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How do I make sure that when I resell my boat, the electrical systems and upgrades that I've done make the boat worth more and not less? We have a big announcement. You can now become a YouTube member. You can join as a YouTube member right now here on screen for custom loyalty badges and emojis. Or if you are looking for exclusive early access to our videos, live Q&As, and more direct support on your project, we also launched our brand new Patreon page linked in the description below. Thank you so much for watching and being part of the Pacific Yacht Systems community. Now, let's get back to the video. Hey everyone, Jeff Cote here from Pacific Yacht System with another installment of Deck Talk. Fiona asked, "Jeff, I'm tackling a lot of electrical work on my boat and I'm wondering what should I do so it positively affects the resale value of my boat?" So, good question. Many of us are going to end up selling our boat and we want to sell our boat for the maximum amount of dollars that we can get from it. And we all have an inflated sense of what our boat is worth anyways, so to minimize the disappointment when we sell our boat, you definitely want to do things on your boat that are going to help the resale value of your boat. Obviously, keeping receipts, a good maintenance log, all those things are great and it inspires confidence in the next owner that you did the right things on your boat and that you're very maintenance oriented. But when it comes to doing electrical projects on your boat, I think you want to start thinking a little bit like a pro. And what that means is think that you're not just doing it for yourself, but you're doing it for someone else. And I think that distinction is really important. I see a lot of owners that do things on their boat and they're like they might not use the right label, the right color wire, they might not even label, they might not it might not even make sense, they're taking shortcuts. And whenever we point that out to them, they always say, "Yeah, yeah, but I know. Yeah, yeah, but I know what it is. Yeah, yeah, but I know what where it is." And it's true, they do. And for them, it's no problem, it works, right? I've seen boats where all the wiring is black, all the wiring is red. They just If they prefer buying one spool of wire and everything is context driven. And when we spot it out in a survey, they're like, "Oh, it doesn't matter. I understand and I know what it is." And they are right, it does work. The challenge is the moment it passes to another owner that doesn't have that detail of information that you have. So, when I say install like a pro, and like for example, in our refit, what we're doing is we're not just installing it for ourselves, we're installing it for someone else. So, that mindset is really good. If you're doing electrical on your boat, think that one day, either you might forget, which has happened on my boat. I've had my boat for over 20 years now. And I've forgotten things that I've done on my boat. So, it's going to happen most likely to you as well. And I love my boat, but I have forgotten things that I have done on my boat. So, not only do it for yourself, but do it for either your future self or a future owner. So, do all the things that would be expected out of a pro. Make sure you use the right colored uh wiring for the job, so that it's not like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I know it's There are two red wires, but I know which one is sort of negative and I know which one is positive." The other thing that's super important is label. I am a huge proponent of labeling. I do it on my boat. I have to say, when I bought my boat at the beginning and before I was a pro, I was a journey, I didn't label as much as I should have. And a lot of times I was like, "Oh, well, I'll remember." You remember maybe short term, long term, but after 10 years, 15 years, and you've got 100 panels or 100 wires in your panels, uh you definitely want to have all these little wires and all these little fuses labeled. So, label properly. The other thing, too, that I cannot emphasize enough, and that's something that we do as well, is create diagrams. Diagrams are huge. If you can show what you did on paper, and the paper matches reality, first of all, you can have your boat electrical be audited quickly. You don't need even to be on board. Like, you could have it simply audited by someone, and they look at the diagram and they're like, "Oh, yeah, I see that you did something right or wrong." But, it's easily identified. To figure that out in the field without a diagram, takes way more time. So, whatever you do, diagram it. It doesn't have to be beautiful, but, you know, pencil, pen, whatever. Do something that shows that you gave it thought, and that the right wires are going to the right place. That is going to be huge on resale, because it's going to be a map to the next owner to figure out what's been done post-factory, and it's really going to help on the resale value of your boat. All those things, diagrams, following the standard, the code, is really important, and not taking shortcuts. So, making sure that you don't do things where you think you're smarter, and I understand the temptation. A lot of us as boaters are have that mindset where we're thinking, you know, the manual says X, but I don't think they know what they're talking about. I'm going to do Y. I understand the temptation. I've been there. I get it. But, if you're thinking about resale, follow what's expected, not what you think is better because you think it's better. You know, like, again, it's going to help like it's just because people don't know your mindset and why you do things, so they might question it and assume it's wrong even though it's better. So, sometimes it's better to just do the standard than to be creative. And that's how I would suggest that Fiona uh tackles electrical on her boat, and it's going to help her have the resale value. So, basically, if you're going to do electrical, do it like a pro. And if you're not going to do electrical on your boat, and you're going to hire someone that does electrical, make sure they act like one. Some of them make your boat worse than it was. So again, ask around, ask their reputation, get contacts, validate. Some people talk a big game. What you want to do as a boat owner, especially if you're going to pay for those services, is that you're going to have something quantified that's going to make your boat better, not worse. So great question from Fiona. If you made it this far in the video, I'd ask that you subscribe. It helps us grow the channel. We're going to put some links down below to our electrical audits. So if you're curious about if the boat that you're maybe purchasing needs to be done. We've done electrical audits by the way remotely. It's not as good of course as being on hand, but in some instances there's no other option. It's of course not as good as being on hand, but you know, it's better than nothing. We'll have the links in the description below. And thanks for all watching and we'll see you in the next one. Take care and safe boating. Hey fellow boaters, we're going to be doing a lot more tech talk videos. If you've got any suggestions for future videos, leave them in the comments below. Once again, thank you for watching.