We have been going through the process of buying a 1989 Carver 34 Santego. We have been looking for awhile and this boat ticked a lot of boxes for us. We spoke to the broker and looked through the boat and made an offer, and negotiated a price with the seller.
We then had a mechanic look over the engines, and he was happy with them but found a small leak coming from where the drive and the hull meet. He had worked om the boat once before (about 12 months previously) and had noticed it then and told the owner, who had his regular mechanic look but not find anything. Our mechanic was quite good and has a good reputation so we trusted him.
The owner was happy to address the issue and while the boat was out of the water we organised to have the survey done. The survey went well, finding the boat to be solid and systems working, although he did reccomend that it was overdue for an anti-foul and that it shouldnt go back in the water without new anodes as they were nearly gone. He also suggested that the build up of the previous anti-foul should be scraped off as it was quite thick. Again the owner was agreeable to all this. We added another $10 000 to our deposit so he knew we were serious about buying the boat and agreed to another $2000 to the purchase price
All of this took time to organise and we kept in touch with the broker.
Our finance company called and reminded us that our finance contract would run out if not finallised at a certain date and when we mentioned this to the broker to find out when the boat was back in the water for a sea trial, He said he would call as soon as he knew. The broker we had been dealing with left because of a family issue and another from the company stepped in
Our next call from the broker was to say that the buyer had decided not to sell for the agreed price but wanted more money.
We said we didnt think this was fair and would stick with our agreed price. The broker appeared to agree with us advising him it was an old boat and he was getting a good price, but he wouldnt budge. The brokers even offered to lessen their fees to get the deal across the line but the owner wouldnt budge saying he had spent a great deal on the boat.
We felt that all that had been done was boat maintenance and didnt add to the value of the boat, and if it had been done when it should have been done wouldnt have been one large amount.

Did we do the right thing walking away?
We felt bad for the brokers who had done a fair bit for us, getting nothing out of it.
We will get our deposit back but are out the cost of the survey and mechanical inspection. We liked the boat but the actions of the owner left a bad taste in our mouths.

Sorry for the long winded post.