Sitting on a Goldmine?

Published: Saturday, November 27, 2021

The professionals at National Marina Sales explain why having a seasoned expert on your side of the transaction is critical in ensuring you get top dollar for your marine facility.

Rick Roughen, head of the National Marina Sales team with Keller Williams, has spent his life in the marine industry. He possesses decades of experience operating boatyards, shipyards, marinas, and dealership facilities. He has degrees in Accounting and Finance from the University of Miami and a master’s degree in Business Administration. These attributes give him a unique ability to recognize and shed light upon the obvious and hidden value of the marine facilities he sells.

The current state of the industry has placed marina owners in a position that perhaps they never expected: sitting on a goldmine at the top of a ravenous market, not knowing where to turn to convert their hard-earned efforts into cash. The seemingly overnight growth of the industry has ruthless buyers drooling over the proven and diversified cash flows that marina businesses produce. There has never been a better time to sell a marina, a boatyard, or a shipyard business, but having the right representation in this frantic and sophisticated market is crucial.

If you have recently contemplated selling, be sure to ask any of the Broker candidates you have in mind about their level of experience (boots on the ground) in facilities like yours. Find out if they have signed the payroll checks, paid the bills, managed the workflow, or directed daily operations. You should ask about their experience in dealing with customers, managing technicians, corralling subs, and generating timely and accurate bills while making decisions on the fly that defined their livelihood and their business. If you are fortunate enough to find that level of knowledge and experience in your Commercial Maritime Broker, then you better hire them and get to work.

Recently emerging as a preferred “asset class” among investors, the marine industry has exploded. Hungry “consolidators” are on a buying spree that has resulted in hundreds of marinas being rolled into consolidated portfolios where the businesses are managed from afar. This is not good for our industry, and it is already taking its toll. Offering a convenient “free” valuation of your facility upon which they will base their offer, sophisticated acquisition sharks are coddling Sellers and making deals that fall short of full value. The business of buying and selling marinas can be very complicated. Most folks working hard on their marina businesses are not familiar with the methods and measures employed in financial analysis and valuations. At National Marina Sales, we advise and protect our Sellers from falling into those traps and alternatively provide the support and expertise which always results in a better deal for them.

It is important that Sellers are represented by a team of experienced professionals who possess the highest integrity and who are dedicated to providing outstanding service and professionalism; a team whose experience in the marine industry provides deep insight and defined logic to defend their value; a team who will market their facility to an audience of qualified buyer candidates and will do their bidding for them in order to achieve the full value that they deserve. Surround yourself with a team like that and you will win every time.

At National Marina Sales, protecting our Sellers and delivering the best possible price in the shortest possible time is our value proposition. Nobody does it better. Our professional marina sales team works with owners to deliver every penny of value our Sellers deserve by extensively examining financial statements, performing market analyses, and personally visiting the facility to note valuable attributes and identify opportunities for improvement. We get ahead of opportunistic buyers with our operational understanding and financial analysis, and we compile strong logic to support our suggested value. When a Seller is represented by a team that comes prepared, the Seller wins.

And last but not least, the value of objectivity is preserved when Buyers and Sellers approach the deal through a qualified and objective expert marina broker. That experienced broker working between the two will help to eliminate emotional interplay between the parties that could otherwise destroy a deal. Where friends, acquaintances, consolidators, and sharks would love to appeal to a Seller for a better price, objectivity can eliminate that distraction altogether.

Professionals on the National Marina Sales team know from personal experience that building and maintaining your marina business is a painstaking endeavor. Our team has worn your boots and fought your daily battles during years of running some of the world’s largest and most successful maritime businesses. This industry has been our livelihood and we are personally and professionally determined to ensure you are represented well on what is likely to be the most significant transaction of your lifetime.