A few years ago, getting a boat loan was quite easy, but is a difficult to qualify for a boat loan now. It’s not impossible, however. Here are a few tips to improve your chance to qualify.

1. Run your credit, with all three agencies. As Equifax, Experian, and Transunion may all come up with different results. You want to check to make sure that all the information is correct and that you opened every account that appears. If you find one that you didn’t open, you will need to submit forms to all three to dispute the creation of the accounts or the charges.

2. Understand how you FICO score is calculated. A FICO score can be improved by paying your bills on time, reducing your debt, and having ample credit space, especially zero balance accounts. A FICO score is the measurement of your financial stability.

3. Put at least 30% down. By putting down a larger down payment, you show a bank that you have a financial commitment to the purchase and also have “skin in the game.” If you are able to put more than 20% down, you might even be able to negotiate better rates.

4. Know your history. A bank will look at your credit score, and commitment to the loan by looking at the amount of your down payment, but they will also consider the rest of your history, including employment history, loan payment history, cash reserves, and the size of any previous loans. Banks hardly lend a significantly larger loan than the other loans you may have had in the past.

5. Put together the documents detailing your current financial position. This includes your year to date earnings, your last two years of tax returns, and your investments including cash, stocks, annuities, IRA’s, 401k’s etc. Also understand that you are not just proving you capacity to pay back the loan, but pay back the loan and take good care of the yacht, because if you default the bank will own the boat.

6. Understand how bank look at your debt and income. A bank will want to see that your monthly debt payments are not greater than 40% of your monthly earnings.

7. Choose the right representative. A yacht loan broker is an independent advocate that can connect you with every bank that provides boat loans (not all do), the criteria you should use when choosing your broker should be if they have a long standing, strong relationship with the banks.

Now is a tremendous time to buy a yacht. There are ample opportunities to purchase yachts at that represent an exceptional value, or may have been previously unaffordable. Take the time to prepare in advance, get “pre-qualified” for a yacht loan so you know that financing will not affect your negotiations or timetable to purchase.