S: Looking for suggestions: need time for pre-buy

wrote:

What do you think of this approach: Offer the seller a reasonable
amount to hold the aircraft until a pre-buy can be arranged. If the
results of the pre-buy indicate major problems, money is refunded.

That worked for me and my broker when I sold the Maule. We got $2,000 up front.
Both the buyer and I signed a contract saying he would buy and I would sell for
a given price. The contract stated that I would deliver the aircraft to a shop
of his choosing for the inspection and he could back out if he didn't like the
results of the prebuy.

Unfortunately, this approach does not take into account any price
negotiation.

Right. He tried to "negotiate" after the inspection. I told him I'd be happy to
come get the plane if he didn't want it (I also registered an opinion on his
mechanic's ancestry and eye color when he claimed it needed all new control cables).

He tried a few other tricks that I'm sure you wouldn't do, but he bought the plane.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

three-eight-hotel wrote:

I recall some discussions about setting up an escrow account for these
types of transactions... I'm reluctant to hand people money, if I have
no way of guaranteeing I can get it back!

Escrow services are a great idea.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

So you took a risk that if he wasn't really serious, he could find
some minor problem with the pre-buy results and bail on the deal,
leaving you with the cost to deliver and your time, including any
period of time that you were holding the a/c until the pre-buy was
arranged.

- Mike


George Patterson wrote:

.. The contract stated that I would deliver the aircraft to a shop
of his choosing for the inspection and he could back out if he didn't like the
results of the prebuy.

Michael Horowitz wrote:
So you took a risk that if he wasn't really serious, he could find
some minor problem with the pre-buy results and bail on the deal,
leaving you with the cost to deliver and your time, including any
period of time that you were holding the a/c until the pre-buy was
arranged.

Yes. Actually, I was sort of hoping he would cancel. We got two or three more
calls after that, including one from Alaska. On the other hand, "a bird in the
bush ...."

And you have to admit that a 2 grand deposit is a pretty good indication that
the guy was serious.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

Yup, that's a fair indication - Mike


George Patterson wrote:

Michael Horowitz wrote:
So you took a risk that if he wasn't really serious, he could find
some minor problem with the pre-buy results and bail on the deal,
leaving you with the cost to deliver and your time, including any
period of time that you were holding the a/c until the pre-buy was
arranged.

Yes. Actually, I was sort of hoping he would cancel. We got two or three more
calls after that, including one from Alaska. On the other hand, "a bird in the
bush ...."

And you have to admit that a 2 grand deposit is a pretty good indication that
the guy was serious.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

wrote in message
oups.com...

Well, I lost out on a chance to purchase a nice plane because I wanted
a pre-buy and someone else just wrote out a check unseen.

What do you think of this approach: Offer the seller a reasonable
amount to hold the aircraft until a pre-buy can be arranged. If the
results of the pre-buy indicate major problems, money is refunded.
Unfortunately, this approach does not take into account any price
negotiation.

Anyone have a preferred approach they could share? - Mike


Settle on a price
Give him a deposit to hold it
Everyone sign a contract saying exactly what both parties expect
Get the plane in the shop for an inspection
Insist any major issues found in the inspection be fixed by the seller.

Just my 2 cents

John Doe wrote:

Settle on a price
Give him a deposit to hold it
Everyone sign a contract saying exactly what both parties expect
Get the plane in the shop for an inspection
Insist any major issues found in the inspection be fixed by the seller.

You forgot a few steps.

6. Argue over whether "major issue" is major.
7. Argue over whether price takes condition into account.
8. Watch seller sell plane to someone else.

You are welcome to try to get the price adjusted due to things your mechanic
found that you think are major, but the buyer is in no position to "insist" on
anything other than his deposit back if he isn't happy with the inspection results.

The buyer of my Maule claimed his mechanic found that the plane needed $18,000
worth of work. I pointed out that the purchase price was $22,000 below book, so
he was getting quite a deal.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

George Patterson wrote:

John Doe wrote:

Settle on a price
Give him a deposit to hold it
Everyone sign a contract saying exactly what both parties expect
Get the plane in the shop for an inspection
Insist any major issues found in the inspection be fixed by the seller.

You forgot a few steps.

6. Argue over whether "major issue" is major.

What my club did for our last plane purchase was define a dollar amount as
the dividing line between "major" and "minor". Of course, the seller could
have disagreed about an amount.

7. Argue over whether price takes condition into account.

All "conditions" were discussed ahead of the pre-buy, leaving anything else
as not "taken into account".

A consideration is that both parties *want* the transaction to happen. Of
course, there's plenty of room for "fatal" disagreement. But that's a
scenario that both parties would consider unfortunate.

- Andrew