You REALLY hit the nail on the head with this advice.
I wish I had a five dollar bill for every time some well intention, but unrealistically hopeful first time 150 or 152 purchaser has bragged to me about how they "got a great buy". Translation: they payed $18,000 for a 5,000-7,000 TT, 1,000- 1,400 SMOH (or any major work for that matter)plane. All Logs? Nope! Damage history? Yep!
Fast forward one or two years and invariably, these "Bargain shoppers" end up investing another $4,000 or $5,000 to make the plane halfway mechanically right.
"O.K.", you say, "but they're still into their plane for less than $22,000 or $23,000". Yes they sure are. But now they've got this kind of money tied up in a plane that still has damage history, incomplete logs, high total time, average paint/interior and STILL has a major or looming in the not so distant future.
What about all the time the plane was down for repair?
