Help for Buyers: Tips and Frequently Asked Questions

SEARCHES, WATCH LIST and EMAIL ALERTS

Saving your favourite Searches is easy!
To save your boat Search, click the 'Save Search' button Save Search

The popup window will let you save your current Search so you can easily view it again later. If you like, you can choose a name for your Search.

Creating your Watch List of favourite boats is easy!
To add a boat to your Watch List, simply click the grey star on the Boat Ad and it will change to orange. Click the orange star to remove it from your Watch List.

To access/manage your Watch List, click 'Watch List' at the top of the screen.

Price Change Notifications
You will receive automated notifications of price changes on ads in your Watch List.

You can set up email alerts so you can be notified when a boat is listed which suits your criteria. You can have up to 5 Email Alerts.

Sometimes Alert Emails can be classified as Promotional Emails or Spam/Junk and therefore be moved into those special folders by your email system without you seeing them in your Inbox.

You may wish to setup special rules based on the email addresses of [email protected] and [email protected] or whitelist those same email addresses.


BUYING A BOAT

You can contact the seller by sending them an email by completing the online enquiry form at the bottom of their Ad. This is your best chance of getting in touch with a seller if you haven't been successful by phone. Some sellers choose not to show their phone number.

There may be any number of reasons why the seller hasn’t responded to your enquiry. Perhaps they are away travelling or work shifts. The seller may not be in a position to answer your phone call or online enquiry immediately for other reasons. Some people resist answering the phone if the caller has not enabled caller ID, for example.

If you have heard nothing within three days, please email us.
[email protected]

Whether buying privately or from a Boat Dealer, an independent professional inspection is a must. Keep you and your family safe on the water and fully understand the condition of your potential purchase.

Two of New Zealand's leading independent Marine Survey businesses are:
  • Seaworthy Inspections - Servicing NSW, QLD, VIC, WA
  • BoatBuy - Servicing NSW, QLD

A sea trial is an inspection of a boat to check its seaworthiness. It is a great way to get a feel for how a boat handles on the water and gives you an opportunity to see if there are any issues with a boat before you buy it.

Buying a boat comes with risk - doing a $2 search on the PPSR can help you check if the boat, jet-ski, tinny or other type of watercraft you're buying has a security interest registered against it. This could mean it has money owing on it and is at risk of being repossessed.

You can do an online check at the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). The cost is only $2 so don't be fooled into paying more. The purpose of PPSR for Boats is to safeguard purchasers of boats from unnecessary financial loss. If you buy a boat without knowing it is financially encumbered (money owing on it) you could have it legally repossessed and lose your investment.

At Boatsonline we take fraudulent activity very seriously.

Our team are constantly monitoring scams and fraudulent activity however occasionally some ads may appear on site that might not seem quite right. If you do notice that an ad appears to be wrong, please report it to us for review.