Something that you can and should do before going as far as arranging a
pre-buy or purchasing airline tickets is to get a title search and aircraft
records from AOPA. You can also get a CD from the FAA that has ownership
and 337 info. If it turns up something suspicious, you can always ask the
owner about it. It will also show a history of every recorded owner. You
can contact the previous owners to ask why they sold the plane. It will
show if the airplane has been located in a corrosion prone area which should
lead you to ask questions about corrosion prevention. All the form 337's
should also be included which may or may not point out damage or repair
history.

I was able to use information found in title searches to seek out several
A&P's that had worked on some of the planes we were interested in. I found
good and bad. I talked to one previous owner that wanted me to tell him
where the plane was because if I didn't buy it, he wanted to buy it back. I
also located one retired engine builder that, in his time, had a great
reputation of rebuilding engines. The plane they were on however hadn't
flown in 9 years. The engine builder basically told us to forget it. He
said the only way he'd touch it was if they were torn down and inspected.
Next.

Time spent going through all the records will pay huge dividends.

Jim