“Aug 2, 2016
John Baier,

I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for your professionalism and honesty as well as your knowledge of boat brokerage. As I previously mentioned I allowed my local marina, who serviced the boat, to put my boat on the market. Since dealing with you I now know that was a fatal mistake. My mistake was giving it to a marina whose main objective was to maintain boats; not to sell boats. My local marina informed me that numerous people looked at the boat but unfortunately that was not truthful. When speaking to a friend who worked at the marina it turns out that after having the boat for 2 years the marina misinformed me and had only shown the boat to 1 person, who actually just wanted to compare an Egg Harbor to a Sea Ray.

Upon seeing the boat, you recognized the value in the boat and how well the boat was maintained. It is apparent that you delivered that thought to other brokers which resulted in other brokers forwarding that information along to their clients. Your advice to me during the entire process was greatly appreciated.

Your knowledge of boat brokerage is evident as I witnessed you doing a massive email and marketing campaign to a plethora of brokers and marinas which resulted in you showing the boat to 2 prospective buyers within 2 weeks. As you know those buyers both placed offers on the boat which eventually resulted in the boat being sold, all of which took 4 weeks from the time you agreed to market the boat to the time it sold.

I was very impressed with your honesty, professionalism and knowledge of your business.

As the “selling” process moved forward your coordination and communication between the buyer and me was pristine.

Life is a daily learning experience. I have learned that, if you want to sell your boat, don’t have your local marina or “friend” sell your boat, have someone who does this exclusively for a living sell your boat. On the east end of Long Island, you, my friend, are that guy!!

I will definitely recommend you to my friends and neighbors who may be looking to buy or sell a boat in the future.

Best of luck to you and thank you again.

Tom Connolly, Travelers Investigative Services
Melville, N.Y.”

“John Baier has been our trusted advisor and yacht broker for over 15 years, and we have benefited from his deep knowledge, skill, honesty and pleasant bedside manner. He is clearly one of the top yacht brokers in the country.

While we usually think our next dream boat will be the last one we will ever need, if you love boats, you will end up needing a different one as your requirements change. So what we really need isn’t just a single friction-free transaction, we all need a trusted advisor to face the infinitely complex challenges of finding, buying, owning, operating, maintaining and selling yachts. I learned through experience that a having skilled broker performing this role in your corner is an essential requirement to boating happiness. While many of us have owned multiple boats over our lives, our perspective is incredibly narrow compared to a true professional who has dedicated several decades to the industry and has direct experience with thousands of boats. When we wanted to downsize from a larger trawler, John listened carefully and worked independently until he found the perfect solution for us. He arranged the purchase of a Nordlund 52 which was exactly the boat we wanted and needed, at exactly the price point we wanted to spend.

This wasn’t a boat that I would have found any other way, and John handled the deal with integrity and with an over-the-top level of service we were delighted by. His sage advice was invaluable over the years of ownership and upgrades. We raised two of our kids on that boat and have priceless family memories.

We recently moved to Seattle (cruising heaven) and decided a newer boat with even more range was called for. I found a well-maintained Symbol 57 at a boat show but I wasn’t very comfortable with the broker representing both us and the seller. I called John in to represent us and he was extremely helpful. It turned out that my concerns were well-founded — the “reputable” local broker was anything but that. John skillfully navigated what could have been a disaster with calm confident integrity, and made a difficult situation easy for us and fair for everyone involved. What a pro! On all of our transactions, he has reduced our risk, minimized our effort, built our confidence, and saved us significant money.

Now we are regularly cruising the San Juans and venturing into Northern BC, fulfilling our PNW boating adventure fantasies. John continues to be an exceptional advisor, and he will be our broker when we are ready to move to “our next last boat.”

Darrel Rhea
M/V Mystery, Seattle, WA”