Buying tips and tricks for the less experienced.

Hello everyone,

Starting the search process for a wakeboard boat for next summer, and feel like I'm not quite finding all the possibilities, and am a little unsure of the process. The plan would be to really move towards a purchase around January.. Is that a decent time of year for both purchasing power and finding something that fits me? My experience has always been with my father with trucks and fishing boats, and we made big scores early December as Christmas time started to stress out some fathers.

Currently I've been looking around Craigslist in my area (central nc) and out to around Georgia or so, I have never towed a tow boat before but haven't had problems with 8-12k pound hay loads so I ink I can handle it. I've also heard onlyinboards to be a good source, and of course boattrader was easy enough to find through an Internet search. Any other big time ways to find something? Maybe going to marine shops and just asking? Calling dealerships?

Lastly, I'd like to really know my options to more efficiently dial in my search, I wish We could reach a little higher but it's looking like around 20k is the mark, maybe a couple thousand more fore a significantly better piece of equipment. This boat will be run in saltwater. I understand that's not optimal, but it's flat out going to happen, at least 50% of riding will be in Wilmington, I have found exactly 0 saltwater series boats in my search. Have heard of some being very diligent with service and washing their boats after every dip in the hell water and being alright, I guess Iwe will have to risk it, most likely will be moving to another boat in around 4 years.

My current shortlist of possibilities are, in kind of an order... Prostar 205v, x10(02-03 or so) , San 210 (01-04), centurion elite v (understand this is not well loved) air nautique 216

My girlfriend and I will be using this to try to really enjoy ourselves, and times with family and friends. I am not really a boat ride kind of person, but it will need to do that. I'd say 70 wakeboarding 30 cruising

Any help would be greatly appreciated