Deposit at time of sale

I am selling a boat through a reknown international broker in Thailand, Lee Marine. A potential buyer has deposited the amount equivalent to the commission of the broker but before I sign the contract I am doubtful about the fact that the buyer has 4 weeks to inspect the boat and that "the seller cannot enter into any other agreement...while this agreement is in effect".

This seems to be very limiting and works against me. I bear the risk of loosing opportunities to sell the boat during the next 4 weeks when this agreement expires. On the other hand, the potential buyer does take no risk since he can withdraw at anytime and get back his deposit at 100%. My experience with other brokers was that the buyer will loose his deposit if he withdraws from the sale. The other way of working around this would be to shorten the expiration of the agreement to a week from now.

Thanks in advance for any clarifications,

Philippe

If the buyer and the boat aren't some great physical distance apart, (i.e. buyer is in North America, boat is in Thailand) a month is way too long to tie up the boat pending inspection. A week should be more than ample.

Now, it that month is for more than just a cursory "inspection" and covers sea trial and survey as wellthat could be a bit more reasonable. It may not be possible for the buyer to get his surveyor aboard on a very short notice, the better surveyors need a couple of days to prepare a thorough report, and the buyer should be entitled to a couple of days to consider the report when the survey is done.

Yes, under most contracts the buyer can simply walk away at any time. All he or she has to do is declare that either the survey or sea trial were "unsatisfactory", without any need to justify or explain the alleged dissatisfaction. In the meanwhile, your boat is effectively off the market- but it might help to consider that each party- buyer and seller- has placed something of value in escrow at the time you accept the buyer's conditional offer. You put up the boat (or at least the opportunity to sell it to somebody else) and the buyer puts up a decent portion of the sales price.

If the buyer signs off on the sea trial, survey, or other contingencies and then fails to perform you get to keep the deposit (usually split it with the broker- up to the amount of the broker's commission had the sale gone through). If the buyer is ready willing and able to buy and *you* have a change of heart on the deal then the legal agreement you have signed with the buyer will allow him or her to proceed against you in court for breach of contract- probably forcing the sale of the boat at the agreed upon figure and/or awarding damages to the buyer.