Selling an aircraft, explained

Timing and the tax calendar

Aircraft sell all year, but the calendar is not flat. Many buyers want to close before December 31 so the aircraft is in service in the tax year they planned for, which makes the fourth quarter busy and the weeks before it a good time to be listed and ready. Spring brings buyers who want the aircraft for summer. A listing that goes up in the quiet weeks with a full records package often gets the first serious look when the buyers arrive.

Your own tax picture matters as much as the buyer's. Depending on how the aircraft was depreciated, a sale can bring a tax bill in the year it closes. Your tax advisor should see the plan before the listing goes up, not after an offer lands. Timing the closing across a year end, or lining up the next aircraft, can change the answer.

What buyers look at

A serious buyer, and the pilot or inspector working for that buyer, reads the aircraft in this order:

• Total time and cycles on the airframe and engines, and how they compare with other aircraft of the same year.
• Engine and auxiliary power unit programs. Enrollment in an hourly program moves the price more than almost anything else, because it turns a future overhaul into a known cost.
• Damage history. Any incident, how it was repaired, and whether the repair is documented.
• Logbooks. Complete, in order, with no gaps. A missing logbook can take a large share off the value on its own.
• Maintenance status. Which inspections are due soon and what they will cost the next owner.
• Pedigree. Where the aircraft lived, whether it was hangared, whether it flew Part 91 or on a charter certificate, and how many owners it has had.
• Paint, interior and avionics. The age of each, and whether the cockpit meets the current airspace rules without more spend.

Records and the pre buy

The pre buy inspection is where sales are made or lost. The buyer chooses the facility, usually one that knows the type well, and pays for the inspection. The facility reviews the records, checks the airframe for corrosion and damage, looks inside the engines with a borescope, runs the systems and often flies the aircraft. What it finds falls into two piles: airworthiness items, which the seller commonly fixes before closing, and everything else, which becomes a negotiation.

The way to walk into a pre buy is to have already done one. A seller who has the records organized, the open items closed and the known squawks written down gives the buyer nothing to discover. Discoveries are what cost money. A pilot's read of the logbooks before the listing goes up is an hour well spent.

Pricing against the market

Asking prices are not sale prices. The market for your aircraft is the set of similar airframes sold in the last year or so, adjusted for time, programs, inspections due and equipment, plus the ones listed right now and how long they have been sitting. Days on market tell you as much as the number. An aircraft priced against real sales moves; one priced against hope sits, and every month it sits it costs you hangar, insurance, crew and calendar inspections.

We price with the brokerage team we bring in for a sale, from their transaction data, and we show you the comparables rather than a number on its own. You decide where to list.

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