I do have an A&P, but as the annual is due soon, I suggest working a deal with the owner to combine the pre-buy with the annual. Thus an IA would need be involved. Any airworthy squawks in the annual can be negotiated in the agreement - owner covers them, or they discount the price, or whatever. If you could work it out to do an owner-assisted annual, with you standing in for the owner (and saving him some $), that is about the best way to go about checking it out, IMHO. While competent, and I have used their IA before on mine, the local shop would not be my first choice to do it.
I was probably going to use the mechanic at Huffman Aviation depending on price. Dunno this whole thing is getting a bit daunting lol.
