When you buy a boat there are lots of expenses to deal with. Here’s a timeline with amounts we spent to buy Miles of  View, a Cheoy Lee Offshore 41. We had to drive up to Santa Barbara from San Diego each time we wanted to see the boat, and that’s about a 4 hour drive. We could have saved more money by packing food and staying with family in Lompoc.

One cool thing about buying a boat with a broker is that they’ll help take care of scheduling all the surveys and sea trials. They can also take care of making sure everyone gets paid by from the down payment money. When it comes time to close the deal any left over money will be applied to the closing cost. Brokers can also help with title transfer and registration.

October 22, 2011: Initial viewing $163.36

Item	Amount	Type
Lunch, Santa Barbara Brewing Co	$44.25	Food
Gas	$78.14	Travel
CoCo Ichibanya	$40.97	Food

October 24, 2011: Made an offer and 10% down payment check $4,700.00

November 10, 2011: Survey Day $1280.47

Item	Amount	Type
Motel 6	$62.12	Travel
Surveyor: Mike Pyzel	$600	Survey
Haul Out	$416.77	Survey
Gas	$62.45	Travel
Red Lobster	$24.46	Food
CoCo Ichibanya	$19.64	Food
Dominos Pizza	$35.61	Food
Motel 6	$59.42	Travel

November 18, 2011: Rigging Survey $100.00
Deducted from the down payment, paid through broker

November ##, 2011: Mechanical Survey $123.45
Deducted from the down payment, paid through broker

There will be more posts to come about the real cost of buying a boat, but this is where we stand on November 28.