I bought Bravo Papa on E-Bay. He belonged to a soldier who was stationed at Fort Hood, and was about to be deployed to Iraq.
I contacted the seller and made a deal contingent on a pre-buy inspection.
I also used the AOPA escrow service. Using the escrow service was, in my opinion, well worth the cost. The seller paid half. They did a title search, uncovered an old lien, contacted the lien holder, a bank in west Texas, and cleared up the lien. I paid the negotiated selling price to the escrow company, then, when we pulled the trigger on the deal, a telephone call released the money to the seller. The escrow service handled all of the paperwork, title transfer, FAA documents, etc.
Although it is not necessary to use an escrow service, I found it was well worth the cost, and made a transaction involving parties who did not know one another go smoothly.
