A Week Before the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show: What Sellers Can Still Do

The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show opens on Wednesday, October 28, and runs through Sunday, November 1. If you meant to sell before the show and the calendar got away from you, a week is still enough to be part of show-week conversations. It isn't enough to do everything, so here is what I would prioritize.

Every fall, serious buyers come to South Florida for the show. The ones who are genuinely in the market often make time that same week to see boats that aren't on display, in Miami, along the New River, and in private marinas up and down the coast. A boat with an honest number, good photos, the basics of a file and a plan for showings can be on that list.

Today: get an honest number

Ask for a written market evaluation this week. It should compare your boat against similar boats that have actually sold, not only what's being asked, and adjust for refits, engine hours in context, equipment, and how she has been kept. With a week to go, the number matters more than anything else. A buyer in town for five days compares quickly, and a boat priced against hope rather than completed sales rarely makes the short list.

The next few days: present, don't renovate

A week is enough for a proper detail inside and out, clean canvas and cushions, a clean bilge and engine room, every light working, and the small squawks fixed. Then photography and accurate specs. It is not the week to start bottom work or chase a mechanical project. If something larger needs attention, we decide together whether to do it later or disclose it and price it in. While a boat is being prepared, I coordinate trusted local vendors in South Florida so you aren't managing five separate calls.

Alongside: pull the essentials of the file

You don't need a perfect binder by Wednesday, but you do need the basics a serious buyer will ask for first: documentation or title, registration, any lien payoff details, recent engine and generator service records, and a short list of refits with dates. A written inventory of what conveys can follow. A file that is already started tells a buyer the boat has been owned with care.

Before Wednesday: settle show-week access

Decide where she'll sit, who holds keys and dock access, whether a captain is available, and whether she's fueled and ready for a short sea trial if a buyer gets serious. Buyers in town for the show have narrow windows, so being able to say yes to a Thursday-afternoon showing (screened, accompanied, and arranged promptly when practical) matters more than any banner. Through Luke Brown Yachts, the listing goes out through the firm's marketing channels and its network of 50+ brokers, so co-brokers with clients in town can find her and ask to see her.

If a week isn't enough, that's fine. The show is one busy week in a longer South Florida season, and buyers who walk the docks keep looking in the weeks after. A listing that launches well in mid-November is better than a rushed one now. I work across South Florida, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, from a home base on Key Biscayne, and the approach is the same in English or Spanish.

Thinking about selling around the show? Start with a complimentary market evaluation, or message me on WhatsApp at +1-305-741-0240. Tell me about the boat, where she's kept, and your timing.

I'll be at the show all week. If you'd rather talk in person, book a time to meet at FLIBS.

— Enrique Dillon
Dillon Yachts · Partnering with Luke Brown Yachts