brien23
Cleared for Takeoff
How much of the asking price for a plane is a good, great, fire sale buy. Most people that list a plane for sale have a price in mind that they are willing to take. The art of the deal.
Used Aircraft Price
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brien23
Cleared for Takeoff
The only people paying full price are insurance companies, premium price those people are long gone and broke.
Radar Contact
Pattern Altitude
My $0.02...
Too many variables I think for a good answer. Find the plane you want, figure out the VREF, take into account damage history/time since repair, get a good pre-purchase, see if anything else comes up you should lower the price down off VREF and make an offer. Keep in mind VREF doesn't give you options for everything so you will have to do some research and see what things are worth (price plus installation minus depreciation).
I closed for about 75% of asking price on my plane. You'll never really know for sure how good of a deal you got until many years go by without spending big bucks on things before you thought you should.
Do you really believe that? They wouldn't stay in business very long if that was the case. Sorry.
Jumpmaster
Line Up and Wait
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AbnJag
Actually you will figure a lot of it out at your first annual. No matter how thorough the prebuy (or not) the first annual by a new A&P/AI can produce some unfortunate suprises plus some unexpected failures (like a cylinder going from 75 lbs to zero at 242 hrs). Ask me how I know.
Radar Contact
Pattern Altitude
I agree. I have mentally budgeted 5 times what I think an "average" annual will cost and weirdly enough look forward to a new mechanic perspective on the status of things.
rtk11
Pattern Altitude
I think Radar Contact's advice is pretty much spot on. You'll have to introduce your own valuation on top of what VREF (AOPO or VREF Online) gives you. A good pre-buy (preferably by a trusted A&P) is extremely important. Probably ideal if you can be there during the pre-buy (which, if done properly, is essentially an annual inspection.) Your budgeting of of 5 times what an average annual is a good start. I'd probably go more aggressive and budget more. No telling what things are going to need to be updated or repaired, and you'll want to use that amount as part of the negotiations on the aircraft price with the seller.