If it helps when i got my boat being my first boat i w?s so excited and wanted it in my driveway to start working on it. At the time, i only knew it needed a good buffing, some minor oxidation. I got a great deal so after hearing it run on muffs i paid and towed it home.
There it sat for 3wks or more wasting precious summer weather away while i played phone tag to get the title for boat. Getting trailer on road was another fiasco as the previous title never listed empty trailer weight and my dmv requires that. It took another 1hr drive to get title and boat registered.
Finally on the water and realized it had bad intake gasket. More downtime but the good news was another wk or two later i got it on the water mid aug to atleast enjoy some of the season.
Moral of my story is always lake test, figure unregistered boats will need work, and never hand all your money over until you get a title.
Seems like there's always a slimeball out there and go with your gut instinct. For all you know guy couldve been struggling to get it started before you came out.
It does look like nice boat, are you going to look elsewhere than?