Brokers

Skymac

Skymac

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Nov 9, 2015
Messages
323
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Kentucky
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Display name:
Justin
So tired of dealing with Brokers, especially on light singles and twins under say $250k. What a waste. Call on an airplane, they generally don’t know anything about it, never seen it, blah blah….

Why can’t people better our industry and sell their own planes or quit using brokers that are terrible. I’ve spoken with a couple long standing operations this week and it’s like pulling teeth.

Rant over…
 
Why not get a buyer’s agent or, better yet join the type club and become active in it. WOM will provide opportunities that are never advertised or brokered.
 
Skymac said:
So tired of dealing with Brokers, especially on light singles and twins under say $250k. What a waste. Call on an airplane, they generally don’t know anything about it, never seen it, blah blah….

Why can’t people better our industry and sell their own planes or quit using brokers that are terrible. I’ve spoken with a couple long standing operations this week and it’s like pulling teeth.

Rant over…
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Understand the frustration...
I'll likely use a broker to sell, though. Not interested in picking up every random phone call just to find out if they're semi-serious people.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
Understand the frustration...
I'll likely use a broker to sell, though. Not interested in picking up every random phone call just to find out if they're semi-serious people.
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I'd rather do that than let serious sellers move on to a different airplane because the broker doesn't know the item they are selling.

A good ad should cut down a lot a phone calls. I'd imagine you can tell if you have a serious buyer in the first two minutes. It likely take less time to deal with a few semi-serious people than it does to retain a broker and communicate with them.
 
Just to confirm, these are the brokers of these planes? If so, that’s pathetic service for those sellers.
 
Try selling a plane - and then you'll realize the necessity of having a broker. The amount of tire kickers wasting your time is really absurd (depends on the plane obviously). The group of pilots that come out is truly amazing. They believe a) since you arent using a broker, that they can take 10% off the bat. b) they are going to proceed to tell you what your plane is worth (usually its a good chunk below market) and c) they will nitpick everything under the sun. And frequently they want you or them to test fly the plane. I pretty much let brokers deal with all of those now - and as for the test flights - thats usually after some deposit is put down (fully refundable) but at least you know they are serious.

And then people say they will drive 4 hours to see the plane at so and so time, and show up 3 hours late and call you asking where are you ? Its a lot dealing with pilots trying to buy planes. And many of the ones that refuse to deal with a broker - well they are frequently the bottom feeders (not always, but many are).
 
I bought my last plane from a broker. He knew the plane better than the owner himself, and was incredibly helpful in the whole process.
 
I found a broker helped to keep the conversations going when buying and definitely helped with the repairs needed discovered during the prebuy.
 
Chrisgoesflying said:
I bought my last plane from a broker. He knew the plane better than the owner himself, and was incredibly helpful in the whole process.
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Having worked with a number of brokers, this^ is typically what I’ve seen and experienced. However, just as there are good/bad pilots and mechanics it’s the same for brokers. And usually when a seller selects a broker to sell their aircraft it can have more to do with aircraft condition and costs than the "quality" of the broker.

My recommendations have always been to select a good broker first, then they will find the aircraft you are looking for vs the reverse of finding the aircraft 1st then having to deal with the broker the seller picked.
 
mandm said:
I found a broker helped to keep the conversations going when buying and definitely helped with the repairs needed discovered during the prebuy.
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It has been almost 20 years since we bought our Scout from a broker. I thought they were reasonable, they provided images of the Logs, Let us have a local IA we knew come inspect the airplane for us. But they made it clear there was no negotiating on the airplane. It is what it is and the price is what is, buy it if you like it, move on if you don't was the message they gave us.

Brian
 
I bought mine from a broker. But he was type specific and easy to work with.
 
I thought about becoming a broker, but what I really need is for more brokers to hire me to take photos!

I've never purchased from a broker, but the right broker knows how to get good photos and stop a lot of the BS calls.
 
Lowflynjack said:
I thought about becoming a broker, but what I really need is for more brokers to hire me to take photos!

I've never purchased from a broker, but the right broker knows how to get good photos and stop a lot of the BS calls.
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You mean they don’t have just two photos - one of of an unwashed plane and the other of a panel criss-crossed with headset and GPS cables, taken through a potato phone inside a closed, unlit hangar?
 
ateamer said:
You mean they don’t have just two photos - one of of an unwashed plane and the other of a panel criss-crossed with headset and GPS cables, taken through a potato phone inside a closed, unlit hangar?
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LOL, exactly! I know when I'm looking at Barnstormers, if they don't have photos, or a price, I'm moving on.
 
I was relatively happy with the broker when I bought my plane. He handled talking to the owner (and convincing him to accept my terms). He also booked up the various things that needed be done including setting up escrow. I didn't actually meet the seller through any part of this.

About five years later I was at Oshkosh and a friend showed up in his rangemaster and I went to greet him. He had to hurry off to the gray box so I was standing at his plane waiting for him to return. This little old man totters up to me and asks, "Is this your airplane?" I told him it belonged to a friend, but I owned a Navion, too. He starts in on how he used to have a Navion but he had to sell it a few years back. Then he pulls a picture out of his wallet. Yep, N5327K. You must be "Harry D----," I say. He says, "Yeah!" I tell him I was the one who bought his plane.
 
The loss of casual sale exemption keeps me away from brokers. Sucks for the seller, would have been more than happy to offer list. These things aren't that unique to justify the excise tax.
 
A good broker will usually have the answers to questions about the airplane,they also do the research to insure the plane is what your looking for.
 
Anyone can become an airplane or a yacht broker as I don't believe there is any licensing involved... hells bells, who here remembers Baron Thomas and Bob Cullen...
 
hindsight2020 said:
The loss of casual sale exemption keeps me away from brokers. Sucks for the seller, would have been more than happy to offer list. These things aren't that unique to justify the excise tax.
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That's only an issue if you're someplace where "casual sale" means anything. I owed the use tax whether I bought it from the broker or not. The revenooers here mine the FAA database looking for new registrations.
 
flyingron said:
That's only an issue if you're someplace where "casual sale" means anything. I owed the use tax whether I bought it from the broker or not. The revenooers here mine the FAA database looking for new registrations.
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It Texas it means a lot. Casual sale is exempt from sales tax; brokered sale isn’t.
 
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