I'll throw in my .02 since I just bought my first inboard just over a month ago. I looked on craigslist and boat trader for a good 4-5 months to find a decent deal. I found an 05 Mobius LSV 8 hours away from my house for $25k with about 300hrs. Overall good condition, ie. no stress cracks, good gel coat, seats in good condition. The previous owner had just put about $5k-6k in WetSounds and they paid $25k for the boat a year ago. I got a check from my bank for the their payoff ($21,400) and brought $3500 in cash. When I test drove the boat it would struggle past 4,000rpm. I pretty much figured it was a bad fuel filter and they hadn't winterized it. I used that to negotiate them down to just the payoff amount; just told them it could be a compression problem and didn't know what it would cost to fix. It's hard from someone to turn down a check for what they owe on something. I think I ended up with a decent deal, wish I would've gotten an 06 or newer for the new hull design, but I didn't know about that at the time. Just don't be too quick to jump on something that isn't a good deal or exactly what you want.
