BATTERY DIED , MOTOR WOULDN’T START, PERFECT TIMING .. (Facebook marketplace)

[00:00:00]Everything is going wrong. Oh.

[00:00:08]What's going on, bros? Cruising to the shop right now to pick up the Carolina Skiff 17 DLX.

[00:00:16]And then I'm taking it to a boat ramp because somebody wants to do a sea trial and hopefully buy the boat. Little Facebook Marketplace deal on a Monday afternoon. What could go wrong? Well, everything went wrong. To be honest, everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.

[00:00:35]And I wasn't even able to document any of it because my phone kept overheating.

[00:00:40]It's been so hot outside, so I really only documented the good parts of the transaction. Um but dude, let's explain, I guess. Dude, it was rough. It's been rough all morning.

[00:00:55]Let me put it all out there so we're all on the same page. I'm actually getting ahead of myself a little bit. Let's go do the deal and then I'll meet you back over here and then we can talk numbers on the whiteboard.

[00:01:37]>> [music] >> Okay, we did it that, which is good news. That means we sold the boat. Now, we can talk numbers a little bit.

[00:03:20]Sometimes my favorite part.

[00:03:29]Bro, it is so incredibly hot outside.

[00:03:33]That's how it's been all morning. The truck says it's 113°.

[00:03:38]Even here in the shop, it's just radiating heat.

[00:03:41]So, I'm going to try and spit this out as fast as possible.

[00:03:45]Basically, the bullet points, dude.

[00:03:49]I'm talking to a homie on Facebook Marketplace. He says that he has cash.

[00:03:52]he'd like to come see it today. He wants to buy the boat contingent on a sea trial and if everything goes well.

[00:03:59]I say, "Dude, that sounds good to me because I wanted to take the boat out for a ripper today anyway. So, best case scenario, I get to go out on the boat one more time, blast down the Intercoastal, and make a little money.

[00:04:14]Worst case scenario, I at least got to be on the boat for a little bit today. So, I I said, "Let's do it, man.

[00:04:20]Let's set up a time."

[00:04:22]We agree on a time and a boat ramp. I meet him there.

[00:04:27]I uh I go to back the boat into the water and I don't know if you knew this, but Facebook Marketplace, bro, sometimes it'll go really well.

[00:04:38]All good, everything's smooth, easy.

[00:04:41]Other times though, not so much. One of those situations where if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong at the worst possible time.

[00:04:51]Bro, I back the boat into the water and a a trailer bunk falls off, starts floating away. Brother.

[00:05:01]So cringey when the buyers are standing right there, see the whole thing.

[00:05:08]Luckily, I grab it, toss it in the boat, whatever. Ah.

[00:05:14]Try to fire up the motor, it doesn't fire up. Of course it doesn't fire up.

[00:05:18]You know what I mean? Even though the last time we had it out on the water, everything was good, everything was perfect. Of course, right now it doesn't fire up.

[00:05:27]Kind of felt like it wasn't getting fuel. I don't really know.

[00:05:31]But I sat there and tried it uh and the battery died because I tried it too many times, I guess.

[00:05:38]Of course.

[00:05:39]Dude, it's so cringey.

[00:05:42]The homies that were there to buy the boat, they were saying, "Ah, man, this has happened with the last five boats we've looked at. We show up, battery's dead, it won't crank."

[00:05:53]I'm like, "Dude, I Trust me. I'm screaming from the rooftops. This is a good boat, man. I promise. I just had it out ripping the other day. I pulled up to the sandbar. I had a great time. I don't know why this is happening. I wouldn't have even wasted your time meeting you here. I wouldn't have even tried to sell it if I didn't think it was turnkey ready to go, all good."

[00:06:15]Ah, dude.

[00:06:17]Such a bummer, man.

[00:06:20]Luckily, I had a jump pack in the truck.

[00:06:23]So, I hop out of the boat, you know, do the the walk of shame with them watching me around the you know, the trailer rails.

[00:06:33]Finally get up to the truck, grab my jump pack, come back, hook up the jump pack, try to fire it up. Dude, jump pack's dead. Oh! [screaming] Jump pack is so incredibly dead. There's not even a light flashing on the bars.

[00:06:51]I was like, "Well, bro, uh let me go Let me Let me go try and charge this real quick."

[00:06:56]Dude, I do the walk of shame again, dude.

[00:07:01]Tiptoeing, trying not to fall in the water, around the trailer, finally get back to the truck, plug the the jump pack into my wife's pink phone charger, dude. I knew it was going to take forever. So, I plug it in and then I come out and I try to establish some small talk. I felt so bad, dude. In my mind, I was like, "They're for sure not going to buy it. This sucks, man. And it it's all on me."

[00:07:29]I don't know why these things are happening, but I should have known.

[00:07:34]Dude, we sit there and we talk about boats, talk about life. They were both really cool people.

[00:07:40]Uh the guy who was the like official buyer of the boat, he just had a baby a month ago. We related on that. Had some really good conversation. He brought his cousin who uh seemed to be, you know, like a boat mechanic, dude. Great guy.

[00:07:57]So, we were just chatting it up.

[00:07:59]And uh you know, finally I go back to the truck, see if we maybe have one bar of juice on the jump pack. We did have uh dude, one loose bar, dude. It wasn't a solid bar yet.

[00:08:13]But, I figured, dude, we got enough juice to try this thing one more time.

[00:08:17]I go back, dude, hook up the jump pack, try and fire it up one more time. Dude, thankfully, the motor fired up. And it fired up great, dude. It sounded fantastic. Um the boat mechanic cousin homie even said, "Wow, that thing's quiet, dude. That thing sounds better than my Suzuki."

[00:08:38]So, I'm thinking good things.

[00:08:40]Everything's in the in the right direction.

[00:08:42]Um and uh dude, put it in the gear, put it back in neutral, it dies. Of course it dies. Of course.

[00:08:53]Of course it dies. And I'm thinking, dude, we don't have enough battery power to start it back up. We're going to have to go through this whole charging process again. Brother. Dude, I turn the key off, turn it back on, we hear a beep, and I'm just praying to the boat heavens. Please let this boat fire up one more time and stay running.

[00:09:16]Fired up. Luck would have it, no jump pack needed or anything, fired right up.

[00:09:21]Music to my ears, bro.

[00:09:24]Get off, go back unhook the boat from the trailer winch.

[00:09:29]Back it out.

[00:09:31]He grabs a line, holds it there on the dock.

[00:09:34]I say, "Dude, I'll go move my truck."

[00:09:37]I grab my I like really embarrassingly grab my my trailer bunk. And I'm like, "All right, I'll go uh I'll move the truck." Still hoping for the best here, dude, but I know on Facebook Marketplace, at the bare minimum, this interaction right now is knocking money off the top end, for sure. Dude, it's so hot outside. I had to seek refuge in the truck. Hop in, turn the AC on full blast. Grab a ice This is the cherry limeade one.

[00:10:08]Don't fall for it, bro.

[00:10:10]That one tastes so weird.

[00:10:12]And I keep buying it because my brain tells me, "Cherry limeade, that sounds good on a summer's day."

[00:10:18]But no, dude. Every single time it tastes weird, bro. Tastes so weird.

[00:10:23]I'm not going to buy it ever again.

[00:10:25]Um but I'm in here cooling off. I don't know why I keep acting so shocked that it's this hot outside. We live in Florida, and it's a clear skies day.

[00:10:35]Florida sunshine up there loud and proud. These 113° days are probably here to stay for a few months. I need to stop acting so surprised.

[00:10:44]But anyhoo, this story progresses.

[00:10:48]I pull the trailer out of the water. The cousin homie, actually super cool, walks up, says, "Dude, let me help you with that bunk real quick. I have some lag bolts in the truck and an impact. We'll just put it right back on. Might even improve it." I said, "Dude, you are a legend."

[00:11:07]He goes and grabs the stuff, comes back.

[00:11:09]We bolt it back on, dude. Trailer bunk is all good to go.

[00:11:14]From there, the story is pretty good. Um there's one hiccup down the road, but we walk back to the boat. I hop in. We reverse out of there. Start cruising down the Intracoastal Waterway.

[00:11:28]Everything's going good. I feel the wind in my hair. Even the homies were having a really good time. The official buyer was sitting up front on the comfy seat, but his cousin, big dog linebacker who's pushing 290 lbs, sat on the back right of the boat. So, honestly, this Carolina Skiff 17 DLX was cruising like this down the Intracoastal for a little bit. I hated to be that guy. I had to say, you know, before I hop on plane, could we maybe distribute the weight just a little bit better? Brother was a unit, dog. Like, I'm talking a serious nightmare in a Oklahoma drill, straight up. But, everybody was cool about it. He hops up front, sits side by side on the comfy seat at the front of the center console. Even with all three of us, three grown men on the boat, this thing hopped on plane like nothing. That stainless steel three-blade prop back there must be pretty good. Pick up some speed, pick up some RPMs, everything is going smooth and exactly how you'd want it to go potential buyer on board. We blast down the Intracoastal for a little bit, have a good time, check out the houses, the pretty views, and then we flip a U-ey and start heading back to the boat ramp. But, I said, "Instead of just trailering the boat, let's pull over to a slip over here and just let the boat idle for a while. I want you to have confidence in this motor that it's not just going to die out on you. And if we can look past those weird hiccups, uh assume it was just a random flop for some reason, I want you to have confidence in this motor. Let's sit here and let it idle for a long time, dude.

[00:13:06]It's super quiet, it's super healthy.

[00:13:08]Let's just uh sit there and gain as much confidence as possible." And that's what we did. We pulled over and uh finished the walk-through and the test and everything on the slip, and it was just idling the whole entire time.

[00:13:23]Everything was all good.

[00:13:25]Love it. Great.

[00:13:27]Um and we sit there and chit-chat for a little while. And then I go and I get the truck. I back it in. And I said, "You guys can put it on the trailer."

[00:13:37]They floated over. And whenever they were putting it on the trailer, he tried to give it some gas to, you know, get it on the bunks. And then he put it back down in neutral, it died again.

[00:13:49]Brother.

[00:13:51]Everything was going so good. Why does this have to happen?

[00:13:55]I don't know why it died again.

[00:13:56]Obviously it fired right back up.

[00:13:59]Um potentially maybe clean the throttle body, dude. I don't know, man. I've been troubleshooting for so long with this motor. I thought we had it in a really good spot, but at least these things are happening now and it's not like everything is perfectly all good and then they go try and take it out on their first day and these problems pop up then. I'm glad they're popping up now while I'm still here.

[00:14:26]Oh, dude, my knee just put the truck in four-wheel drive. I also just finished the ice.

[00:14:32]Brother, it left a weird taste in my mouth. I want the cherry limeade to be so much better than it actually is. I regret it. I regret it. Never again, dude. Never again. I'll stick to the black cherry.

[00:14:46]But like I said, I'm glad all of these things were happening with me there before the deal was done.

[00:14:53]But actually the cousin mechanic homie was super chill about it all. Like I said, dude, they pulled up expecting to look at a used older boat. So they weren't expecting anything to be perfect. They were just taking these things into account, which is pretty cool. It actually was a really nice pleasant Facebook Marketplace transaction.

[00:15:16]Dude, they're not always like that.

[00:15:19]Some people want the boat to be absolutely perfect. And they want a deal. You know what I'm saying? So, this was a really good deal with really good guys all around. It was a pleasant experience.

[00:15:32]Um but they were taking their notes for sure. Uh keep in mind, I had the boat listed for $9,000.

[00:15:39]Um and uh we trailered the boat. We pull it out. We go over into a shady spot and we start negotiating. And this was a very very fair negotiation with everything out there on the table and even potential risks moving forward. I feel like this was maybe one of the more fair negotiations I've been a part of in quite some time. I guess that's what happens when everybody's chill and everybody's realistic. So, um I guess I'm going to go inside, go over to the whiteboard, and talk some numbers so we can go over the deal.

[00:16:14]We purchased the boat for $4,000, which in hindsight is a way better deal than I thought at the time, especially considering we still have the Suzuki 50 horsepower that was previously on the boat. I took that off. I was going to sell it, but now I'm going to keep it for a future project because I don't think I'll be able to find a motor as clean for the price point. I value that at $1,700.

[00:16:40]So, we're going to take that off of the top line, which leaves us invested in the boat $2,300.

[00:16:47]We then went out and purchased the Suzuki DF70A for $2,300, which put us in at $4,600, which is a really good spot to be at for this boat with a 70 on the back.

[00:17:03]Dude, uh we then started to upgrade. Um we put $100 into a steering wheel. We put $100 into bottom paint. We put $200 into speakers. We put $50 into Whoa! We put $50 into a neutral safety switch.

[00:17:23]And then I'll put another $100 just for miscellaneous stuff. This is all ballpark figures. Nothing is absolute here. Um but all of this combined, 46, 47, 48, 49, 5150.

[00:17:39]$5,150 completely invested into this Carolina Skiff 17 DLX, which is really good because we have a lot of wiggle room because I listed the boat at a very overzealous $9,000.

[00:17:56]That gives us room to negotiate and everybody feel happy, go home feeling accomplished as opposed to me putting the number I had in my mind already out there on paper and saying, "Firm."

[00:18:08]Because if if that's the case, nobody feels like they won. So, started out at $9,000.

[00:18:15]We walk over to the shade and start instantly knocking numbers off of that.

[00:18:21]And uh it was all very realistic. It all made sense. Homie said that he wanted to pay a mobile mechanic to come out and do a diagnostic and maybe even a 100-hour service given how the motor was acting.

[00:18:33]I said, "That is absolutely reasonable.

[00:18:35]Let's put a $500 price point on that mobile mechanic to come out." Um easy enough. Let's knock five. That brings it down to 8,500.

[00:18:46]And then he said what he really wants is to be able to go fishing with his family. So, he would love enough money in the numbers here to be able to go out and buy a trolling motor and some batteries and get out on the water in the next couple of days. So, we both agreed, "Dude, let's take another thousand bucks off of that number and let's uh agree on a very sturdy $7,500."

[00:19:12]We both agreed on it, actually. I mean that's where I wanted to be at from the beginning, but it made sense to them because these numbers right here make you feel a lot more confident. If anything goes wrong, you can put money into it. It's not like I was firm you you get what I'm saying.

[00:19:29]All right, so take the 7,500 minus the 5,150 dollars we had invested and that gives us a profit of 2,350 dollars.

[00:19:46]Is that correct? Let me check my math.

[00:19:49]My math was on point son. 2,350 dollars profit, but obviously we got the whole 7,500.

[00:19:57]So we got our initial investment back plus a little extra bread to bring home, put on the table so my wife and children can eat. That's what this is all about anyway, so I don't know man. Uh pretty good day in the office considering I really wanted more out of it, but there was no way I had a leg to stand on with how the motor was acting at the beginning, you know, if that didn't happen because I really really really pride myself on selling turnkey boats ready to go.

[00:20:29]So I mean I should have just retracted, gone back and potentially fix the issue and then put it back on marketplace, but this was money right in my face right now.

[00:20:40]I had to say yes dude. They made it easy, so 2,350 coming back to us.

[00:20:46]They got a pretty sweet boat. I'm sure honestly the the thing that is sticking out to me with this uh potential issue if there even is an issue is maybe just some slight adjustment somewhere because I was digging around in there.

[00:21:02]The neutral safety switch, fuel lines, a bunch of fuel related stuff.

[00:21:07]I have a feeling that I just adjusted something the wrong way and it needs to be readjusted. That is where the mobile mechanic comes in and everybody will be confident, safe, and happy with their purchase. Profiting 2,350 bucks is awesome, for sure. Um, but let me explain why I think just breaking even is really good for me and profiting anything is absolutely bananas. Uh, throughout this I am trying to learn as much as possible and the things that I've learned through this project alone are going to pay dividends in the long run. So, all I ever try to do these days is break even. Um, I think it uh is a lot cheaper than going and spending money at any type of marine mechanics institute. Uh, this is more so school of hard knocks, uh, trial and error, the ups and downs out here in the real world. So, I strive to break even, but whenever we make a little money, that is fantastic because uh, we get to keep the lights on at home for the family, but also learned a lot along the way. We learned quite a bit about these Suzuki motors. I can tell you that much. Um, so, and dude, we still have a lot of other stuff at the shop. We have a bunch of random extra parts that we got out of the boat. We still have the motor. We still have the bimini top. Like I said, there's a lot of stuff that we can still make some money on if we need to.

[00:22:51]Um, and uh no complaints there, dude. Um, fun day on the water, fun day with the homies.

[00:23:00]Those guys were really cool guys. I would love to just hang out with them more in the future.

[00:23:06]Um just really cool, down-to-earth, realistic homies. Dude, there needs to be more people like that out here in the world. Um and uh yeah, that's going to do it.

[00:23:18]Had a fun time with the Carolina Skiff 17 DLX. I feel like it was a bit short-lived. I feel like we could have had some more fun, but I needed to get her out of the shop for a very specific reason. I'll tell you that here shortly.

[00:23:32]I appreciate every single one of you guys for coming along this journey, hanging out with the kid, living life, learning, ups and downs.

[00:23:41]Seriously, I love each and every one of you guys, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.

[00:23:50]>> [music] >> I really wanted to get everything out of the shop because this week is going to be a huge week for the Carolina Skiff 14 in the shop. We might actually have the time, energy, space, and uh available finances to actually complete the boat this week. My actual intentions are to have the boat completed by July 1st, and then I actually want to give the boat away in the month of July. I still have to figure out how to do that. Um but if we can have it finished by July 1st, have it out there on the waters ripping around, and then figure out a way to give it away while the season is still hot, I think that would be really proper. So, um that's what I plan to do.

[00:24:41]Now that everything else is out of the way in the shop, the the shop is now essentially our playground to really lock in and get some work done.

[00:24:52]So, I'm fired up. We have a a few runs down south this week to get everything that we need and then it's off to the races, bro. So, I'm excited.

[00:25:03]I'll see you tomorrow.