Coordinating Pre Buy process for plane purchase

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supertrooper2002

Filing Flight Plan
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supertrooper2002
How do people typically do the following:
1) Find plane of interest
2) Personally inspect the plane
3) Find a A&P/ IA to perform pre buy
4) Negotiate final purchase agreement

My concern is for #2 & 3 when the plane isn't local to me or the A&P:
- How to find a good A&P via Email / Internet / Word of mouth / etc?
- Do I use an A&P near plane?
- Do I ask owner to fly plane to A&P?
- Do I fly the A&P to the plane?
- Who pays for transit to / from plane / A&P?

Any suggestions would be appreciated
 
1) same way everyone does, thru the standard for sale sites, social media, word of mouth, etc...
2) if the plane is worth pursuing you need to find a way. commercial flight, ask someone local to check it out for you, take pics, etc....
3) could be tough but find local mechanics near the plane and contact them.
4) same way everyone does, based on feedback from you and/or your mechanic inspecting the plane, you make an offer.

I'm confused who you would think would pay expenses for you to go look at a plane. you would. why would anyone else pay for your expenses? if the plane isn't TOO far from you, you might negotiate something where the seller flies the plane closer to you so you can take a peek, and those expenses would have to be worked out between you two.

most important thing in my mind is communication with the seller. know a mechanic nearby? ask the seller if he'd be willing to fly the plane to wherever that is. have concerns? talk with the seller. but keep in mind if the plane is solid, the more you putz around the more likely someone more prepared will get it before you.

also, AOPA has some good resources and documents you can use, like pre-purchase agreements etc...
 
I flew out to the plane (with my own plane), inspected it and flew it, then signed the agreement to buy it if the prebuy passes.
A week later, my mechanic and I flew in commercially (super early in the morning), did 7 hrs of prebuy inspection, signed the contract and insurance (which I worked on during the day), and we flew home in my new plane. If I did not know how to fly it, I would have also brought a CFI.
It's quite a bit of an expense and logistics, but had to do it.
Good luck.
 
#4 does not come last.

If you find a plane that you like, you make a written offer with inspection contingency, seller signs the offer, you put $ into escrow, inspect the plane, then finalize possession and full payment.

The inspection contingency says you have the right to have your mechanic do a pre-buy. If any airworthiness discrepancies are found, buyer fixes them, or the plane is discounted for you to fix, or you buy it as-is, or you have the option to walk and get your $ back in full.

You pay for your own inspection, getting the plane there, etc.
 
supertrooper2002 said:
How do people typically do the following:
1) Find plane of interest
2) Personally inspect the plane
3) Find a A&P/ IA to perform pre buy
4) Negotiate final purchase agreement

My concern is for #2 & 3 when the plane isn't local to me or the A&P:
- How to find a good A&P via Email / Internet / Word of mouth / etc?
- Do I use an A&P near plane?
- Do I ask owner to fly plane to A&P?
- Do I fly the A&P to the plane?
- Who pays for transit to / from plane / A&P?

Any suggestions would be appreciated
Click to expand...

I made this video on my process. Everyone is a little different, but this should help you out a bit. Let me know if you have further questions I might be able to help clarify.

To directly answer your questions though, once you inspect the log books in detail and decide you like what you see, I would definitely recommend taking a day trip to see it in person and hopefully go for a demo flight. There is nothing like getting first hand experience on it. For A&P, reach out to the type club and forums for whatever plane it is. In my case, the beech community all respected David Beaver in Houston, so I asked the seller if he would fly it there. As the buyer request, I would not expect the seller to pick up the cost of it, but that can be discussed. It would probably be part of the purchase agreement how that plays out. There are also some A&Ps that will fly out to the plane for you. The main thing though is use someone that hasn’t been maintaining it.
 
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Steps to buying an airplane
1) Determine airplane type and budget
2) Search for them online barnstormers tradeaplane controller etc
3) Once you like the photos, ask for logbooks
4) Ask your mechanic to give his opinion on the airplane
5) Make offer with deposit in escrow, contract and subject to prebuy
6) Seller flies airplane to prebuy inspection preferably an hour away (you don’t want someone at the same airport or a mechanic who worked on the airplane doing the inspection)
7) You must have some issues in the prebuy, negotiate the seller to fix some of them (you might raise the price a little to cover these fixes). You can ask the prebuy mechanic to sign off on an annual too.
8) Once the airplane is ready, pay balance and fly in or get a ride in to pick her up. Get insurance if desired. Enjoy your new airplane.
 
I bought mine remotely.

I found the plane, reviewed the logs (with my mechanic), entered an agreement to buy at a given price, subject to pre-buy. I arranged a pre-buy with a shop somewhat close to the seller (broker), bought the plane after that.

I did not see the plane in person until after I had bought it. :)

POA or type specific forums are a good place to find a good shop to do the pre-buy that is convenient to the process.
 
Pinecone said:
I bought mine remotely.

I found the plane, reviewed the logs (with my mechanic), entered an agreement to buy at a given price, subject to pre-buy. I arranged a pre-buy with a shop somewhat close to the seller (broker), bought the plane after that.

I did not see the plane in person until after I had bought it. :)

POA or type specific forums are a good place to find a good shop to do the pre-buy that is convenient to the process.
Click to expand...
I also did not see mine until after I bought it. One thing is my mechanic pushes for total time as low as possible. 4000 hours was good but he would definitely want something around 2500 hours TT. Now if the airplane had 10,000 hours, my mechanic would have a heart attack. So I think complete logs, low TT, check the logbooks and make a checklist of all the big ticket items and the date / hours it was last overhauled replaced, you’ll have a good indicator of the health moving forward.
 
There are as many ways to buy planes as there are planes sold.

The first plane I bought, I flew the local A&P to it for a prebuy in a rented C-150. I think I found that plane from the local FBO. That was the only time I hired an A&P for a prebuy.

The next three planes I bought from friends.

The next two planes I found out about on the homebuilt airplanes forum. One I flew commercial to see, agreed on the price, flew back home, then returned and flew it home a couple of months later. The other I drove to see, then got a friend to fly me up to pick it up and fly it home. In both of those cases I inspected the plane myself, and also talked to the A&Ps who had been maintaining the planes.

My current plane I found on Barnstormers, "for sale or trade", and the plane I already had was exactly what the seller wanted, and both planes were worth the same amount of money.

He was willing to take my plane sight unseen based on photos, videos, and talking to me, but I flew commercial to look at his plane as I'd never seen one before. Couldn't fly it as his runway was too wet, but I talked to several previous owners as well. After inspecting it, sitting in the cockpit and running the engine, I said, "OK", and we shook hands.
 
Great discussion. I’m going through the plane-buying process as well. So far, the likeliest candidate I’ve found is halfway across the country, so just seeing the plane, let alone doing a pre-buy and then getting it home (if we buy it) is a pain.

It was the same for the gentleman who bought my RV-8. We connected through his social media post looking for a plane, and I hadn’t posted it for sale yet so I didn’t ask for a deposit. No skin off my nose if he walked. We agreed on a tentative price based on his review of the logs and photos and a couple conversations.

He flew down by airline, had a prebuy done at my hangar (by an A&P who had never seen the plane and had no connection to me), accrpted the plane and completed the deal.

Payment and paperwork was through escrow with Aerospace Reports. Easy process, everything went as expected.
 
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