Elizabeth
Get the seller to send a copy of the log books and plan on spending several hours looking over them.
You want to note if the total hours match the stated in the add match the log books, have ALL of the AD's and Service Bullitins (SB's) been done. SB's are often not preformed if the prier owners were planning on only keeping the plane for a short time.
and if SB's were ignored (because they are not mandatory) what else was skipped. Damage history may not be show stopper if it has been flying for some time after the repair with out any problems and the work looks good.
You can find a complete list of AD's and SB's in the Hanger section of this site by model number / year and there are good articals about buying your first plane.
Just because it said it's IFR doesn't mean the avionics are any good(are they 30 years old ?). look up each of the listed equipment to see if there are issues with them
The true value of a plane is in the avionics and engine.
One more thing, Do a web search of the tail number, you would be surprised at what you may fine.
