Buying recently rebuilt or fixing one up?

wrote:
I am currently taking flying lessons. I would like to own my own
aircraft and have been considering various options.
.stuff snipped

We (wife and I) bought ours to train in and to keep afterward. With no
kids, a Cherokee 140 still fits our profile. Paint, interior, radios,
and other upgrades and 14 years later, it is still a keeper for us.

Other encourage buying one to learn in. That topic has been well hashed.
For some, it works. For others the distraction of owning while training
(and presumably keeping a "day job") may be overwhelming. Opinions vary.

Likely once you have your ticket, you will want to go somewhere. Mission
length, how many pax and bags you take, terrain elevation, runway
lengths, and other considerations may be vastly different than the plane
you trained in can handle. Rent a couple of examples. Find others with
planes that may suit you and talk their ear off.

It is almost always significantly less expensive to buy something ready
to go with a solid pedigree than trying to "fix something up". Few
realize how much things actually cost, pay too much for a junker, and
wind up behind the 8-ball financially. If the spread between a
particular model is $15k, ask yourself if you really have $15-$25k spare
cash on hand AND you can pay the note you may have taken out to buy the
beast AND you can afford gas, AND you can afford maintenance while you
are fixing it up AND you can keep up with all your other bills. Remember
that the shiny new paint job someone paid $8,000 for may be actually
only worth about half that amount if they wind up selling the plane
right out of the paint shop. Same holds true for most avionics, engine
overhauls, interiors, speed mods, etc. Wouldn't you rather be on the
receiving end of that calculation? Some say to fix it up yourself so
that you "know what you have got". You know all right, you have a BIG
list of bills. As I have stated before though, most simple pistons
single airplanes for sale are flying junk. Actually finding something in
decent shape can be a challenge.

Several posters will tout their tale of how they did it on a shoestring.
The ones who took a financial bath don't brag about their failures here
on the 'Net. I suspect there are quite a few who got underwater with a
"fixer upper". And for those who succeeded, I say "Great job!". But
perhaps you should consider that they got lucky, had an "inside" with a
local mechanic, or had the skills and tools (and willing mechanic) to do
the work themselves. Do YOU have those things? When you don't know what
to look for in a fixer upper, don't know how to fix things yourself, and
don't know how/where to shop for parts, you can get seriously under
water. Paying "retail" (A.K.A. "handing the keys to the local FBO") can
also bust a budget pretty quickly.

As I said, look over the fleet via renting. Patience rarely fails to
produce the best outcome in aviation ownership.

Good Luck,
Mike