The Seller Wont Provide Digital Logs? Run Away!!
I recently had an interaction with another broker whom I contacted about a 182 he had listed for sale. On the surface, at least, it looked like the perfect aircraft for a client who hired me to find him a quality Skylane. My client – I’ll call him “Bill” – lives in Nebraska, has a reasonable budget of just over $200,000, and wants a solid plane with minimal skeletons in the closet. He understands that he won’t get a full glass panel or nearly-new cosmetics for that amount but I assured him we should be able to find a candidate with thoughtful updates, a mid-time engine, little-to-no damage history, and original logs that go all the way back to the date of manufacture.
We scoured the market and were quite happy when a fresh offering popped up on my Trade-A-Plane alert. The plane passed my checklist of initial requirements and my conversation with the west-coast broker gave me a good feeling about the plane. We made an initial offer contingent upon standard pre-purchase inspection provisions and asked that the logs be forwarded to us so that a thorough review and AD search could be completed before spending the time, effort, and money to travel halfway across the country to see them in person. It’s a reasonable request, especially in this day and age, and is not one that takes that much effort. Even an airplane with 5000 hours and 50 years of records should not take more than an hour and a half to copy the books using a capable scanning app. After an initial volley of offers and counter-offers, “Bill” was willing to offer full price for the airplane with the agreement that we get to review the logs as part of the pre-purchase inspection before diving into the mechanical side of things. Yet, despite this strong commitment, the broker’s response was, “if I can find someone to tackle that over the next few weeks I’ll let you know.”
Hmmmmm……
It’s not like I was asking him to find a Xerox machine (remember those?), make paper copies, and then ship them to me in the mail.
“Tackle?” Is it really that big of a deal? Is there something being hidden here? Do you really have complete and original logs or are you still looking for one that’s been missing? Is the seller so one-sided that he’s not willing to save everyone a lot of time, effort and money, especially when we agreed to put a $20,000 deposit into escrow and sign a purchase agreement beforehand? Or, are you playing me off of another buyer? There was a BIG flag waving right in front of my nose over this deal and it was bright red. Combine that with the fact that they would only agree to a pre-purchase inspection conducted at their home field and this airplane quickly went into the “NO WAY” column on my spreadsheet. I may have been born yesterday, but I wasn’t born late last night. My sarcastic side wanted to respond with, “Sure, we’ll pay full price, have your mechanic do a 1-hour pre-buy, and forgo a records review. What a deal!!”
Making the logs readily available for a seller is one of the surest ways to show transparency in your dealings, regardless of whether you’re a private seller or a broker/dealer. Unfortunately, there are a lot of buyers – especially first time buyers – who get so caught up in all of the “ornaments on the tree” like a pretty paint job, fancy interior, or the latest panel gizmos that they’re willing to throw caution to the wind. Even more unfortunate is that there are sellers out there who are more than happy to take advantage of the naivete of unsuspecting buyers.
Expecting a used airplane to be perfect – or for the seller to turn a 50 year old airplane into a new one – is unrealistic too. That being said, if your gut tells you to run away from a transaction, listen to it. If the numbers or stories don’t add up, walk away. Developing an emotional attachment to an aircraft you’re considering for purchase is a sure-fire way to get burned. Another airplane – and one from an above-board seller – will come along. Maybe not tomorrow or the next day. But one will come along, guaranteed.