Buying a boat in tenn.

Looking at an older boat in tenn. the seller says that they don't have titles but do bills of sale? Anyone have any experience with this? Guy seems legit and has no problem with me test driving it? Also I remember someone posting a boat buying checklist . Search but couldn't find it, anyone have a link?

Thanks

i live in Tn and have bought and sold a few boats and never had a title to one of them. i haven't made a sale or purchase in the past couple years so it could have changed but i don't think so. i would say the guy is being very legit and honest with you.

I've bought two boat there one at a dealer ship and one by a private seller. No titles with either even the trailer. The thing I ran into is MAKE SURE either one rights a bill of sell out stating how much the boat is worth and the trailer. That adds up to what buying price was, the dealership didn't do this and it took me a while to get the paper work changed so I could regester the trailer in NC. They need to know this price of the trailer only so they tax you right. The first boat they tried to tax me on 20,000 dollars for just for the trailer.

Thanks for the info. Good stuff on the boat and trailer cost! I'll make sure of that.

I live in TN and we do not have titles for boats. My county requires a notarized bill of sale and copy of registration to transfer ownership of a boat. Contact your county car/boat registration department to see what they require.

Yeah, I tried to buy 2 boats down there this winter.

No paperwork (only bills of sale...) for either boats, not even for the trailer. I needed at least registration for the trailer to get them across the border, so the deals didn't not go through.

i've bought a couple of boats in TN and brought them back to AL. TN and AL are non-title states. AL doesn't really care about the trailer so that was a non-issue. biggest thing is to check with your DMV and see what they require. AL is pretty liberal with bill of sales. on one purchase i forgot to bring paper so all we had was a piece of scrap paper about 2"x4" to make the bill of sale on. lady behind the counter didn't even blink when i pulled it out.

I sell a boat every year from Tennessee, and I can confirm that we do not have titles for the trailer or the boat. If it's a one owner boat, you can request copies of the MSO's to verify when the boat was delievered and whether the original dealer had a lien on it. Also, you should perform a ucc search to ensure that there are no liens on the boat.