I took the general advice of this forum (and followed my gut) and decided that 714LF is a better plane for me at this time. No offense to Bill who believes that all 150s are the same, but a super-clean 1978 with nice paint, nice interior, VFR GPS, and only 850 hours on it is probably worth $4000 more than a decent 1968 with 3000 hours on it.
I realize that a really low-time airframe can have it's own problems, but this plane was "winterized" during its long-term storage, and never set abandoned on a ramp for years on end. It came out of storage around 1992, and has been completely restored since then. It has about 200 hours in the past 2 years, so it has been flown recently without problems. It has been maintained by Hillsboro Aviation, which is the Pacific Northwest official New Cessna dealer, and they have a whole fleet of 150's and 152's that they service. The logs are complete, and at the last 2 annual inspections, all of the discrepencies were fixed, not just ones pertaining to airworthiness.
So, how do I tell the owner of 22741 that even though I intended to buy his aircraft, now I have found a better bird for me?
This has been gnawing at me since yesterday. I told the owner of 22741 that I intended to buy his airplane, and I am a man of my word. I offered to put a deposit down on the plane, but the owner declied. He said, "This plane has been on the market since July and still hasn't sold. I'm sure it won't sell in the next week before you can get a prepurchase inspection." If I had put a deposit on the plane and decided to walk away from the deal, it wouldn't be a problem because I would have compensated the owner for his time, and holding his plane for me, but I didn't put a deposit down because he didn't want one.
I really liked Hung's idea--pay the owner $500 for his time, and still get the plane I want and keep him happy. It seemed like a win-win solution for everyone.
I realize that since there was no contract in writing, there probably was not legal obligation between me and the seller of 22741, but I felt that there was an ethical obligation.
Having made this decision, I decided to give the owner of 22741 a call.
I said, "Hello. How are you?"
He said, "I'm fine thank you. What's happening?"
I replied, "I have some not so good news for you."
"Oh really?" he queried.
I answered, "Remember that really nice 150 I was telling you about that was way over-priced at $35,000? I have the chance to buy it for $25,000."
"Wow!" he said, "You'd better buy it then. That is a great deal. I would certainly do that if I were you."
I said, "I feel bad not buying your plane since I was planning on it and you held it for me."
He answered, "Don't worry about it. I don't have any hard feelings towards you as well. I will be able to find a different buyer for my plane without difficulty. You need to buy the plane that is right for you."
At this point I was going to offer him $500 for his time and holding the plane for me, but then he kept going on and on about how he understoood my situation, and he would do the same thing if he were me, and how it would be so much easier for me to resell the newer plane in a few years if I wanted to. I ended up not getting a chance to offer him compensation, but both of us still ended up satisfied with the situation.
So now I have an appointment for next Wednesday morning to meet with the dealer who now owns 714LF to take it for a test flight, and then likely purchase it.
I feel like I'm having my cake and eating it too--I'm going to get the plane I origially wanted--see the fist post of this thread, for $10,000 less than the original asking price, and I was able to back out of my alternative deal without any hard feelings.
