight answer. There is no obligation, and we will not chase you afterwards.