First Purchase Price Question

"PaulaJay1" wrote in message
...
Good luck Carl. And sometimes buying within the state can save on taxes.

This depends on the state! I bought mine out of state and didn't have to pay
any sales/use/property tax when I took it to my home state(TX). When I moved
to this state(MN), they wanted the taxes on it until I proved to them that I
already owned it and wasn't buying it and bringing it into this state.

When buying an aircraft in or out of state, check out the tax rules...

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
a hangar queen that was owned by a multi-person
partnership.

That's a *really* bad sign. Hard to fit this fact into any scenario
that includes "good airplane."
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

There's another problem he sounds like you're the first potential
buyer to contact the owner.

The problem with this is, the owner (seller) hasn't yet figured out
his precious baby ain't all that great. He wants top dollar--minus a
few for repairs--from you, the buyer. If you were the 4th buyer to
look at his plane, for instance, there would now be a record of 3
others looking and walking away from the owner's beautiful plane.
About that time the owner starts to figure out he's asking too much
and is willing to lower his price. But given that you're #1, he's got
nothing to lose by trying to get the max--and if you try to tell him
it's not worth that much, you're insulting him and his plane.

I went through this exact scenario more than once when I was looking
for an Ercoupe. Using the FAA database, I wrote owners in
N. Calif. if they wanted to sell--thus I was often the first person to
talk to these guys about selling. Most wanted too much for runout
engines, hangar queens, etc. Finally found one in good shape at a
reasonable price--I paid his asking price w/o negotiation, since by
now I knew it was reasonable.

"Carl Orton" writes:

So, we'll just see what turns up. Two other candidates have surfaced, both
within 40 minutes of home base, so I have hope ;-)

Carl--do like I did. Download the FAA database, load the huge text
files into MS Access, then filter it for your desired aircraft type
owned in zip codes within your desired search distance. Then output
names and addresses into MS Word and generate letters automatically.
Worked for me. Otherwise I would have been either looking at local
junk that I heard about through word-of-mouth, or chasing off to Texas
and New England looking at planes in T-A-P.

I found the search kinda fun, really. A great way to meet some real
"characters" and see different airplanes. I also learned how to
graciously make excuses on the spot as to why I didn't have time to
fly in their excellent airplane right then (the real reason I was
scared s***less of plane and pilot).

"Dan Luke" writes:

"Jay Honeck" wrote:
a hangar queen that was owned by a multi-person
partnership.

That's a *really* bad sign. Hard to fit this fact into any scenario
that includes "good airplane."

I agree. Sounds like at least one of the partners stopped paying his
share of maintenance--then the others didn't want to pay either--then
maintenance stopped--then flying stopped. Not good.

OK, Bob; sounds like an interesting way to go about it.

Where do I start to look for the FAA database? And it's downloadable?
Hmmmm....

And then, you just wrote letters to those selected owners in desired zip
codes? Like a cold call? Anyone get upset that you're mining data on them?
;-)

Carl


"Bob Fry" wrote in message
...
"Carl Orton" writes:

So, we'll just see what turns up. Two other candidates have surfaced,
both
within 40 minutes of home base, so I have hope ;-)

Carl--do like I did. Download the FAA database, load the huge text
files into MS Access, then filter it for your desired aircraft type
owned in zip codes within your desired search distance. Then output
names and addresses into MS Word and generate letters automatically.
Worked for me. Otherwise I would have been either looking at local
junk that I heard about through word-of-mouth, or chasing off to Texas
and New England looking at planes in T-A-P.

I found the search kinda fun, really. A great way to meet some real
"characters" and see different airplanes. I also learned how to
graciously make excuses on the spot as to why I didn't have time to
fly in their excellent airplane right then (the real reason I was
scared s***less of plane and pilot).

Never mind; found it on the FAA site. Relatively easy to parse.

Thanks;


"Bob Fry" wrote in message
...
"Carl Orton" writes:

So, we'll just see what turns up. Two other candidates have surfaced,
both
within 40 minutes of home base, so I have hope ;-)

Carl--do like I did. Download the FAA database, load the huge text
files into MS Access, then filter it for your desired aircraft type
owned in zip codes within your desired search distance. Then output
names and addresses into MS Word and generate letters automatically.
Worked for me. Otherwise I would have been either looking at local
junk that I heard about through word-of-mouth, or chasing off to Texas
and New England looking at planes in T-A-P.

I found the search kinda fun, really. A great way to meet some real
"characters" and see different airplanes. I also learned how to
graciously make excuses on the spot as to why I didn't have time to
fly in their excellent airplane right then (the real reason I was
scared s***less of plane and pilot).

It doesn't appear that the FAA allows the download of their database any
more.
Is there another place to get the DB from?

Thanks

Dave

Bob Fry wrote:
"Carl Orton" writes:


So, we'll just see what turns up. Two other candidates have surfaced, both
within 40 minutes of home base, so I have hope ;-)


Carl--do like I did. Download the FAA database, load the huge text
files into MS Access, then filter it for your desired aircraft type
owned in zip codes within your desired search distance. Then output
names and addresses into MS Word and generate letters automatically.
Worked for me. Otherwise I would have been either looking at local
junk that I heard about through word-of-mouth, or chasing off to Texas
and New England looking at planes in T-A-P.

I found the search kinda fun, really. A great way to meet some real
"characters" and see different airplanes. I also learned how to
graciously make excuses on the spot as to why I didn't have time to
fly in their excellent airplane right then (the real reason I was
scared s***less of plane and pilot).

dave writes:

It doesn't appear that the FAA allows the download of their database
any more.
Is there another place to get the DB from?

http://registry.faa.gov/ardata.asp

"Carl Orton" writes:

And then, you just wrote letters to those selected owners in desired zip
codes? Like a cold call? Anyone get upset that you're mining data on them?
;-)

Nobody seemed to mind. I worded it so it was clear I was a private
party looking for a personal aircraft, not a hired broker. I spent a
lot of time to make it seem friendly and personal, not mass-produced.
For instance, I formatted the names and addresses in the FAA DB so the
case wasn't ALL CAPS but rather All Caps. For Coupes, this ended up
being about 100 letters in N. California. From that, I got 15-20
replies I think.

The guy who eventually sold me his plane said my letter did the trick
for him...he wasn't planning on selling it until 6 months later but my
letter showed up and he thought his plane would have a good home with
me (it does!).

Even though I also said I didn't want any projects, I still got calls
from desperate owners trying to unload junk. Careful questioning over
the phone eliminated maybe half of those, nevertheless, I still ended
up looking at some "amazing" airplanes. I didn't mind too much. All
part of the fun. Looking back, it was a great experience, something
I'd never done before at all. I almost wouldn't mind doing it
again...hey...there's an idea for an alternate to the $100
hamburger. Pretend you want to buy an airplane and go chasing off to
nearby airports looking...maybe not.