re: Thinking about buying a boat. Questions to ask?

You will want to try to find a quality boat. Don't buy anything older than a 2005 model, because it is likely you will have problems out of it. Unless it has low hours on it and was kept in a storage.

Any ski boat/bowrider will be good for what you want, one about 19 to 21 ft. Will hold about 8 people at that size, with a 4.3 Mercruiser engine. Good Power, not terrible on gas. Anything larger than a 4.3 will guzzle gas.

Quality bow rider boat brands are Sea Ray, Cobalt, Crownline, Chaparral, Larson.

I would stay away from Bayliner or Tahoe unless you buy them new, they are cheap made and will not last for the long run.

If you want a competition ski/wakeboard boat then go with a Malibu or Mastercraft. These will cost you more money and I wouldn't suggest you get one because they are harder to load on trailers because of the straight shaft under the boat, no tilt and trim and with your inexperience you'd probably bend the shaft.

Always when buying a boat the best thing to do is look for abuse (cracked seats, scratches on the hull, etc). And never buy it until you take it out on the lake, always set up a meeting with the owner to go on the lake and run the boat, so you can see how it drives/runs and check all the electronics.