Buying a plane vent

muddy00

muddy00

Pre-takeoff checklist
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muddy00
so I'm trying to buy a plane, owner has a shop/ broker selling it for him. Ive made the trip out and inspected it and made an offer but I'm getting the impression the owner has not received my offer through his guy ? I'm guessing the agent didn't like my number. I feel the offer was reasonable. Besides a house I've always just dealt face to face with the seller I'm finding this to be a pain in the ... is this about normal for aircraft sales ?
 
In my experiences, aircraft brokers do little more than get in the way of a sale (at least in the GA playground; business jets are another matter). There are some exceptions to that, but very few.
 
I bought through Bartelt and had nothing but an excellent experience.


Look up the N number and send a letter to the owner or use some Google-foo and get his number.
 
Unit74 said:
I bought through Bartelt and had nothing but an excellent experience.


Look up the N number and send a letter to the owner or use some Google-foo and get his number.
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That
 
bradg33 said:
In my experiences, aircraft brokers do little more than get in the way of a sale (at least in the GA playground; business jets are another matter). There are some exceptions to that, but very few.
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I guess I had one of the exceptions. Had it not been for the broker in my purchase, it probably would not have happened.
 
bradg33 said:
In my experiences, aircraft brokers do little more than get in the way of a sale (at least in the GA playground; business jets are another matter). There are some exceptions to that, but very few.
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Ours was an exception. The former owner kept tanking all sales until he hired a broker and the broker told him to stay the hell away from potential buyers. Never have been able to get the rest of that story other than he was a crusty nit-picky Marine and we know from the logs and whatnot, that he kept the airplane very well after the first owner, who didn't. He added the Robertson kit, painted it, redid the avionics, etc. Probably just chewed anyone's butt who he didn't think would maintain his baby. No idea. But luckily my co-owners ran across the airplane right as the broker was digitizing logs and what not for the guy and bought it quick.
 
Guess I'm just frustrated. Spent the time and money to check it out and can't get a straight answer. Guess it wasn't meant to be. Off to the next one.
 
muddy00 said:
Guess I'm just frustrated. Spent the time and money to check it out and can't get a straight answer. Guess it wasn't meant to be. Off to the next one.
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Buying a plane sucks.

Once you accept that, and look at it as just another unpleasant hurdle, like obtaining a 3rd class medical, it gets better. The main trick is to not be in a hurry and don't fall in love.
 
muddy00 said:
Guess I'm just frustrated. Spent the time and money to check it out and can't get a straight answer. Guess it wasn't meant to be. Off to the next one.
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Let the broker know you are looking elsewhere and let him know why.
 
flyingron said:
I guess I had one of the exceptions. Had it not been for the broker in my purchase, it probably would not have happened.
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I was also one of the exceptions. I sold my plane through a broker and he did a great job. It was sold with a few weeks. In our conversations, the broker figured out what we wanted in our new plane and just a few weeks after we closed our sale, he found a plane that fit our needs to a T!. He arranged everything, and when the prebuy turned up a substantial number of squawks (mostly minor) he negotiated the price of fixing everything off the sales price.

That said, you are probably better off going through a broker to find you a plane rather than working with a broker that is trying to sell you someone else's plane.
 
muddy00 said:
I did. They didn't care. Guess if it was meant to be I'd have my plane.
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As Jay said, patience is the key. There are many good planes out there and some are reasonably priced. But the best plane for you at the price you want to pay might not be available for right this minute.
 
They must only want to see people drive up in a Rolls Royce then.....
 
No shortage of "sellers" that have their planes listed and don't really want to part with them. The brokers figure that out pretty quick and stop wasting their time even when they still have the listing. I've come across this situation a LOT more than I would have expected over the years;
 
Jay Honeck said:
Buying a plane sucks.

Once you accept that, and look at it as just another unpleasant hurdle, like obtaining a 3rd class medical, it gets better. The main trick is to not be in a hurry and don't fall in love.
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Buying a airplane sucks????
I love buying airplanes, I would say it is fun but never say it sucks. I have bought 12 of them so far and hope to keep on buying them. I don't deal with brokers and check out my own stuff. I have bought several planes sight unseen. My thought was if I don't like it when it gets here I will sell it and make some money :)
But I have pretty high standards, I usually don't look at junk.
 
farmerbrake said:
Trying to pawn off those Ford air vents as vents off your Cirrus? Lol
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Cirrus vents? Wouldn't those risk letting in some of that potentially contaminated outside air?
I thought Cirrus offered a hermetically sealed, pristine, temperature-&-humidity-controlled perfect environment for their dainty pilots...

...until they rip the roof out of it to make an off-airport landing.
 
Maybe the broker has already had a conversation with the owner, where the owner said, "Don't even bother me with offers less than $XXXXX dollars," and your offer was less.
While selling my last plane, I received so many ridiculous offers that I felt were just wasting my time. I will probably use a broker on my next sale, to weed them out. (I'm not saying your offer was ridiculous, but maybe just lower than the pre-set minimum).
I was asking $23500 for a beautiful C150...I routinely received offers of $10k. I sold it for $24500 (yes, more than I was asking...2 competing buyers/long story).
 
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pigpenracing said:
Buying a airplane sucks????
I love buying airplanes, I would say it is fun but never say it sucks. I have bought 12 of them so far and hope to keep on buying them. I don't deal with brokers and check out my own stuff. I have bought several planes sight unseen. My thought was if I don't like it when it gets here I will sell it and make some money :)
But I have pretty high standards, I usually don't look at junk.
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If you've got endless time, patience, and can get past all the half-truths and inconveniences put out by sellers without getting discouraged, buying an airplane can be fun.

If, however, you have a business to run, other demands on your time, or have a low tolerance for B.S., searching for and ultimately buying an airplane sucks.

I'm sure we both agree that the end results are worth the effort. :)
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I will sell you a plane vent.
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HAH! I thought the very same when I saw the thread title. Plane vents are expensive FAA-PMA parts. :D

But seriously, I second (or third or fourth) the suggestion to contact the owner. He might not even know that people are making offers to the broker.
Heck, that's how I bought my first plane. It was mis-advertised by some dumb-as-s*it broker so I went straight to the owner and he was very happy to entertain our offer since he had gotten ZERO in the 1/2 year he was trying to sell the plane. Brokers are jokers. *sigh*

Good luck with the plane, hopefully it's the one.
 
I've heard about this thing called patience I just assumed it was like Sasquatch. Now I'm at the point I think It will work out for the best and everything happens for a reason. Since I'm going to win the 172 in a couple weeks I won't need both
 
I had a similar experience with a broker on a bank repo 421, I made an offer contingent on inspection etc. He told me he had talked to the bank the previous week and they would not accept that kind of money for it, I don't think he never presented the offer. He was getting paid to hangar it and run it occasionally, it was out of annual. It was still listed almost 3 years later!! A broker should present or at least discuss every offer with the seller. Now if you are offering 50% of the "market price" I understand him blowing you off, but if you are somewhere in the ballpark there should be a counter offer and then let the fun begin! :D
 
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