Salty Podcast: Sailing

Salty Podcast #65 ⛵ Born on a Sailboat & Still in the Game as Sailors & Yacht Brokers

• Captain Tinsley | Melanie Neal & Carolyn Dean o Sunshine Cruising Yachts • Season 1 • Episode 65

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Buying a boat isn't just a transaction—it's the gateway to freedom, adventure, and a lifestyle that many dream about but aren't always prepared for. Sisters Melanie and Carolyn Neale from Sunshine Cruising Yachts bring their extraordinary background as lifelong sailors and yacht brokers to this enlightening conversation about what it really takes to find your perfect vessel.

Check out Melanie's Books:
Boat Buying Basics:  https://amzn.to/4ez2vUP
Boat Girl:  https://amzn.to/4l99CWq
Boat Kid:  https://amzn.to/3GsOgUU

Having spent 19 years growing up on a sailboat, these sisters offer insights you simply won't find elsewhere. "A boat is not an investment," Melanie candidly shares. "It's an investment in your dreams, quality of life, time, and joy." This refreshing honesty permeates their approach to guiding buyers through the often complex journey of boat ownership.

The conversation unpacks crucial aspects of the buying process that potential owners frequently underestimate, from the true costs of maintenance (expect to spend roughly 10% of your boat's value annually) to the emotional rollercoaster that accompanies this major life decision. The sisters break down the typical four-to-five-week timeline from making an offer to closing, explaining the importance of thorough surveys and proper representation throughout.

What makes this episode particularly valuable is their perspective on family dynamics in boating. Having shared a V-berth with only a curtain separating them as kids, they understand intimately that "everybody needs their own space" on a boat, especially children. Their advice for couples considering the cruising lifestyle is equally thoughtful, emphasizing the importance of both partners feeling included and competent in handling the vessel.

Whether you're actively shopping for your first boat, dreaming of upgrading, or simply curious about the cruising lifestyle, this conversation offers practical wisdom delivered with warmth and authenticity. From navigating the current market conditions to avoiding common pitfalls, Melanie and Carolyn's insights might just save you from making an expensive mistake—or help you find exactly the right boat to launch your adventures.

Ready to turn your boating dreams into reality? This episode is your first step toward making informed decisions that will have you sailing confidently into the sunset.

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SALTY ABANDON: Cap'n Tinsley, Orange Beach, AL:
Oct 2020 to Present - 1998 Island Packet 320;
Nov 2015-Oct 2020; 1988 Island Packet 27
Feb-Oct 2015 - 1982 Catalina 25

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Capn Tinsley:

Hey everybody. So we're having some technical difficulties my guest Melanie and her sister Carolyn, so they had to go out and come back in. So I just thought I'd go ahead and go live and let some people come in. I'll go ahead and I guess I could go ahead and read the intro. They're rebooting their computer so they're having problems hearing me. Everything else they're restarting, so let me tell them I already went live. I went live, so come on in when you can. Okay, so basically, I'm in my van in Jensen Beach, I'm using Starlink. It's pretty stormy out. Hopefully we're going to make it through, but this is going to be all about boat buying.

Capn Tinsley:

My guest was on the show before episode 22. This is episode 65, which is pretty unbelievable. When I started this, you know, back in November of 23. So she's bringing her sister on. They both are with Sunshine Cruising Yachts, which is a brokerage, and I've got my cats with me, by the way. I guess you guessed. Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and read this introduction and hopefully they'll come back in soon here. So, oh, here we go. Maybe they get to hear it, but now we're on my computer and we don't have the camera.

Capn Tinsley:

We are live. I just went for it. We are live. So you work that out and I'll go ahead. And can you hear me? Yes, oh, excellent, okay, all right, you work that out and I'm gonna go ahead and read the introduction, okay awesome all right. Um, we got about six people watching, so watch your language. Just kidding, okay. Um, today's episode is all about boat buying and I've got the perfect guest for that looks. Looks like we've got two of you here, which one is which I'm going to take this one, okay.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, y'all are echoing. Okay, can you?

Melanie Neal:

hear me.

Capn Tinsley:

Are we all good?

Melanie Neal:

We're really good. We've got to get you in there.

Capn Tinsley:

Go ahead and move over. Are you echoing a little bit? Let me do something to your mic here. I can hear myself echoing. All right, I'm going to mute you so I can read this introduction. Okay, still having difficulties, anyway.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so today's episode is all about boat buying and I've got the perfect guest for that for it. Joining me is Melanie Sunshine Ne neil, a yacht broker, lifelong sailor and returning guest here on the podcast. You might remember her from episode 22 where we talked about life growing up on a sailboat. Where is she? She can't hide. Now. She um, helps buyers through every step of the process and just released, or just releasing, a brand new book, right, boat Buying Basics, which breaks it all down in plain language. There's a link to it in the episode description. If you're going to order that book, please use the link in the description. It's kind of a preorder thing. It's coming out August 5th, I think, thing. It's coming out august 5th, I think. Uh, this time she's back and she's brought her sister, carolyn, who also works in yacht sales and shares that same salty upbringing. That's what I did there after. Oh my gosh. Echo, echo okay, ready using one computer.

Capn Tinsley:

I think it's okay, okay, ready. Using one computer. Let me see what I can do Edit mic setting. All right guys. All right, let me try that, okay.

Melanie Neal:

We did all tests, everything earlier. Yeah, all right, we said, whatever happens, we're just going to go with it.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, all right. We said, whatever happens, we're just going to go with it, okay. So Carolyn, she also works in yacht sales and shares the same salty upbringing. I think that's pretty cool the way to say it. After college and chartering, on course, carolyn found her way to the boating world in her own right. Together, we're diving deep into what it really takes Maybe that was you, mellie, together really takes um. Maybe that was you, melanie, um. Together we're diving deep in what it really takes to buy a boat in today's market, from qualifying to closing and some things you might not see coming. I'm captain tinsley of sailing vessels, salty, abandoned, and I'll unpack it. 320 and this is the salty podcast, episode 65. Please help me. Welcome melanie and carolyn. I hope we don't echo. Welcome, all right. We should have probably done a tech test before. What is that behind you? Is that a camera? What is it?

Carolyn Dean:

Is it a?

Capn Tinsley:

camera. Oh man, Okay, we got to get your mic working here. Let's see what's going on here. I'm going to uncheck all this stuff Now. Try it.

Melanie Neal:

All right, can you hear us? Okay, that's better.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, I unchecked a few things in there. Oh, she turned off her mic. Okay, we got eight people watching. Let's see what they? Um. Right, we cuss like sailors. I think these are some people you might know. All right, so I do have some questions, but feel free to take over. You're the boat broker. I'm in real estate, by the way, so if you think that we need to cover something, you guys jump in, okay. So I have some questions that will kind of steer us. If you want to talk about some listings, all that, you can, okay. So anything you want to do like that, um, first of all, say hello, introduce yourselves go ahead.

Capn Tinsley:

Hi, I'm carolyn denman and I am melanie's little sister yeah and I now work for her yeah, how long have you been selling yachts? Is this a new thing for you?

Melanie Neal:

um, I believe it about a year and a half. I started, yeah, I started um last february, yeah how do you like it? Um, I love it. I I was apprehensive at first, just because I never really considered myself um someone that would you know sell things yeah, it just really came naturally, because it's something that I just kind of was raised with and know so much about and care so much for, that it just kind of worked itself out, yeah, and if anybody.

Capn Tinsley:

If you don't know who these girls are, melanie wrote a book, boat Girl which I read and it's fascinating. So these guys grew up on a sailboat with their parents. Melanie, from the age of zero, and she was your mom was pregnant when they got on the boat right, and so you spent 18 years and I assume you did too, caroline on the boat.

Melanie Neal:

Yes, yes, actually 19.

Capn Tinsley:

That's incredible and it's just fascinating because you did the boat school, the hunt school, whatever, and that was before Internet. You guys had to mail in your tests and everything.

Melanie Neal:

Yes, snail mail.

Capn Tinsley:

That is so awesome, and if you want to read that book, I should have included a link to that one that one's boat girl and you can get it, you know, on amazon or wherever. I listened to it. It was a great. It's a great listen, so I appreciate that. Now we didn't get carolyn's side of things, so feel free to correct anything in this podcast. Um, melanie, melanie, you want to go ahead and introduce yourself, melanie?

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, it's funny too, because I know we talked about the book last time. I was on here a bit and you know it's it's. The book is a memoir. Is one person's point of view, right? It's one person's point of view of what happened, one person's memory. More as one person's point of view, right, it's one person's point of view of what happened, one person's memory. So there are a lot of things that Carolyn has and my parents, of course, have completely different memories of that. You know, we, we just the way our minds work. But yeah, we grew up living aboard a Gulfstar 47, cruising up and down the east coast and bahamas in the winter, and homes we've never never went to a regular school, so so, um, homeschooled all the way up until we went to college.

Melanie Neal:

And, uh, carolyn and I shared the v-birth, which was, you know, basically our our feet touching every night, her trying to keep her stuff on her side and me trying to keep my stuff on my side. We had a little curtain in between.

Capn Tinsley:

It must have been unbelievable when you went, like when you went to a dorm or something. I think you were living on a boat, Melanie, when you went to college, but it would have been like, oh, there's so much room here, yeah, in a dorm, yeah, Okay. So I don't want to take up the time of that. I know you wrote the book in 2013, and I know you're probably like I've written other books since then, right, so, but it is a fascinating. Everybody should read it. It's awesome If you want to learn about kids growing up in Georgetown or on the boat is so cool, oh yeah. And so that gives you some unique qualifications to sell the dream, which is I call it to other people. So we want to get into some of that. But let's start with the basics. What should a first time boat buyer be thinking about before they ever call a broker?

Melanie Neal:

So it's, it's good to, it's good to go from the beginning, and that's the book, and we'll stop talking about my books, but the book Boat Buying Basics that's exactly what we start out with. And so what should a person think about at first? And the biggest thing is what are you going to do with the boat? You know what are your plans. Are you sailing around the world with your family? Are you spending weekends? You know sailing. Are you looking for something to just live aboard at the dock? You know what are you going to do.

Melanie Neal:

And a lot of people don't even really, you know, have concept of that. They may, um, they may just want to be trying it out. They may want to get a boat that they can just learn how to sail on, and then, in a year, they decide they want to do it full time, or in a year, they decide they're sick of it. But you know, just sitting down and like even making a checklist of you know what do I want to do, where do I want to go? Who's playing with me? You know am. Am I going to have crew? Is? You know is is. Do I need an offshore boat? And you know, just just going over all those things and then, assuming that you're working with a buyer's broker, you know you would, you would call the buyer's broker and you know they would set up an initial meeting with you to go over those things and we both, I think because of our you know our background, being both kids and all that really like working as buyers, brokers for families.

Melanie Neal:

I mean we, you know we both like. Yeah, I feel like we know what the kids want.

Carolyn Dean:

Exactly, yeah, so.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, okay, well, well, what's? What's one thing buyers consistently underestimate during the buying process?

Carolyn Dean:

Repairs yes, sometimes, yeah, yeah.

Melanie Neal:

And that's, you know, I think, the the cost of owning a boat. The typical you know, typical formula is that the boat's going to cost you about 10% of its value every year. But that's just kind of an average. And the first year that you own a boat you're going to have a lot more expenses. Because you expenses because your surveyor is going to let you know if anything major is wrong. But there's going to be a lot of things that you didn't realize were wrong or that you have to repair unexpectedly or all that. So I think that's something that people don't really think about. You don't just buy the boat and you're done, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Right and they might underestimate the regular repairs that come up on a boat. Carolyn just sighed. She went. I did, I mean, but you guys got to see. I mean you were living it and you got to experience fixing things yourself. I mean, you guys learn. I mean your dad wasn't just letting you off easy. I mean, it's just like when you drove the dinghy, you could drive the dinghy by yourself once you changed the car. Did you hear?

Carolyn Dean:

that.

Melanie Neal:

We're still having some issues hearing.

Capn Tinsley:

That's all right, we got people here. How do we sound, you guys? Let us know how we sound. I hear an echo on your side, so are you hearing me? Now? Test one, two Is that a good copy? Yeah, okay, okay. So I like how your dad. Oh yeah, go back over there, put your foot in the middle, go back a little more. Yeah, good, good, okay. We're going to be doing clips from this, so you need to be centered. Marcy Lynn says I hear an echo. I kind of dig it. That's funny, hi, marcy. Thank you, I like it All right. Let me see if I can fix that real quick.

Melanie Neal:

We can start.

Capn Tinsley:

Echo, how about that? Okay, I don't know what you just said, but I think the echo's gone. How about it? Marcy, greetings from Puerto Rico. Okay, but what I was, what I was saying is, well, the echo's back. When your dad would she's still there that you could drive the dinghy when you were able to change the spark plugs, right, yep, yes, and so and more yeah. So tell me about that.

Melanie Neal:

Well, it was sort of, you know, the thingy was our car. Basically it was the way to get off the boat and go do things and, you know, go see other kids and all that. So it was a lot of incentive to learn how to do things.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, yes, it was a lot of. What incentive? Incentives, oh okay, like what do you mean incentives?

Carolyn Dean:

To get off of what you understand. Get off the boat, get away from people.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, okay, I got you Okay. I got you Okay. So back to the buying process. Is there a sweet spot size or price range that tends to work best for liveaboards or cruisers?

Carolyn Dean:

I would say I mean, that's a tough question, but I would say kind of in the 40-foot range is good, or above, to start out, unless you're just single-handing.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, okay, like if there's a family.

Carolyn Dean:

Yeah, I mean it depends on the size of the family. I mean there's really no one size fits all. But I always tell people, if you feel like you have just enough space now, you're not gonna have just enough space when you're on the boat.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay.

Carolyn Dean:

Plus you sound waves completely um I didn't hear that.

Capn Tinsley:

I think you're muted. I think you're muted, you're muted. So ScreamingFrog68 says Wax a hat I don't know what that is, but I can't hear you. So we're having some difficulties here. But y'all just hang in with us, ask some questions, because they can definitely read. Let's see what's going on. Oh Hi, so you have two open there. You must have something open on another device, maybe. Well, now we're on my phone. Oh, because we can't hear you on this. Oh, wow, that, wow, that's so much better. Okay, everybody hang in there with us. Yeah, that's, that is a lot better, good, good, all right cool we're good, yay, cell phone, just just so, just so.

Melanie Neal:

Uh, the viewers know, since you're doing this from your van with Starlink, yes, we're doing it from a boat out in the middle of nowhere in Virginia, also on Starlink. But it's okay for us all to have some technical difficulties because this is… that's sailing. This is sailing.

Capn Tinsley:

Yep, that's right, and I'm getting prepared for…. I'm hoping that I will be able. Um, I I lost my husband eight months ago, so I've been uh just going through a really hard time, but I'm hoping that by october I'll have uh, the mental capacity to go on my boat again with. Well, I'm grieving a lot and it's just, it's just really sad, you know, but with my, I'm going to take. Did Leslie tell you?

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, yeah, and I'm just, I'm really really sorry to sorry to hear. I know it's been thinking about you, thank you.

Capn Tinsley:

We were together 25 years, so it's been. It's the the worst day. I don't wish this on anybody. So the podcast helps. You know that I can get on here and and talk to people like you and uh, but I'm hoping to go down to the exumas this october and he was he's not here to take care of my cats, so they're going to come with me. Great, that's good. Cats are good, they really are. Yeah, so I'm gonna be doing the podcast from there. So I'm, and I've got starlink on the boat as well, great. So, um, you know there's gonna be a lot of podcasts like this with, uh, technical difficulties, I'm sure, but, um, anyway, I hope you're there. I know I know that you're. Oh wait, hello from urbana v on on a boat.

Capn Tinsley:

Very sorry for your loss, thank you, thank you, I'm gonna start crying um, oh, maybe you'll be down there one of the things that you know.

Melanie Neal:

We were kind of just talking about before well yeah, before all the uh, the technical stuff is you know what, what's a good size boat and you know your, your boat. You've got the 350. 320. Oh okay, that's even better.

Capn Tinsley:

I I know that you know you were used to sailing it together, but that's a perfect size to single actually I mostly single handed, I was mostly singing, and but it was big enough for him to come with me and it was great yeah yeah, but that's, that is a really.

Melanie Neal:

You know, that's so sometimes, and my you know my theory on on the size of a boat is, you know, no matter who's aboard, you know, you, you, you, everybody needs to be able to run it on their own. So that's a good yeah, so we're proud of you, thank you.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, I learned it that way I was when I took my lessons. The um, I said you need to show me how to do this by myself, and then I kick him out of the way and he goes. Okay, you know. So I didn't want to. I didn't want to have to wait on anybody to be in the mood or to get off work or anything. I just wanted to be able to go, and so that's just the way it's always been for me.

Capn Tinsley:

Now it is nice when the wind's blowing and you're trying to come into the dock and you got somebody on board. Okay, so how do you coach someone through the pre-approval and the qualifying process for a boat loan? So I know you probably got your big cash buyers I do in real estate but then you got people that even when they're rich, they still want to get a loan. You know.

Melanie Neal:

Well, and the funny thing is, too, that you know it's all proportionate, right it's? You know the person who can put down you know half a million dollars cash on a boat that's probably probably have a lot more money than that, whereas the person who is putting, you know paying you know 60, $70,000 on a boat that might be their whole retirement right, that they might have cashed in their 401k to do this or you know whatever. So the money almost matters more to people with a smaller budget, and I'm sure you see the same thing in real estate. But boat loans, you know, just like anything, you know people should look at, obviously. Look at their credit score. Look anything, um, you know people should look at, obviously, look at their credit score. Look at, you know the. The interesting thing is that lenders will do a longer term, kind of like they do for rvs. Um, so, yeah, so you know it's not uncommon to get a 20-year boat loan um interest rates have been running.

Melanie Neal:

I get updates every but I think in a seven and a half to eight percent right now, which is not great, but it's not terrible. But but you know, the buyer should connect up with a lender. We work a lot with Lori Kaiser at Ocean Point Lending at ocean points lending. So lender who's, you know, specifically works in boat financing and this, the pre-approval process, is that it's like buying a house, but it's a lot more simple. It's, you know, it's uh, you know, they're basically just, you know, shopping, shopping loans for you and there's sort of a you know boat loan broker.

Capn Tinsley:

But um, maybe I'd like to talk to her sometime and have her on the podcast. Yeah, absolutely, yep, I haven't had a lender on so that would be great, so maybe yeah, she's fantastic.

Melanie Neal:

I'll connect you up with her um, but you know it's, it's the thing that's unlike real estate, people don't have to be pre-qualified before they start looking at boats. A lot of times with real estate, I think you have to have a pre qualification letter and all that um, and that can be frustrating, because we do work with a lot of people who you know find the boat that they absolutely love and you know their credit might be good, you know, but for whatever reason, uh, they can't get a loan. So you know that's that can be really disappointing, uh, for people. So it's, it's.

Capn Tinsley:

It's something which she'd be a great person to have on the podcast absolutely yeah, and so it might be good uh, a good thing to get pre-qualified to have someone. Let's see. Let's see what marcy says. Best recommendations have a prospective buyer speak. Speak with a lender before they select a boat. Helps the buyer be a wiser boat shopper. Is marcy a boat broker?

Melanie Neal:

so so we have a team almost all in and we've got some marcy.

Melanie Neal:

She's on your website yeah yeah, okay we have some really great guys on the team, but we uh one of the things that when I set out to start this brokerage uh, five and a half years ago, I'd been working for another broker for a long time um, you know, I I wasn't going to be like, oh, I want an all women team because there are many wonderful men in the industry but there aren't very many women. The industry is still about 98% male. So I've got this group of, you know, really wonderful women, like my sister. You know, marcy was really my first broker when I started and she's awesome yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

I saw her on the website you posted when people sell stuff Carolyn's on there and Marcy's on there, cool, hey, marcy, we'll send you a link. You can come in too. What changed in the loan world in the past year or so, especially in terms of interest rates and lender expectations? It's affected real estate, for sure. You know I felt mostly second home, so that's an interest rate that is about 1% higher than if someone's buying a home.

Capn Tinsley:

So we're talking about 7.99 and that makes people push back a little bit. Is that the same way?

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, it's, it's been pretty much exactly the same with boats. I mean it's, you know, or four years ago you know, but you know people were getting interest rates under 5%. So you know, it's sort of. But I think and I haven't talked to Lori about this Usually I try to get an idea from her what's going on it seems like they're going down a little bit again and the things that affect that are the same things that affect interest rates everywhere.

Melanie Neal:

And there's been a lot of, you know, in the boat buying world. There's been it's been a really crazy year because it was very slow for the first part of the year. People are sort of in that you know, election post-election paralysis where they nobody knows what's going to happen. And you know it doesn't matter what, what side of the fence you're on there, it's a you know it's. People don't want to spend their money, um, so now that that's kind of settling down a little bit, um, I think we're going to see interest rates go down, but that's just. You know, that's kind of an outsider perspective. Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, they need to. So it's probably similar to real estate, where the sellers you're having to have a talk with the sellers and say you know, we got these challenges. Does that happen with the boats as well, where you have to have those talks with them? Like you know, probably got these challenges. Does that? Does that happen with the boats as well, where you have to have those talks with them? Like you know, probably not going to get that high price. That a couple of years ago.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, so the thing that happened and Carolyn jump, jump in.

Carolyn Dean:

I feel like I know.

Melanie Neal:

Well, a lot of people bought boats during COVID cause they just wanted to, you know, get away and be out on the water, escape the craziness. We all know how wild it was and hard and because of that it was definitely a seller's market. So now people are wanting to sell their boats and it's just not the same. Yeah, the person who bought a boat, you know three years ago for $200,000 is now realizing that their boat's only worth $150,000. And it's just. It's not because of the boat, it's just because the market changing and you know they want to sell it and they're upset that they can't get that $200,000 out of it.

Melanie Neal:

And I think one of the things that you know, I say to people all the time is that I mean, I have this conversation almost every day A boat is not an investment. It's, you know, it would be nice if it was, but it's never an investment. It's an investment in your dreams and your quality of life and your time and your joy. You know, but investment and happiness, it's not going to be a financial investment. You are going to lose money on a boat around it, and brokers don't like to tell you that, but it's true.

Capn Tinsley:

By the time you get, you know the things that break you really got to, you got to want to be in there to. You got to understand that there's going to be lots of repairs. And oh, espy, do you know this person, bogumila True that.

Melanie Neal:

Yes, yeah, that's, yeah, the Swiakis.

Carolyn Dean:

Hi, all your fans are here.

Capn Tinsley:

I mean, there's something about boaters and you know I've never been a power boater. You know they're fun to ride on, but I can speak to sailors. We got repairs and we have to plan on them and it's something you have to budget for, right. Do you talk to people about that?

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, we do. One of my favorite things to ask a seller is if you were to keep this boat for another year, what are the things that you would do? What are the upcoming projects? But we do, you know, we tell people all the time and you know again, just like you, it behooves us to sell a boat for more money. But if you know, we think if that person has a budget of $100,000, you know, we're probably going to go in and say, well, don't spend that all on the boat. Oh yeah, and $75,000 or whatever, because, a you want to have some cruising money and B there are going to be things that you want to fix.

Capn Tinsley:

So yeah, yeah, you want to have a little cruising fun. Cruising kitty, yeah, okay so can you break down the typical timeline from inquiry to closing? So, carolyn, why don't we get you to answer that one, okay?

Carolyn Dean:

Inquiry to closing.

Melanie Neal:

Well, it's usually about a month or five weeks in total. But the buyer will look at the boat, decide they want to make an offer and then there's usually a little negotiation period and then it takes usually a couple weeks to book a surveyor. Um, surveyors are very busy always, um, so there's a lot to schedule there and then after that usually what a couple of like a week and a half. So, yeah, I mean there's a lot of nuances and things that are different and unique for each deal and so it's hard to really put it into a box, but usually about four to five weeks.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, okay. So so your, your surveyors are like a week out or two weeks out.

Melanie Neal:

They've been. I mean, most of the folks that I've talked to now are, you know, two or three weeks out, and you know, if you find a surveyor that's too available, you may want to think twice about that, that's true. So, but we also, you know, we as brokers, you know we don't recommend surveyors. We will guide people in the direction of how to find a good surveyor. You know, at Asian Goat there's the Society of American Marine Surveyors. Credit to Marine Surveyors, there's different Stamps. Yeah, so you know we'll advise people to do their own research on surveyors. Um, but that, yeah, that process from offer to survey can take three weeks, yeah, and then, once the survey is done, you've got to wait for the surveyor to write up the report. You may have to wait on oil samples from the engine to come back, and then the closing process takes about a week because it is, you know, a lot of people are like, oh, it's like buying a car, I want my boat today, and it doesn't work like that because you know we're as brokers, one of the things that we do is protect you as a buyer or a seller. So we're making sure all the paperwork is legal and correct and making sure that we've done it abstract and we know there aren't any liens on the boat and we work with it.

Melanie Neal:

Who does that for you? So we actually work with a title company. We work with ASAB Marine in Miami. Everybody, I like them because they're actually owned by a law firm, so they're very thorough. They've got a lot of different closing companies, so it's kind of like real estate working with a title agency, so that's the best way to describe it. But it's a team process. At that point we're all usually shooting back and forth 10 emails a day and you know, okay, it's time for this paperwork and all that. But, um, we try to make it as easy as we can. I mean, it's all you know. People, I think, still expect a boat closing to be a, you know a happy day where everybody you know brings a bottle of champagne and we sit around the table in the salon and sign paperwork and all that. I mean that sounds really fun, yeah but really afterwards.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, realistically, everybody's usually in different locations, so it's all, it's all remote, it's. You know, buyer could be in california, the seller could be in virgin islands and the broker could be in virginia. And you know, no problem, we'll get it closed right okay.

Capn Tinsley:

So that's that's kind kind of like with what I do as well because I sell front condos and the owners are everywhere you know, and the buyers sometimes don't come to closing either. Those are fun. Oh yeah, so then you got the challenge of when it's absentee buyer and seller then taking the boat, the possession of the boat, and where's it going to? Is it going to stay in that slip, and all that. That's just some challenges that you have to work out with buyer and seller right.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, especially um, staying in the slip because, like, marinas are pretty full. So that's always something we have to kind of educate the buyer on. You know if the slips available to be passed on or not. And yeah, go for it, yeah It'll.

Melanie Neal:

You know every handover is different. A lot of times, if nobody's in the same place, the seller will, you know, leave. Lot of times, if nobody's in the same place, the seller will, you know, leave the keys in the marina office. And you know, in an ideal situation, you know, buyer and seller can get together and spend a day, you know, going through the boat. But that's, that is pretty rare actually it is yeah. So you know, yeah, the handover is different every time and it's just a matter of being organized and you know, getting explicit instructions.

Melanie Neal:

I mean, I just sold a boat that the owners had it on a mooring down in Coconut Grove in Miami and they, literally, the day they sold the boat, they wanted to take the boat off the mooring and anchor it. Well, the water taxi from the marina won't take you to an anchored boat, it'll only take you to a moored boat. So you know they're like okay, you know, call Joe at this number and he can run you out to the boat and you know the key's hidden here and all that. So yeah, uh, yeah, this pretty interesting scenario. Every deal is unique in its own way and memorable yeah, so it's always a lot of problem-solving.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, yes, yeah and sometimes quickly.

Melanie Neal:

This is funny, this is.

Capn Tinsley:

And sometimes what Quickly.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, and this is funny. This is not like a, you know, women are better, men are better, kind of thing, but I think that you know, women tend to be pretty. It was a um, another broker survey that I wasn't there for, but I was actually on my way to a different one, but, um, it was really hot. We're in virginia, we're on the chesapeake bay right now. The our brokerage is based out of florida but I'm cruising the chesapeake this summer and carolyn's visiting because their mom's birthday is a few days and we're.

Melanie Neal:

We had, we had three, three guys, right, we had the buyer, the seller and the surveyor, so three guys and a boat yard that darn even paid in advance to haul the boat on survey day. You know there was a ton of coordinating involved to get the boat to where it was going to go and buyer flew in from Colorado. They had the survey date, you know, way ahead of time. Well, massive heat wave like there's been in a lot of areas, you know, a huge heat wave, virginia. The heat index was like 114 degrees or something like that. So the surveyor at the last minute was like nope, it's too hot. You know, I don't want to, don't want to do the survey tomorrow. It's too hot and the boat didn't have air conditioning. So you know, we've got three guys the surveyor and byron seller trying to figure this out. They're all calling me and I'm like I'm like, okay, go to home depot, buy a window unit, air conditioning, put it in the companionway, pull the boat off, do the survey.

Melanie Neal:

Are you serious? Yeah, yeah, I'll be wrong, but it was. It was. That's the kind of thing a broker did. Who paid for that? Who paid for that? And they did it. It worked. Boat sold, survey went well. But you know, it's just these.

Carolyn Dean:

Well who paid for the air conditioner.

Melanie Neal:

Well, it was $120 unit. The buyer paid for it because he was going to keep it for a while. Had I been in town and not on my way to North Carolina for another survey.

Capn Tinsley:

I would have gone and bought the air conditioner myself. As a realtor I've done things like that and some things are disgusting that I had to do, you know, clean things up or whatever.

Melanie Neal:

Oh yeah, there is. There is some of that in this industry as well Refrigerator nightmares, whatever.

Capn Tinsley:

oh yeah, there is, there is some of that in this industry as well refrigerator nightmares yeah, I mean, that's toilet nightmares.

Capn Tinsley:

Yes, yeah, yeah, that's awesome. You do. You do what it takes to, uh, to make the sale. Let's see, marianne, too funny, your mama is not going to give you that. Do you know what that means? I don't, oh, okay. So Marianne said this question what's the best boat to buy for a 14-year-old to sail away from her mom and her fiance? And Lori said too funny, your mama's not going to give you that. So there's a whole conversation going on over here. I assume that you know these folks. We're glad they're here.

Melanie Neal:

Mary Ann is my daughter. She's my daughter. She wasn't all the way from. Okay. Okay, thank you, mary Ann. Yes, all right.

Capn Tinsley:

And so who's Lori?

Melanie Neal:

Lori is a friend, okay.

Capn Tinsley:

All right, let's see Biggest mistakes you've seen buyers make during surveys or C-trials Maybe overlooking something. You know like, oh, that won't be a big deal, because you get so excited, it's so emotional. Yeah, trials, maybe overlooking something. You know like, oh, that won't be a big deal, because you get so excited, it's so emotional.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, emotion, and you know Carolyn, you you had Carolyn was working.

Melanie Neal:

I'll let her talk about it, but you know she was working with some buyers that she worked with for a year that were very emotionally invested in their, their search. And then things, things kind of went know a little, a little south in the end because at that point they were so, you know, they'd been searching for a year, they had two kids they were and they were working with us specifically because we grew up on those. Yeah, like we work, you know, we have kids, we want to go cruising. Let's work with carolyn, let's. So they got really emotionally invested in the search. I don't know if that's they did, um, they they really did. And I mean we we researched so many different kinds of boats and um went all over florida and they, you know they eventually decided on what they wanted, which was kind of a rare boat to find. So eventually you know we found her and they bought her.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, but that the challenge with that one is that you know we knew exactly what they wanted and you know we've been working with them for a year, a year. And then you know, not not every boat, not every broker. You know most brokers work very well together and co-broker together and all that, but when they got to this point it was with a broker who I guess had given a discounted commission or something and didn't want to work with another broker. So you know, refused, so they didn't have the representation that they wanted. You know we'd go close Like it was kind of painful and you know we couldn't help them with the survey process. We couldn't help them, you know, with the closing process.

Capn Tinsley:

You got cut out.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, but you know, again, it doesn't benefit them. So if somebody's looking for a buyer's broker and you know you have, you have a connection, and you know, then at the very last minute it's like, oh, you can't be there on the survey with us, like we, you know, and when that happens, when you, you know, don't have an advocate, you know buyer's broker is an advocate, you are more likely to miss things. Yeah, we're likely to absolutely find things that have been glossed over. So, yeah, um, so I think you know, yeah, one of the biggest mistakes people can make is getting so emotionally caught up and being in love with the boat that maybe they don't, you know, don't look closely enough at certain things, or you know they just they're ready to go do you ever say this one might not be for you because of A, b and C?

Capn Tinsley:

You know, you said that you wanted a boat to have this and that and this one has got broken, this and that or it doesn't. You know. I'm sure you've had to talk people out of a boat before.

Melanie Neal:

Oh, yes, yes, or just offer solutions. I mean, if it's really the boat for them, you know, be very realistic about it. Yeah, one of the things that's most helpful is to have a pretty good, pretty good idea of what things cost. Like, you know, if you're, if you're going to, you know, have to replace the engine at some point, you've got a budget 20 grand to do that, you know you've. So, generally knowing and I think most brokers do, you know, generally have ideas as to, and most surveyors do too you know this is a, you know here's, here's a price range of you know you've got to replace the boat's chain plates.

Melanie Neal:

Well, in one yard it could cost you 10 grand and another yard it could cost you 50. So you know you've got a, you've got a tape. We have to sort of take that into consideration with people and again, I, you know we never want to. We want everybody to be happy, right, the best deal is a deal where the buyer's happy and the seller's happy, exactly at the end of the day. Yeah, so nobody feels like they got ripped off, nobody, nobody feels, you know, bitter or whatever, and you know that's, that's what makes a good deal.

Capn Tinsley:

Sure, okay, what kind of person makes a good boat owner? Maybe, who maybe shouldn't buy, or who shouldn't buy a boat. Have you ever had that come up where you're like, hmm, this may be not the best thing for you.

Melanie Neal:

Well, well with me, I mean, as far as somebody looking for a boat, I think that what I've run into is sometimes people they want a boat and they want to buy a boat right now, and they want to buy a boat right now. And then you start working with them and they ask to see your you know sailboat listing beneteau maybe or whatnot, and then they start talking about maybe getting a carver, um motor yacht, you know, like, like so. So I think I think like spontaneousness, either they've got to really kind of slow down or just yeah, they haven't really thought about it what they want.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's our job to help them, guide them through that process.

Carolyn Dean:

Yeah.

Melanie Neal:

And I always say I mean it's. You know we're not here to tell them how to live their lives Exactly. We're not moral police. You know, if you are you, you know somebody who's fragile, health wise, whatever, it's not my job to say, oh, you shouldn't be on a boat, but it is my job to say, okay, this boat has these features that might be helpful to you. This boat is easy to single hand and you know, if you do buy this boat, hire a captain and this is so important. You know, if somebody's not, they don't, they're not experienced, and all that. And if you're, you know and there are people that buy boats that you know we genuinely worry like you need, you have a lot you need to learn, um, and we recommend that they, they hire captains and work with them for a week or so, help them to learn about it, um. So you know there's, I think that there's a boat for everybody. I think, absolutely. You know there's no like there's. No, there's no wrong person for a boat, there's the wrong boat for a person.

Capn Tinsley:

So yeah, and I, I I experienced that in real estate. Like you know, we're in a hurricane zone and we get hit a lot on the gulf coast of alabama and if someone is so concerned, everybody's a little concerned. But if they're just obsessed with the next hurricane I've had, I've said you know, a golf condo might not be the best thing for you, right, exactly, some people are just not that concerned. They just know it's gonna, it's gonna happen, you know. If it's not this, year.

Melanie Neal:

It might be next year.

Capn Tinsley:

Right, it's not this year it might be next year and I'm like I think it might be in the mountains or something. But you know, look what happened this time this last year. But sometimes I can tell by their personality that this is maybe too stressful for them. You know, and I don't know, maybe that comes up when someone's trying to decide between a power boat and a sailboat yes, yes, absolutely yeah, yeah.

Melanie Neal:

Typically they haven't weighed all the options and you know, don't it's? They don't realize that a power boat is going to cost them a whole lot of money in fuel, or that a sailboat, you know, costs 10 grand to replace a set of sails. None of it's, none of it's cheap. Right, right, right.

Capn Tinsley:

But we love it right, yes?

Melanie Neal:

yes, do it because we love it.

Capn Tinsley:

How often do buyers think they're ready to cruise full-time and then backpedal once they see what's involved? You guys could really speak to that.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, a lot. And it's funny we were Carol and I were just talking about this. You know, yesterday Everybody goes through that panic mode. They buy every boat I've ever bought. I go through it. You know it doesn't matter how much people know, whatever, but you buy the boat and a month later everything's breaking and you're freaked out and you're like, oh, my God, what did I do?

Melanie Neal:

What did I do? What did I do? Yeah, so she has some clients that are going through that right now and we were talking about it. It's just like the freak out point that everybody has, um, and you either get through that or you don't. And you know most people get through that and my clients will get through it. Yeah, they'll get, they're off. Yeah, most people, you know, get through it and things are wonderful and all that. And it's good to have a friend talk you down or a friend or broker or whatever talk you off the cliff. Yeah, but if, like, that month or so hits and they're just too overwhelmed, you know some people, living in a house is easy you have laundry, you have water constantly running, you have air conditioning and you don't realize how easy it is.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, so you're not doing it so there are people that you know thought everything was going to be palm trees and coconuts and pina coladas and realizing it's all you know changing an impeller and rough seas and that kind of stuff.

Melanie Neal:

I mean that glamorous stuff, yeah they just don't want to do it anymore and that's okay. Yeah, you know, it's, it's said. We're not here to judge or tell somebody. You know this is how you should live your life. We're here to support them and you know, if they buy a boat from us and we have a lot of people that come back and, you know, have them have a, sell their boats for them for trying. Yeah, exactly, yeah, there's no shame, there's nothing like that.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah I mean, I've known people that buy a boat, get it all set up, go around the world or whatever they do across the atlantic, whatever and then that they're done and they knew they would be done. That's all they wanted before and now they're rving or whatever. Yeah, exactly, so you can help them too. Do you help people, do you guide them, um, how to set up a boat for each specific situation? I'm sure you do.

Melanie Neal:

You know what it takes to stay on a boat for three months in in the exhumants yeah, and, and I think you know yeah, because, like equipment, you know, do we need a water maker? Do we need? You know, one of the biggest mistakes people will make is spending too much money at first. They think they need new batteries. They think you know that and you can live without those things. Um, but one of my favorite things to see is when people will buy a boat and, you know, cruise for a year, two years and love it so much that they want to buy a bigger boat and they're just like you know, I've got a lot of several folks that we're working with now, you know, in that, such that situation. So it's like you love to see families, especially families with kids, you know, adjust to it and embrace it, and you know those are, yeah, those are, those are the stories. Like, that's why we do this. You know that's that's why so?

Capn Tinsley:

he says it's all palm trees and cocktails by your second cruising season. Exactly, exactly, yes. So do you guys? Uh, do you get asked about, um, when people want to think about raising their kids on the boat? I'm sure you guys get those all the time. Yes, cool, tell me about that. What kind of things have you helped people with?

Melanie Neal:

Well, just things that they would never really think of at first, and just different, like different scenarios with different kids. I mean, not everyone's the same. So the thing, the thing about kids is they grow, exactly yeah, yeah. So if you, if you think that you know they fit, now, just science doesn't work that way. So they said they're going to get bigger, right Like, so, so gonna get bigger, right like. There are a lot of folks that move from a monohull to a catamaran, exactly yeah, and and one of the most important things that you know, that sort of we know from our life and and, is that everybody has to have their own space and it doesn't matter if it's a 35 a boat or a 55 foot boat. You know, I'm horrible. People needs, kids, need to have an area where they can go and feel like it's their own and decorate like it's their own and all that.

Capn Tinsley:

so I like leaning towards charlotte you're all amazing rock stars, so how did you guys handle that, with you being in the v-bird together? You had your side and I had, you, had, you had the, the little curtain, my mom made this nice netting, I guess.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, it was a separate setting the curtain. So, yeah, we could see through the curtain. I remember shutting you off, like many times, and I would listen to my music oh yeah, and boombox and then she listened to her, yeah, yeah, yeah, but we had our own space to do that.

Capn Tinsley:

Right If you listen to a boombox. How did you? How did that work?

Melanie Neal:

Because unless you had headphones on, Sometimes that's trying to drown each other out. Whoever has the better one. But you know, giving kids, giving your kids space to do what they need to do, right? You know we both love music. But you know I recently was working with a couple who you know, moving up from a our family, moving up from the Monohull to a catamaran and their son is all about playing Dungeons and Dragons. And so, yeah, it's great. Son is all about playing Dungeons and Dragons. I love Dungeons and Dragons. It's great. He's going around on the cat around that we're looking at picking out his space. Okay, this is where I can fit up. Oh, my God, I love him.

Melanie Neal:

It was great and the really wonderful thing was that the parents were listening to that and open to that. And if you're thinking about taking your kids cruising, you can't take everything away from them. You can't. You know, if they've got a hobby, you can't take it away from them. If they like to play the guitar, then you need to make sure that there's room on the boat for the guitar, if there's.

Capn Tinsley:

So I think that oh, I just had something. No, I've lost it. Oh, I know, I know there's three of us. We like sailing but as you know, there's a lot of women that the man's trying to pull the woman on and she's just not into it. So I'm sure you have to deal with that, because if the woman is happy, you know the man's trying to make that woman happy, so she'll come on that boat.

Melanie Neal:

The man's trying to make that woman happy so she'll come on that boat and sometimes they get kind of lost by just not like the woman needs to feel like she is part of everything. So like when we're working with a buyer, we make sure, like in that kind of situation, you don't just show the, the wife, the galley, I mean you, you show everyone everything and just um, you know, I've actually pulled people like the wife's aside, sometimes just kind of, and taking them around the boat just to kind of show them the things that sometimes you know they they just don't know because no one's told them.

Capn Tinsley:

it's not that they don't want to do it, yeah, um, they just need to be like included sometimes yeah, and listening to her needs, because this, if it's not taken care of, it's going to be a problem well, yeah, it better be.

Melanie Neal:

It's amazing. It's amazing how many people will you know? I think this is one of the reason why you know a lot of female brokers do really well, but yeah, it's amazing how many brokers will, uh, take a couple on the boat and, you know, take the guy straight away, steve at all, and then you know, straight to the galley and um, but it's women are really decision makers in the process because, like you say too, yeah, but because she doesn't want, guy wants to buy a boat. He doesn't care what kind of boat it is, as long as she's happy with it and she'll go. This is true or vice versa.

Melanie Neal:

You know it's uh, but you know, yeah, you always, I mean I've done the same thing that Carolyn does when I'm showing a boat to a couple. You know really just, you know, be more talk with the, you know the woman, you know you just, with any couple in any dynamic, you can usually see exactly, yeah, you kind of have to like, judge the situation and the dynamic. You know there's no one size fits-fits-all way to to work with them but it's well.

Capn Tinsley:

Before I started sailing, I did a lot of research and one of the books I read talked about that. Um, it's important for the woman to know how to sail, not just taking orders, because you know, I mean, I've seen couples on boats and sometimes it's kind of funny when they're blessing and inviting and everything. I would always encourage the woman to go take separate lessons. Don't expect him to teach you or vice versa In my case it was vice versa and that she needs to feel comfortable if something happened to that man who fell off or something that she could handle, the boat.

Melanie Neal:

Exactly, yeah, and that's very, very important and that's, you know, so kind of in the beginning, like you're in the situation of sailing solo and you know it's, yeah, I feel very strongly about everybody being able to do a man overboard drill to dock the boat to. You know, take turns, okay, you dock the boat today, I'll dock it tomorrow. You drop the anchor today, I'll you know. Just to know, and there's always going to be, you know, one person's going to might naturally be better at something. Yeah, that it might naturally be better at something, yeah, but yeah, they're, they're uh, it's, it's kind of horrifies me a little bit when when uh, yeah, yeah yeah and and and um.

Capn Tinsley:

You know the woman just doesn't want to be bar. You know it can get stressful on a boat and if the man or vice versa is just barking orders all the time if she doesn't know, it's just not going to be very fun. I mean you kind of shut down and it's just not.

Melanie Neal:

You don't feel included. Yeah right.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, and just for everybody, let's see, tell oliver to come get me. That's all of her sailing phoenix, sailing with phoenix. Show me the boat ropes. I love him. You know who that is? No, I didn't see. No, not Jessica, but um, she's what. What she's talking about is sailing with Phoenix. He. He left Oregon with, uh, 30,000 followers and he got there to hawaii he had two million and, yeah, anderson cooper was talking about him. I mean every like the world and and you know. And then there were some trolls saying, oh, he didn't really do anything and million people have done that, but people fell in love with him and his story. Yeah, anyway, I love oliver he marketed it right, he did he works at it.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, it's awesome, yeah that's where I found him. She loves oliver. Um, okay, um, let's see if you have one piece of advice for someone who's about to buy their first sailboat. I know we might've already covered that. What would it be? Think about what you want to do with it, right?

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah when. Where are you going? Who's going with you? How fast do you want to get there? All that stuff.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, I got some rapid fire questions. Okay, you ready, you ready, okay. Green Boat under.

Melanie Neal:

So because we're on the phone now, we're not really able to hear the questions. Okay, what's up? Yeah, if you see us looking, the letters are very small, so we're trying to read them. I hear Jessica talk with Oliver every day.

Carolyn Dean:

Yes.

Melanie Neal:

That's what I heard, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

He thinks I'm fake. No's what I heard. Yeah, he thinks I'm fake, no, marcy. Marcy heard the question Vagabond 39,. Is that what you're saying, marcy? The question I asked was dreamboat under 100K.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, the Vagabond just sold was nice. I love island packets. I had a 35 island packet. Well, first, first generation, and I loved, I loved that boat. I regret selling it because kids grow, exactly because kids get bigger. So when I owned that boat, it was that we lived aboard. It was my daughter and me. She was like seven when we bought the boat and then so 11 or 12 when we sold it and bought a bigger one. It was and there were other other factors that you know were that he got a doll. Yeah, there were. There were other you know, other silly factors that shouldn't have.

Capn Tinsley:

So how old was she when you sold the boat.

Melanie Neal:

So she was. When we sold the 35, she was 11, but we bought a. I bought a Irwin 43 at that point, which was also so. These are all you know. In the the under, well, under a hundred thousand dollar boat range moments are great cruising but yeah, that erwin 43 was so much space, but again, an old boat that needed a lot of work. That you know I I didn't, I had the desire to do, but I also, you know, between running a business and growing a teenager, you know you get pulled from here, ariane how old is she?

Melanie Neal:

14.

Capn Tinsley:

okay yeah, yeah, all right, I'm putting it all together. Now she's 14 of a fiance. Okay, all right, I know what you're gonna say about this mono or cat actually there's.

Melanie Neal:

There's something for everybody. I'm yeah, I'm a pretty hardcore monohull girl but I love I mean, there's this space on a cat. You can't beat it. Yeah, I mean, I sold a a cat to a couple and they had three kids and they wanted to cruise the Caribbean for like seven months and that was just perfect for them because they I mean, they're good, yeah, they all had their own space. It was a great time and they were able to move off and just, you know, it was a really good experience and I think for them, with the monohull, it would have been harder to find in their budget like that amount of space. But like long term, um, I think monohulls are. I don't know, there's just something about monohulls and catamarans. Yeah, yeah, can you see that? What did you?

Melanie Neal:

say I said I lost my train of thought. What about you? We know you're a monohull girl right now, but would you want?

Capn Tinsley:

a cat. Well, there's just a lot of problems. I see, Like where would I put it? There's not a lot of place to put it. They're also a lot more expensive, I thought.

Melanie Neal:

Isn't that right? Yeah, and you're paying for two hauls instead of one. Exactly, you know where do you haul it out? You know, a lot of these big cats have beams that are, you know, 22 plus feet and most boyards can't haul them out. Um, I'm up in the chesapeake right now and I've been just thrilled to see so many boat yards here that, uh, you know, oh my gosh, if you need to store your catamaran or work on it, come to the chesapeake. But that's awesome, it's good to know.

Capn Tinsley:

But, um, the day right here, everybody heard that if you have plenty of places to get hauled out on the Chesapeake, yeah, yeah, but it's.

Melanie Neal:

But yeah, a lot of times if you dock, you're paying for two slips, you know. Or you're paying for if they have two slips, yeah, no-transcript end up through the Bahamas and back here. It was perfect for them. But yeah, long-term, like on the East Coast, you know it's got its challenges, but it's worth it and it's gas, right, it's gas. Well, the extra cost of fuel yeah, yeah yeah yeah well, some of them are gas, yeah, some have outboards, yeah, but yeah, and there's super comfortable.

Capn Tinsley:

You know, I've been on them and um, it's just it wouldn't be practical for me, but I'm you know a lot of people do have them and they don't seem to have trouble finding a place for them.

Melanie Neal:

So yeah, they're great for families. I mean, it's like we're saying it's you know, give, give your kids a space.

Capn Tinsley:

So okay, here's one for you, carolyn, I'm going to throw this one at you. What's worse? A sketchy survey or an indecisive fire.

Carolyn Dean:

Make you think I didn't hear you Okay.

Capn Tinsley:

What's worse, a sketchy survey or indecisive fire.

Melanie Neal:

I think that there's no worse or better A sketchy survey. I mean, we kind of have to adhere to what the survey says. So if a survey is bad, I mean if it shows up a lot of stuff, there's no failing a survey. But it's really the survey and the buyer. Um, if the buyer isn't interested in, you know, understanding the survey or whatever, um, I, I'm trying to understand exactly what the question is. Yeah, sorry, yeah they're, they're two different, they're two different situations. Yeah, yeah, okay, but you know, an indecisive buyer, I, you know I don't like that either, because then you, you know they're, if they're not sure they want the boat, then they're probably going to regret buying it. You know, yeah, like we, we can't, we can't talk somebody into spending a hundred grand or whatever on a boat. Just you know they're, we can't, we can't talk somebody into spending 100 grand or whatever on a boat, just you know, they're they're.

Melanie Neal:

If they're having doubts, there's plenty of boats out there yeah, yeah, or maybe they shouldn't buy one at all.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, yeah, so that happens in real estate. It's like they didn't really think of what was all in and then they start looking. It's like, well, you know, they didn't really think of what was all in and then they start looking. It's like well, you know um, okay.

Melanie Neal:

So, um, melanie, what's the first boat you ever sold? Uh, it was actually a camper, nicholson 31. Um, I always, I was working for edwards yacht sales and it was a listing that the other broker in town didn't want. So he's like, hey, new broker, yay, you know, let's give her this and. And that's how you learn. You learn to sell boats with those, uh, those you know, challenging. This one had been sitting in the yard forever and ever. It had, uh, lots of rat poop in it. So I went and, you know, cleaned up the rat food. Two photos, so you know, again, it's like you work your way up, you start, and I want, I want to tell you that melanie made sure that I understood that when I became a burger, the first couple listings that I was gifted, you know they were big challenges, yeah, they were big challenges.

Capn Tinsley:

So yeah, so you get the listings.

Melanie Neal:

It's not the cream of the crop, it's the more challenging and the brokers are really responsible for you know getting their own listings and that you learn how to do. You do that we get listed in the earth, yeah yeah, we'll get a listing lead and I'll know that.

Melanie Neal:

You know, okay, mars is in Puerto Rico, this boats in Puerto Rico, so I'll send that listing lead to her. But you know for the most part. You know, okay, mars is in Puerto Rico, this boat's in Puerto Rico, so I'll send that listing lead to her. But you know, for the most part, you know, you start building your reputation and people come to you. I mean, most of our business is referrals but, yeah, those challenging boats are the ones that you learn the most from and probably the ones you'll spend the most time on. Yeah, exactly Because they are challenging, and especially when they're lower priced. Yeah, sometimes they look too good to be true, and that they are, you know. Yeah, I think it ended up so the Camper Nicholson sold for like 15 grand or something like that, you know, but it's. Yeah, there are a lot of challenges.

Capn Tinsley:

Let's see what do you love most about working with boat buyers.

Melanie Neal:

With working with boat buyers.

Capn Tinsley:

Your commercial right here.

Melanie Neal:

Pretend like you're talking, to Just helping people find guiding them in the process of sometimes discovering what they need to buy on their own, but just kind of guiding them along. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of how I see it they may come into it thinking they want a catamaran and a monohull might be better for that. Yeah, you can't tell them.

Capn Tinsley:

you know, no, this is what I'm going to pull up your, your website.

Carolyn Dean:

Awesome, so we can see your inventory Awesome.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, it's a little bit about this and this is your chance to yeah great.

Melanie Neal:

Oliver needs a new boat. Call us. Does Oliver need a bigger boat?

Capn Tinsley:

with room for two. What's going on? Yeah, you can sell Oliver a boat. You'll get a lot of publicity if you do that. I think he was even well, I know he got interviewed by some national.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, Okay, so here is there, we are all right, so we have, we have tell us about these here. Yeah, all right, they're very tiny right now.

Carolyn Dean:

The pictures are tiny.

Melanie Neal:

The pictures yeah, but so the one that you can kind of see from a distance, that's basically. I refer to it as the pirate ship. It's a 1969 Sparkman Stevens wooden boat. So it's been on the market for a while, but that's a boat for somebody who really loves wooden boats and plans on having a boat that they work on a lot as a labor of love.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I'm trying to get the picture, okay, so there it is right there, yeah, the pirate ship. Yeah, I'm trying to get the picture Okay, so there it is right there, yes, yeah.

Melanie Neal:

That's the pirate ship. Wow, oh my gosh, she is gorgeous, I know. And the master. It's 144.5, 1969 custom 60 spark yeah yeah, oh my gosh it's got to be somebody who really loves a wooden boat, though, and wooden boats are hard, so it's. I've had a lot of dreamers. Look at that boat, but there's always one person out there just takes the. Yeah, yeah, that's the boat. There's the person of every boat, the boat for every person. Oh my gosh.

Carolyn Dean:

This might be your next boat yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

It's kind of like Captain Ron's boat. Look at this right here.

Melanie Neal:

It's totally a Captain Ron boat, absolutely Is this brick, it's got a fireplace. It's an actual wood burning fireplace, that's amazing.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, this is awesome. There it is out of the water, yeah, it's full keel, yeah, and it's 60 foot. Yep. Amazing. Have you sailed it there? You are sailing it right there. What are you doing? Amazing. Have you sailed it?

Melanie Neal:

There, you are sailing it right there, I have sailed it and it's a moves. You know, it moves kind of like an Island Packet.

Carolyn Dean:

People think they're not going to move that well, and they move great, yeah, so great. Yeah, well, I just tell people I'm not out there to win a race you know.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so let me get this other one here. Let's see what else you got. This is what you do, right? Yep, sorry it's taking so long, okay, oh, another 60 foot.

Melanie Neal:

I love that boat. That's a Winship 60. Very gorgeous, Two of them built. It would be an amazing boat for a family. It's like circumnavigation yeah, Solid fiberglass, built in Florida. Just absolutely stunning interior, Florida, Just absolutely stunning interior. You know, again a good. That would be a great boat for a family wanting to cruise on a large monohull. It's got three staterooms and that's that's rare, so that's, you know, if you've got two kids or whatever, you know it's yeah, it's a yeah that that boat's gorgeous. It's in saint augustine. And they are asking I think we just reduced it to 319, yeah, so it's yeah it was built in campbell, florida.

Melanie Neal:

Wow, you got some classic boats yeah, and it's funny, I think, because of our backgrounds, you know, people do come to us with, you know, classic cruising monohulls. That's just sort of what our Great niche.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, this one must be Marcy's, because this is Puerto Rico. Yeah, that's 142, so that's a cat.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah go. Yep, that's 142, so that's a cat yeah, 51 foot, beneteau 1986 for 49, 49 000. Which one is that? Oh, that's darryl's. Yep, yep, that's into a different screen, so that's that's. That's logan's listing. Yeah, that's, uh, yeah, so some of these, some of these we're not going to know a whole lot about because they're some of my other yeah, they're brokers, but that's that. Look at him, he's a little hottie logan I hope he's watching.

Capn Tinsley:

Hey, logan. Oh, um, marcy has something to say. She said salinas catamaran 53 foot. Custom airx core 53 foot catamaran, 50 years old, rock solid, but needs lots of tlc. Blueprints are on board. She sounds like real estate agents and that's you know.

Melanie Neal:

That's the thing with all of these boats you have to be honest about what their faults are like exactly. This beneteau is huge, it's a great deal, but it also has been sitting in a marina for a long time. But project put a wealthy project, so have to be realistic. She's gonna need work. But you know you're not gonna get a 50-foot boat for you know 50 grand or where that doesn't need a lot of work. So I've never seen a beneteau like this. It's a. It's a cool boat. So, um, kind of an old school beneteau.

Capn Tinsley:

I mean, it's right, 1986 radio, exactly dirty hardware, bulletproof rigging and speedy sailing. Interesting, and it's a project boat apparently yeah, that's not.

Melanie Neal:

You know, it's not a project boat like you'd find abandoned in a boat yard. Yeah, I mean she's gonna slip and that's not a bad thing.

Capn Tinsley:

Uh, you know, it's like when I'm selling condos. You know if they're, if they're handy buyers, that's a great. Exactly. You know, if you're a handy person, you can fix up a boat. This is vastly. It could be a good deal.

Melanie Neal:

I don't know much about the boat, but well, another, another thing with that one and with a lot of boats, like we talked about the transition from owner, you know, owner seller to buyer like that one is in a slip at a liveaboard marina so somebody could, you know, come along and buy it, and you know, liveaboard marinas are very, very hard to come by. So that's a plus for that boat. Yeah, it really is Okay.

Capn Tinsley:

All right. So let's look at a couple more. Which ones are your listings? Man, you got some big boats here. You got all right, it's it. It's it's because it takes you to a new screen I have to share every time. You know, that's the way the website's set up. Um, all right, so I'm just going to kind of brush through these. Yeah, hey, 47 foot formosa oh, I love that boat.

Melanie Neal:

I love it so much it's actually more of a captain ron boat that is beautiful okay it's beautiful wow, it's got a um estate room in the back there yeah, that that, actually.

Melanie Neal:

If I were boat shopping right now, so where my fiance and I are on an island pack at 44, it's his, his boat, and it's wonderful. I absolutely love it. You know we're we're not at all looking for another boat, but I almost called him when I was on that one and said hey, what do you think you should have? Because it's uh, it doesn't have air conditioning, the bottom hasn't been painted in 12 years, but it's in beautiful shape. The interior is stunning. Anyway, you got it. You got it. You got to tell people the good with the bad, so sure, sure, I'm in 1981, and then you got a 2006 47 foot Hans.

Capn Tinsley:

yeah, that's Marcy's listing, so yeah.

Melanie Neal:

And.

Capn Tinsley:

Marcy man, you're doing great, okay. 47-foot Bristol yeah, 1979. These are classic Yep. 46-foot Island Trader oh, here we go. That's a cool boat, whiskey River. 46-foot Irwin yeah.

Carolyn Dean:

Wow.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, that Irwin was my old boat actually. Ah okay, it's been bought and sold by multiple people since I owned it, but that's always a little sentimental 45 foot.

Capn Tinsley:

Hatteras, 45 foot Prout.

Carolyn Dean:

Can you talk about the 440 Island Packet?

Melanie Neal:

Oh my gosh 357. She is stunning and, honestly, the sellers are the most amazing people. They take such good care of her. She is, she's, gorgeous.

Capn Tinsley:

Wow Okay, you guys really. I mean, you got your niche here. Gulf Star 43-foot Slocum. How do I know that name? That Slocum is who? Somebody famous went around the world in that, in those right.

Melanie Neal:

Well, actually it was Joshua Slocum who there the design is named. I don't know the name. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the boat's named after him. Um, wow, it's funny too, you know, being in a niche, we don't. You know, we, we sell everything. We've sold a lot of power boats, but, you know, we kind of by default these are sort of the listings that we get but, um, we're, uh, you know, we've got a lot of catamarans, we've got, you know, and again, we're, we're kind of working with everything and we've got a really cute I'm shocked.

Capn Tinsley:

Look at that I'm shocked.

Melanie Neal:

Look at that concordia 40 foot, 41 foot dickerson. So that dickerson is actually was mr dickerson's boat that he had built himself in the chesapeake bay to go to tahiti. He never made it quite there, but the really cool thing about that other than the fact that she's awesome, she's got a great center cockpit layout. She even has a rum tank, a 10-gallon tank, where you put mountain gay rum in and it just like a spigot. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's wild. She is amazing.

Capn Tinsley:

It wasn't built during prohibition, so just big bay has ultimate cc cruising design layout with a rare, unique pedigree and she also has a transferable liverboard slip oh my gosh, so let's just, let's just look. My gosh, so let's just, let's just look. You know we're talking about sailboats, so I could just sit here, look at that deck. I wouldn't know the, the seats.

Capn Tinsley:

Yep, they got port and starboard, red and green little marks on them oh, I wouldn't know where to start if I was going to buy a big boat like this. Oh my gosh. Well, you guys, and it just keeps going. How many, how many listens do you have? Or you may not even know, we've got I think 29 right now.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, I think I I have personally eight. Yeah, yeah, yeah, congratulations. We usually carry anywhere from like 25 to 40, um, so that's, you know, that's pretty, pretty typical. There's some power boats yeah, it's, it's fun. Like I love this, we're doing it because we love it, like each one of those boats, like I'm smiling when I talk about them. The story, the story is the, uh, the wooden one that we looked at first. Uh, lynn and larry party sailed across the atlantic as they delivered it. Um, as, as as a delivery crew. Like these boats have so many great stories to them. The rum in the Dickerson, it's just like, how cool is that?

Capn Tinsley:

I know that's a good selling point. So you got the main ship.

Melanie Neal:

Yeah, okay, a lot of sailors eventually will go to that, make the transition, and that is totally fine, it's sure just stay on the water as long as you can.

Capn Tinsley:

34 main, 35 uh foot caliber, 37 foot beneteau, 40 ah 40 foot lagoon.

Melanie Neal:

That's a nice one, gorgeous yeah that that's this one? Yeah, that's one. It's a. It's a replica of a Barnegat Bay cat boat and it's I think it's the biggest cat boats out there. I don't know there's, there's a. There's a cool story to that one too, but it's, it's wooden. It's just oriental North Carolina. Emily Emily's listing. She's another one of our rock star lady brokers, right?

Capn Tinsley:

lady broker. Look at that thing, that is unusual oh, she got to sale it.

Melanie Neal:

I was so jealous, oh man, yeah, she posted pictures oh my gosh, I want to see the inside.

Capn Tinsley:

Lots of outside pictures. She did a great job.

Melanie Neal:

It's more, it's more of a day sailor, I'm trying to remember in person. But uh, but there is the. You know, it does, it does have, it does have. Um, again, I can't, I can't picture the inside because I haven't seen it, but okay, so $65,000.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, well, the bottom line is you have a lot of really great listings and you're very qualified to help people, so what a pleasure it has been for you guys to come on here.

Capn Tinsley:

Thank you, the pleasure has been ours Well, and hopefully I'll see you out there in different places and um as soon as I get back on my um, my, my husband passed away like while I was on the boat, so I've been having trouble getting back on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My friend dana said it's not the boat's fault, so she likes the day sailor. So anyway, I'm working on that. I'm trying to get back out there. But what a pleasure, carolyn. It's so great to finally meet you.

Melanie Neal:

It's awesome to meet you too.

Capn Tinsley:

Thank you so much for including me yes, and I will definitely um try to send business your way. I know a lot of boat brokers but, but you guys have a great niche, you really do I mean your experience, and look at all these great listings you got you guys have.

Capn Tinsley:

You have a great team. All right, I'll stop saying great, it was great meeting you. Uh, carolyn, it's good to see you. Melanie, yes, we'll have to do this again and come back on, definitely. Yes, maybe you guys could come on with the lender, that would be awesome. Yeah, all right. Well, all right, we'll go ahead and end this, and the way I always end things is to say salty abandon, thank you.

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