A friend living in San Diego needs to help a late friend's family sell a 1960 182C. The family doesn't know much about aviation.

Any suggestions for a broker who would deal in older Skylanes in SoCal? The plane is hanagered at Montgomery Field, KMYF.

For anyone who wants to know the details: 1960 182C with 530W. 6100 hours TTAF, 1000 SMOH, Maintained at Crown Air KMYF, flown regularly.

Any personal experience with them?

That would be a great plane up here in Idaho. Very desirable. One of the last couple years of the smaller airframe 182. Lighter.

Any personal experience with them?

Paul,

My frustration with most of the aviation brokers is unabated. I had another "encounter" with one last week. He lied through his teeth about an airplane that he had been representing for quite some time. He lied about 1. Why the airplane was selling 2. Damage history. 3. How long the airplane had been on the market 4. Annual status etc. etc.

My advice is this.

Your friend needs to get an annual done by a good shop specifically in preparation for sale. Then, they need to price the airplane realistically on TAP and Controller. If you remove any red flags and don't reach for the moon, that Skylane will sell almost overnight.

No broker is needed.

That's my opinion anyway.

Jgreen

John, I agree that selling a well maintained plane is not too difficult if the price is realistic. Sold my Cherokee in a week with TAP advertising. I will say it was very helpful that I understood the maintenance and history of the plane, and could answer questions about it. But....

If I recall correctly you helped a friend's estate by helping them sell an airplane, and found that process to be frustrating. Can you comment on anything the original poster can do, or the estate's personal representative can do, to avoid those headaches? Is is just a matter of realistic price, and the high quality annual?

Jesse,

Good memory Jesse. My situation was completely different in that the estate of my friend included three homebuilts, two flying. One was a Busby Mustang and the other a One Design. The Mustang was the hair puller with all kinds of airplane wanna be's coming out of the wood work. Even there, I could have sold quickly had we lowered the price below market. The One Design issue was simply finding one of the very few people who wanted it. I got a fair price for each: $26k for the Mustang and $24k for the One Design. Neither was anything special.

My advice is:
1.Compile a history, as best you can, with all logs scanned which can be sent to interested buyers. By history, I mean a brief overview of the last ten years annuals, major repairs, etc.
2. Like Neal does, lots of pictures showing every detail, even the nasty ones.
3. List the names of the shops that have done the annuals and maintenance.
4. Remove red flags, like being out of annual, or disclose them on the front end. Don't let the buyer have to uncover any nasty details.
5. Most importantly, remember that the quicker you sell it, the quicker the costs of owning the airplane come to an end. Price accordingly. Always and I mean ALWAYS, leave at least 7% for "negotiation'>
6. DO NOT let the airplane sit unflown for over a month at any given time.

If the airplane is clean with no red flags, contact a legitimate dealer for a wholesale sale. At least then, you know what it is worth in the real world. Indy Air would be my recommendation.

Jgreen

Jesse,

The short take:

Make info available, good and bad.
Remove red flags or disclose.
Make airplane available for inspection.
Don't let airplane sit.
Price to sell.

Jgreen

John,

Thanks for the recap. You're right, the situations are different and this poster will find it easier to sell a well-known quantity (C182 with good maintenance) than a homebuilt.

Any personal experience with them?