Deposit on boat - Complete Refund or Partial Refund??

[BoaterX]

My boat is for sale and the prospective buyer left me a deposit of $5500, saying the balance would be wired the next morning. I turned down another buyer, telling him I had a deposit and the rest was coming in the morning. This was 2 weeks ago. Buyer keeps saying he's doing a refi and hasn't got his money yet.
What to do if this guy flakes? Does he get 100% of his money back? Looking back, accepting a deposit was a mistake.

[boater012]

Do what you think is right if it falls through you are legally entitled to keep the full deposit. I wouldnt feel copmfortable doing that but there are plenty of people that would!!! my.02

[BigDoug]

Wow, this otta be interesting, mixed opinions for sure. :)

[BadKachina]

I think if you've got another serious buyer than sell it and send the guy his money back. He's taken longer than originally agreed on so I wouldn't feel bad about selling it out from under him. I personally wouldn't keep his money though.

[9er]

Yeah, I agree, you shouldn't keep it.
Just Paypal it over to me for safe keeping.

[SnakeWrench]

My boat is for sale and the prospective buyer left me a deposit of $5500, saying the balance would be wired the next morning. I turned down another buyer, telling him I had a deposit and the rest was coming in the morning. This was 2 weeks ago. Buyer keeps saying he's doing a refi and hasn't got his money yet.
What to do if this guy flakes? Does he get 100% of his money back? Looking back, accepting a deposit was a mistake.
Remember, Carma dude, It'll bite you in the ass. Give him the refund and move on. Give him 48 hrs and send it back to him and then move on.

[upsman105]

Keep the full deposit until your boat is sold, to him or someone else, and you have full payment, then send him a refund. A deposit is meant to keep you both honest, you are the only one who has been honest so far.

[Huckleberry]

Unless you have it in writing that the deposit is non-refundable, and under what circumstances, you should return the money. Do what upsman105 said and you can't go wrong.

[ChumpChange]

Unless you have it in writing that the deposit is non-refundable, and under what circumstances, you should return the money.
If it is not in writing, you must give the money back minus any cost to you. We run into the problem many times in my business. A loan officer gave a commitment letter to the borrower when he collected his deposit check. Since the letter did not state non-refundable, the money had to be returned minus any costs occurred such as appraisal & environmental work.
If you were to keep the money, by all means I can almost guarantee you that they'll be a ***boat member on Judge Judy in the near future.
Keep the deposit until you sell the boat to another person. You can probably keep part of the money for storage cost as well from the time the agreement was made to the time you sold it to somebody else.

[superdave013]

I gave a guy a deposit back for a truck I had for sale. Seeing as we were standing in my driveway and he look like the type of guy that would burn my house down I gave it back. That was the last time I will ever take a deposit from anyone ever again.
My motto now is if you want it then buy it.

[a catered life]

if you had him sign something i would disagree with most here and say he only gets 50% of the deposit back your the one jumping thru hoops and having to pass up on other sales because of him.......since you probably dont have any legal paperwork you might have to give it all back and rerun the sale.....yea a deposit was a bad idea but your spending a lot of time on this issue......if he would have contacted you the next day and told you about the problem something could have been worked out and maybe you could sent the money back and made another sale but he waited two weeks to say something :yuk: ..... :idea: next time you do a deal for this much money handle it just like a business deal get signatures and state exactly what will happen if something happens....i know a lot of boaters will disagree with me but this guy is holding up a business sale and your new boat i woud guess

[IMPATIENT 1]

My boat is for sale and the prospective buyer left me a deposit of $5500, saying the balance would be wired the next morning. I turned down another buyer, telling him I had a deposit and the rest was coming in the morning. This was 2 weeks ago. Buyer keeps saying he's doing a refi and hasn't got his money yet.
What to do if this guy flakes? Does he get 100% of his money back? Looking back, accepting a deposit was a mistake.
KEEP 500.00 AND SEND HIM BACK THE REST.THIS IS REAL FAIR AND YOUR ENTITLED TO IT SINCE YOUR TURNED DOWN ANOTHER BUYER! YOU GOTTA COVER COST OF LISTING AND SUCH,PLUS TAKING TIME OFF DEALING WITH IT.

[Her454]

karma karma karma................. return 100% of the deposit WHEN the boat sells and chalk it up to experience not to ever take a deposit again............

[CBadDad]

The boat is for sale until it is sold. First person that has the agreed upon amount in cash, gets the boat. If someone else comes along before this guy comes up with the full amount, give him back his deposit. You'll eat up that $5K quickly in legal fees. Not to mention the headaches...
Good luck on the sale.

[BoaterX]

Well, first buyer who comes up with full payment or in this case, the remainder of the payment, will get the boat. Of course I am bitter because the second potential buyer I had bought my buddies boat, paid in full the very next day (Same day my buyer was supposed to send me a wire.)
I won't keep the entire $5500, but I can't help but think I should penalize them something for me losing out on other deals because of them. They have not asked for their deposit back, but my boat could have been sold the next day paid in full.
I will NEVER take a deposit on a boat again. This aint no freakin layaway!

[phebus]

It's not too late to enter into an agreement with the guy. Why not draft a letter letting him know that if you don't receive payment by a certain date, you will only refund x amount of the deposit? Have him sign it if he agrees to it.
I have slowly learned in life that communication always works better than anger.

[Tyson Ross]

Go to Vegas and place $5K on one hand of black jack, if you win, give him his deposit back. If you lose, he loses!

[boater012]

Go to Vegas and place $5K on one hand of black jack, if you win, give him his deposit back. If you lose, he loses!
This is a screwed up way to handle it but somehow it strangelyt appels to me!!! Maybe I need to take a trip to vegas???????

[MagicMtnDan]

Give the guy a chance to do his re-fi. They can take some time.
Let him know you're only going to give him until the end of the month (or some amount of time) and after that you'll sell it to someone else while refunding all but $500 of his deposit.
I'll give you a cashier's check for more than you're asking for it :D :D :D

[Magic34]

You need to get something in writing everytime you accept money or give money for something like this.
I have no problem accepting deposits, but I always have a small contract written up. The only time I keep any part of a deposit is if I went and had something done the the item/vehicle that cost me money in preparation of the sale.
For example, when I sold my 4500, I had a non refundable $500 check that I had them sign an agreement for. I did this because I had to have the 5th wheel hitch taken out, and if they did not buy it, I would have had to pay again to have it put back in (since I needed the truck to pull the trailer). They completed the deal without issues, but they knew upfront what the deal was and why it was non refundable.
upsman had a great suggestion, but as long as you HAVE NOT deposited that check. If you deposited that check, that could be seen as a form of contract for the purchase of the boat, but you are missing the details of when the rest must fund.
Write a contract up, and have him sign it with a "close" date. Sometimes the money does take that long, give him a little more time. He did give you a strong deposit.

[tamalewagon]

Well, first buyer who comes up with full payment or in this case, the remainder of the payment, will get the boat. Of course I am bitter because the second potential buyer I had bought my buddies boat, paid in full the very next day (Same day my buyer was supposed to send me a wire.)
I won't keep the entire $5500, but I can't help but think I should penalize them something for me losing out on other deals because of them. They have not asked for their deposit back, but my boat could have been sold the next day paid in full.
I will NEVER take a deposit on a boat again. This aint no freakin layaway!
It is entirely possible that the guy buying your boat hasn't completed his refi yet. Yes he should've waiting until it was done to buy a boat, but that's irrelevant at this point. Most refi's take between 2.5-4 weeks for completion and funds in hand. Most likely he's telling the truth and will get you the rest of the cash. I'd still try to sell the boat to someone else though. Good luck with the sale!

[ChumpChange]

Here's a valid question.........
Are you holding a check or a cashiers check? Have you checked to make sure a stop payment hasn't been placed?

[2Driver]

What's the purpose of a deposit if it is refundable? I rarely take one. When you show up with the money it's yours. This creates a sense of urgency on his part for fear he will miss the purchase.
If you do take one, spell out all the details in writing. I also would suggest not securing a huge deposit so if he loses it you don't feel so bad keeping it.
For now, I'd give him some reasonable time and it is not out of the question to request proof that his loan is in process and looks good. BTW: If it comes down to it you'll always find another buyer and giving back his money will ensure you peace of mind.

[GunninGopher]

When I've sold things in the past I take a small deposit up front and write a letter the we both sign saying that it is to apply to the final payment of $XXXX and after the date of XX-XX-XXXX at XX:XX o'clock the boat may be sold to another person and the deposit forfieted. I'll let it go to the following Friday, usually. If the person doesn't come through the boat can be resold, if they come through late, then the deposit is applied to the purchase as agreed.
The point is the deposit is rather small $100-300, and the time is short. That is a really large deposit and you'd be a jerk to keep all of it. I've been screwed in the past when not taking a deposit and never hearing from people again. I try to be honest and up front, and people have understood why I am doing this. I never intend to keep someone's money, but if I'm turning away buyers unnecessarily, I should get some compensation.
I sold a boat recently to someone that ended up being on this board and took a check to close the deal. I do take into account my impression of the people involved. I sold a couple of jet ski's to a guy in Mexico who had his cousin come over and give me a hundo sight unseen, just to hold it so he could look at it. I wrote up the same document for his cousin to sign. Everything worked out fine.
I've sold a truck and a boat to people that had the cash in hand when they came to look at it. That's the best way to do it, and as a buyer, I always do that. But if I'm carrying much cash, I'm carrying ........
Just be honest and get it in writing.

[C-2]

As many have pointed out, if you don't have any specific written terms - you don't have a contract. Even a verbal contact might not be applicable since he most likely would say there were no terms discussed (and thus no "meeting of the minds" to have an enforceable agreement/contract).
I think to say you are going to "penalize" the guy is unfair. Afterall, you agreed to acceopt a deposit, and were cool with giving him some time to cough up the remainder of the money. I also believe in karma, small crap like this always seems to come full circle.
BTW
Anybody accept a deposit on a house purchase? The buyer doesn't get it back if he flakes, right?
.
.
.
WRONG. Escrow hold it until it escheats to the state, or they receive some type of court order. And of course, those little arbitration clauses. WTF?

[BoaterX]

Got a call from buyer, says she's on her way to San Diego to get her cashiers check for the remainder from her loan guy. Thing is, I told her to send wire if she wanted the title same day, otherwise 10 day wait from my credit union.
Now she's gotta wait for a check to clear so I can get title from my credit union. Anyway, hopefully this works out. Will keep you guys posted, love the comments and thoughts.

[tamalewagon]

Got a call from buyer, says she's on her way to San Diego to get her cashiers check for the remainder from her loan guy. Thing is, I told her to send wire if she wanted the title same day, otherwise 10 day wait from my credit union.
Now she's gotta wait for a check to clear so I can get title from my credit union. Anyway, hopefully this works out. Will keep you guys posted, love the comments and thoughts.
Hope it works out for you. Be prepared (with a 6-pack of choice) for the sellers remorse when they drive off with your old boat!

[BoaterX]

No money, no returned calls....... Looks like I'll hit Harrahs in a week or so with the full deposit to blow! JK Got some good leads over the weekend though. Wish me luck.

[Jbb]

This is why I learned many years ago,my motto for selling is..first one with the cash..(and I do mean cash)...gets what Im selling.....Some people balk because of the cash requirement .....I offer to meet them at their bank.
I will never lose a sale again because of a flake who is on the fence......when you are ready to buy ...bring cash....weeds out a lot of tire kickers.

[snake321]

25% restocking fee

[yeah,right]

Just keep trying to sell it. If you get a buyer, then give him back his money. Otherwise, hold on to the deposit until he comes up with the money. If he never comes up with it and you don't sell the boat, then the money is yours. You did lose another buyer because of him.

[Sherpa]

hopefully the buyer will come thru........... Doing a refi is a headache of it's
own, and they are adding to their (and your) headache as well by doing a
large purchase at the same time.....
keeping their money is gonna be a big-problem with them.
--realizing now, (seller's remorse) that you should have not taken the
deposit is a bummer.....
Are you in a huge hurry to get rid of the boat-?
--Sherpa

[ChumpChange]

Have you called the bank to make sure the check is still good? You know they can stop pay cashiers checks as well, right?
If somebody had my $5,500, you could bet I'd be calling them. See if the check is still good.