The broker said it best: "Esmeralda" is a great value for someone who is ready to roll up his or her sleeves and put some work into her!
This might be the understatement of the year.
Man, that's a sad state to see a Prairie 36 in!
I'd be very concerned about the condition of everything mechanical and electrical. The electronics need to be ripped out and totally replaced. That homemade hard top would be a great idea, IF it were done right. I'm not so sure on that. I'm not a fan of using a window air conditioner. Two new "proper" marine AC units would be on my list. The pictures show vents for that, so you might get lucky there. I actually took the pulpit off mine, to fit in the slip I already owned, so I can tell you that's a viable option. From the pics I'm thinking gelcoat refinishing would be needed all around. Places where there's deck coring would need to be checked. The hull on these were solid, so that might be OK. I noticed the signs of standing water in the bathtub. Where did that come from? Then there's things like the condition of the (aluminum) tanks to look at.
There seems to be a lot of "customization" of the interior, of questionably craftsmanship. But overall the interior doesn't look too bad. Maybe it was a dock queen liveaboard and the basic "house" systems are OK. The lay-out of this boat is great, we love ours. The hull is rugged.
My guess is that the asking price is wishful thinking. This thing is an anchor chain around someone's neck. You'd be doing them a favor to take it off their hands at half that. You'd be in for a LOT of work, and even more expense, but if you're into project boats, this could turn out well. Personally, I'd love to see it saved.