Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes New Member. Help me buy my first airplane.

Hello. I have just joined the Cessna 150-152 club since I am looking to buy my first airplane and it is going to be a 150 or a 152.

I am looking at possibly buying N704LF, listed on aso.com.
Is there anything in particular I need to know about 1977 Cessna 150 Ms as opposed to any other model year?

What about buying an aircraft with such low total time? It only has 850 total hours. The owner tells me that for much of the 1980s the aircraft was in long-term storage with the engine apporopriately cared for and that it came of of storage in 2002. He states that since 2002 it has had about 250 hours put on it without any problems.

AOPA's vref lists the base price of an average 1977 150M as about $21,000, and the asking price for this plane is $35,000. This plane is a bit nicer than an "average" plane with very nice paint, clean interior, leather seats, moving map GPS, dual nav/com's, wheel pants, strobes, landing lights, etc.
If I dedice that I want to buy this plane, what would be a reasonable offer? I realize that there is often a fairly substantial difference between asking price and selling price? What would be a fair price for this plane?

Looking forward to becoming an active member of this community.

Just a note. N704LF was listed in the club classified ads back in 8/2002 and sold as of 9/30/2002. At that time the owner was asking $25,000 and the TT was 650. Don't know if this is any help, but I think any information is good information when shopping for a plane.

If the current owner bought it for $25000 and gets his asking price of $35000, then he makes out like a bandit. He got to fly the plane for 250 hrs and makes $10000. (Unless he poured in a bunch of money to improve it).

This plane came out of "winterized" storage in 1992 and was purchased by the current owner in 2002 (for $25,000 apparently). I'm not sure which of the upgrades were before he bought it or after except that I know it was painted before he bought it.

I believe these things have been added since the plane sold in 2002, but I'm not sure how to look at the classified ad from 2002 to know for sure.
Garmin GNC 250XL ($2800)
MX-300 Nav/Comm ($1500)
Narco AT-150 Transponder ($900)
Artex ELT (Unsure of price, I think around $1000)

This appears to be about $6000 worth of upgrades since he bought the airplane, and now the asking price is $10,000 more. What would a fair selling price be?

Here is a copy of the ad as it appeared on 8/28/2002:



Again, hope this helps.

Hi Tim, and welcome to the club!

The 1977 model is my favorite 150 for several reasons, and this one sounds really nice, but it's not worth $35,000 (not to ME, anyway). $35K would easily get you into a very nice late model 152, or even an older 172!

I'd say based on what I've read here it's worth about what he paid for it .... $25,000, if it's really that nice! The GPS is a plus, but now it's USED! He shouldn't expect to get any more for avionics upgrades than he'd get by removing them and selling them separately. The rest of the "upgrades" seem to have already been in the bird. Throw in $1,500 for the GPS, and I might give $26,500 tops, if it passes your mechanics annual inspection!

The average price for a nice low-time Cessna 150 is somewhere between $20 - 25, 000. State-of-the-art avionics might induce me to consider forking over a couple of thousand more for something I want. But a $35,000 pricetag is a little steep for a stock 150. But that's just my opinion. I'd be taking a real good look at the aircraft logbooks.

Lori,
Thanks for the ad. It is very helpful. I've been researching this plane a bit more online, and on the FAA registry site it lists:

Classification: Standard-Restricted
Category: Aerial Advertising
A/W Date: 05/24/1978

Does mean that this aircraft is only airworthy when used for advertising? I'm so confused!

It likely has had a banner towing hook and controls installed. I didn't think that required special licensing, though. He might be selling the "business" along with the airplane, hence the high price?

Regardless, unless you want to go into business (got a commercial license?) the hook and linkage is of no value to you, and is extra weight that should be removed ..... more expense. A DAR could restore the normal registration after an inspection ...... still MORE expense! Don't fall in love with the idea of owning this particular plane, Tim. There are plenty out there. Be patient. Buy THIS plane only if the extra cost and hassle is worth it all to you! Low time isn't everything!

Maybe it was a "flying billboard". We had one around here about 15 or 20 years ago. I flew it one time; you had to maintain almost cruise power to land it or it would sink like a rock. Takeoff, it needed about 5000 ft.

150s are not real good for banner towing, unless of course they are 150/150s or even 180/150s.

Geo.