Finding a buyer.
What's the hardest part about selling a plane?
Haha perfect. Is it more of a problem of not enough interest in a plane? Or is it that there is a lot of interest, but no serious interest (tire kickers)?
What's the hardest part about selling a plane?
Dealing with tool bags that think because your plane doesn't have a 10k autopilot you need to discount it 30k more - even though you already priced it accordingly.
Or ones that call you up, ask a metric **** ton of questions, keep you on the phone for an hour and then ask about the autopilot which clearly NOT listed in the ad, and then they say, oh I need a plane with an autopilot because myy actual pilot skills suck donkey nards. Hey dip****, if the AP is what the entire purchase hinges on, maybe that should be your FIRST question, not number 47.
Also a fun fact, you can actually buy a plane that's not EXACTLY what you want, and ¡Shocker! You can actually install it after you buy it if it's something close to what you wanted.
Buyers tend to be idiots.
What's the hardest part about selling a plane?
Dealing with tool bags that think because your plane doesn't have a 10k autopilot you need to discount it 30k more - even though you already priced it accordingly.
Or ones that call you up, ask a metric **** ton of questions, keep you on the phone for an hour and then ask about the autopilot which clearly NOT listed in the ad, and then they say, oh I need a plane with an autopilot because myy actual pilot skills suck donkey nards. Hey dip****, if the AP is what the entire purchase hinges on, maybe that should be your FIRST question, not number 47.
Also a fun fact, you can actually buy a plane that's not EXACTLY what you want, and ¡Shocker! You can actually install it after you buy it if it's something close to what you wanted.
Buyers tend to be idiots.
Can't tell you about selling as I don't own yet, but I can tell you a little about buying as I am looking for a plane to buy now. The biggest problem is finding an airplane that is really as advertised. I show up and quickly realized the pictures I was sent were taken during the Carter administration, uh, thanks, but no thanks. Next airplane, i show up and half the stack has been removed from what was in the ad. Oh........yeah.........I still have those, you can have them. Next airplane, I drive all day, plane is about 72% of what I was told it was, this is an improvement over what I've seen so far. We talk a while longer and I ask about he logs, OH YEAH.....I forgot to tell you about the time the whole rear section of the plane got chopped up by a hand propped run away. Pencil whipped annuals, plane hasn't flown in 8 years, etc. So the reason us dumb ass buyers ask a million questions is because we have found a significant percentage of sellers misrepresent there airplanes.
That should teach you right there that the only questions you should ask on the phone are "Could you send me a copy of the logs?" and "Where can I see it?" That's all I ever ask on the phone, the rest is just wasting time.
Have you launched your website yet? I remember you came on here a month or so ago asking questions about it. Just wondering is all.
Sounds great in theory, but in the real world, very few people are going to copy and send 40 years of logs. For that matter, very few people will copy and send ANY logs. Of course you can bloviate about how you will just dismiss any airplane that the owner won't do this, but in reality, you just won't buy an airplane. I live in the middle of Alabama, not exactly a hotbed of airplane sales, almost no one is going to send me logs and I am not going to travel to see an airplane without asking the million questions. I am learning what to ask and how to ask so it's really down to about half a million questions now as I learn. That's reality, but you go ahead now and tell me how wrong I am.
Some sellers tend to be idiots.
Dealing with tool bags that think because your plane doesn't have a 10k autopilot you need to discount it 30k more - even though you already priced it accordingly.
THIS is the number one issue, I'll only list a plane if the Seller will agree to price it at what I have found to be the current market value, with all the warts and blemishes already figured into the price, and I still get offers 30-40% below asking price because the plane is missing something they would like to have. Countless times I'll hear "well, it doesn't have a 430 WAAS so I'm going to offer $xxxx so I can afford to put a 430 in it when I buy it. I expect offers 5-10% below asking price when the plane is priced where it should be, but I've never had to accept 30% less so far..
Effectively pricing the plane.
Effectively pricing the plane.
Thats true, most owners that bought their planes from 1998-2006 are always a little shocked when they find out how little it's worth today. I'll occasionally run across a client who is determined they can ignore the market value and they'll get 25% more than everyone else because their plane is special..
But most pilots I deal with are pretty reasonable,when I can show them recent sales and trends in the market, they usually will price their planes accordingly.
On the Buyer side, guys that have been shopping for quite awhile are quick to recognize a good deal and don't waste everyone's time trying to get a steeper discount. I've had 3 planes recently that were in very good condition, well equipped, and the Sellers priced them below what I recommended. They were all sold within a week to guys that had been looking for several months and had several planes sold out from under them, They all sold within $500.00 of the asking price.
Sounds great in theory, but in the real world, very few people are going to copy and send 40 years of logs. For that matter, very few people will copy and send ANY logs.
What's the hardest part about selling a plane?
Effectively pricing the plane.
This might be true for puddle-jumpers, but anybody looking at serious cross-country machines expects to see the logs.
A few minutes, okay, several minutes with a scanner lets one email the complete logs- Even 40 years worth, to prospective buyers.
I didn't think it came across as condescending at all.I'm sure that wasn't meant to be as condescending as it came across.
This all is why I say, "buy your last plane first" or at least the one that is going to do what you need a plane for for the next 10 years. The whole "upgrade plane" method of getting into what you need over a matter of a few years is more expensive than the insurance hit you take on the first year operation of the more capable plane, even if you have to go to Flight Safety to train (since likely you have to anyway even after 500hrs in other stuff, and you will still have a first year hit regardless). Plus there is the value of being up to full capability a couple years earlier.