Awesome advice, I would love to see your list chuck

Yep I like working on boats so I'm not afraid to buy rats but this also opened my eyes to the reality of boats. Chuck is spot on even with boats claiming all composite water intrusion can still cause problems, water goes in but never comes out. Wet floatation foam will add weight and wet fiberglass can eventually delaminate etc. Boat builders aren't perfect there's going to be voids in fiberglass laminates, Basscat really attempts to build a void free boat with their vacuum bagging process they would be at the top of my list when looking for a clean used hull.

All it takes is an improperly sealed screw in the wrong spot and water's getting in. Even on a spotless boat that really is garage kept there can still be hidden problems.

Best you can do is look the boat over as best you can and bring it to a legit pro for a second opinion.

buying a used boat is doable frank the tank said it all_ take your time and you will find the one. most boats are far from used up most just sit around their whole life_ but some are used hard. find one in between and your golden_ get a good motor,thats prob the most important part!

Crawl all the way UNDER the trailer. I just bought myself a used bass boat for about 12k, but I failed to crawl UNDER the trailer. The other day, I was out there looking under the boat for another reason and noticed both cross members on the trailer are rusted out and the front brace has a hole on bottom I could stick my 4 fingers into, plus was developing a crack towards the top. That's a "you gotta fix immediately" thing requiring a new trailer. So that's a $4000 dollar thing.

Second, my boat has water entering it from some leak, suspecting the livewell plumbing. That's not assss big a deal, as I know it can be fixed without spending a lot. Other than that, the boat runs like a champ.

It's got scratches, stress cracks in the gell coat, rubs, some stickering is faded and coming off - none of that i'm concerned with.

I think it boils down to your budget. If you are in the 5k to 15k range, cosmetic issues are going to be there, plus the opportunity for other issues, like "old trailer issues", hacked up wiring from 5 different owners doing their own thing, fuel sending units not working, pumps that might need to be replaced, silly, nit picky things like things like these but they add up in cost, so consider them. a 12k boat might honestly need 4000 dollars or more in upkeep - but so might a 17k boat.

Once you hit the magical 33,000 dollar range, all of a sudden you start getting into some pretty fresh, much nicer boats. At 45k, you can find some almost brand spanking new boats.

For instance, there's a BEAUTIFUL legend le-21 for sale right now for 26k. A steal! The basscat pantera for 33k, a GREAT buy the way it's configured. (in the boats for sale section)

I agree that this board is a great place to look. I bought mine from a posting here - i know that once I work out the issues it will be smooth sailing for years to come.

Stick to the brands people want and you'll never have much challenge selling it. basscat, skeeter, legend, ranger (and personally, i know nitro takes a beating on brand name, but I honestly like them, specially the newer ones, i think they've done a pretty good job - but dunno about the resell)

I bought a procraft, mostly because I has some personal knowledge of the boats before hand, they really made a gooood boat!

Another thought, is this your first boat? If so, I like the idea of something you don't mind "beating up " a little, cause (and everyone says it) you WILL make mistakes.

You will 1) Run right over a dock. 2) Get stuck on 2 stumps at once. 3) Back it into the side of your storage unit 4) Run into a tree. 5) Slam into your trailer sideways once or twice.

One more tidbit, I spent just about 6 months looking. On craigslist, you find a lot of (not all) trashed boats using photos from when they were brand new. I drove all over the state to find totally leaf filled, flat tired, trashed boats.

I think most folks have covered the major things and offered some really good advice. One thing I found when looking that I didn't consider early on was electronics and trolling motor. These are easily $1,000-$2,000 a piece add ons these days. Keep that in mind when comparing similarly priced boats. If you have the cash you can buy a stripped down boat cheap and add on your own later. Or you may consider a year or two older model boat that's loaded with new electronics if your the type who wants to buy a "lake ready" boat. Also, consider motor HP vs boat rating. I'm telling you now. If it's rated for 250 and it's got a 150 or even 200 your going to wish you had more motor at some point. Same with the trolling motor.

Take it to a mechanic first before buying and have it checked out, lot of times you'll get screwed over on repairs it needs after buying.

Don't buy a boat from someone without the visible means to easily keep up with maintenance and repairs.

an excerpt out of the BCB list. Make sure the prop makes sense for the motor and hull you're buying. It might be innocent, but I've seen many times people getting advice about using lower pitched, more bladed props to get extra lift. If the problem is a waterlogged hull or a tired motor no prop is going to "fix" the problem.

not mentioned:

Steering cables stiff
big motor tilt motor

Lot's of good advice. I've owned several boats in my life time,only 2 were new,and fortunately none were lemons. Unless the seller can provide written proof you can pretty much plan on replacing the batteries and tires sooner than later. As one of the other guys said don't over look the trailer. We get caught up looking at the pretty metal flake, gadgets, and motor and forget one of the most important pieces of the whole set up. Look at the wiring, if you see multiple color's of wires used and a lot of electrical tape chances are you'll probably want to replace the wiring soon. All boat bunks will eventually need to be replaced.

Good luck in your search.

You need to "trust" who you are buying the boat from.
I bought my 2000 Skeeter right here off the TFF about 8 months ago for better than $13K.
From the Tractor Guy in Waco. Gave him $100 bills, drug the boat home. Never turned it on, fired it up or took it to the water. When I did it performed just like he said it would and I have been fishing out of it ever since. Runs and operates extremely good and no issues whatsoever.
Thanks Tractor Guy
by-the-way: I sold my Stratos the same way, the buyer never took it out. He paid me cash & took it home.
Haven't heard from him since, don't have his name......wish I did. I have a front seat here that belongs with the boat.

Good post, lots of good information

What to look for in bass boat
I put this together a while back, ended up kind of long but I think it has most everything one could need.

Compression test on the engine

And inspect it very carefully

And make shre to look at the details of the boat look at how they treated the boat (does it have big scratches) and ask your self things like that (what did they do to preserve the life of the life)