Terry, welcome back! I too returned after 8 years...
As far as finding an airplane to purchase.. my "luck" for all three (75 Cessna 150M, then 81 Beech Sundowner, and now a '70 Cessna 150K) has been at my local home base airport. Let me add, if you are flying out of a club, you have the ability to also fly to all relatively close airports, say within 50-100 miles. That is the key, for me, in buying an airplane. Living in California, I saw many "I want that one" aircraft...on Barnstormers or Trade-a-Plane...but they were all scattered around the USA.
The point is, IF you find one that interests you.. and it's 2000 miles away... you need to fly out, pay for tickets, and have hotels and meals...etc. And if you got the logs scanned and sent to you with "QUALITY" photos... all to suggest the aircraft is "as represented" (Believe me, there are quite a few out there that look great, but you discover it's not as the seller claims it to be)... you should bring your trusted A/P with you. Now that's two tickets and hotels and meals. Then you get there and discover something very wrong..or not disclosed... or a title issue... or it's a divorce sticky situation...or there is unreported damage.. or the 337's are incomplete... anything. Now you have to fly back home, out of pocket, with nothing.
However, IF it's the dream plane and all checks out... it costs you time and money to bring it back home.. Weather delays, fuel, long legs... or hire a ferry pilot. Either way, it typically will cost about $2000 if you get a deal.. factoring it's a 150, it's slow, and may require a couple overnights, plus meals. And the time per hour for the pilot.
Be patient. There is always something popping up locally. Since I got my plane, I found two others locally that I "may" have selected if that one was being sold the same time mine was.
All in all, be sure to check the NTSB accident database, look at the plane's FAA reg., google for photos, and ask, ask, ask questions. DO NOT buy if the seller isn't willing to scan and send you logs in .pdf. Actually most experienced sellers have already prepared for this.
Good Luck!
