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Has anyone bought a 150, flown it for a year or two, then sold it? Stupid question I guess. I'm sure many people have, but how much of the initial purchase cost have you recovered?

One can obtain a 150 with <900hr engine, good paint, and good interior for $20k or less with the current market. Is it feasible to re-sell for $20k in 1-2 yrs?

Everything depends on the market and I've been told by other aircraft owner friends to expect to sell for 85-115% of purchase price for the short term depending on the market and deal when purchasing it.

Anyone with some recent 150 experiences?

I think it is entirely feasable, David! 150's have been going for $15K - $25K (and more) for at least 10 years now. For a given airplane, one prospective buyer will walk at $17,500 while the next believes he's found a bargain at $22,500. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what any airplane is worth at any given time to a particular buyer. What will the DOW or S&P 500 be doing a year from now? Even a crystal ball can't say!

Personally, I look for a solid airplane in need of cosmetics! Poor looks drive the price down. A little (or a lot) of elbow grease can do wonders for an aircraft's resale value. What's your time worth to you?

In 2000 I paid $14,500 for "Ol' Paint", my 150K that I'm restoring. I'm planning on her being practically a showbird when I'm done, doing all of the work myself. I've no real idea what she'll be worth when I'm done, but I'm sure it will be more than my monetary investment. Some will argue that my expenditure of time makes her too expensive. How can you consider time spent on your hobby as an expense?

Buy low, sell high ...... within reason, of course!

At one point in my life I was an aircraft appraiser and was able to gain some insight into the aircraft market. However, I am not now nor have ever been an expert or a prognosticator. But let me try to give you what little information that I do have.

It seems to me that the question that you are really asking is ?Can I own an airplane for a couple of years for free??. Not at all a bad idea.

Had you asked this question a year ago I would have been very positive on the scheme. I would have also most likely have been wrong. (Three years ago I would have been right.) According to the most recent Vref ?Light Single? index the price of an average light single increased by around 10% from the first quarter of 2003 to the last quarter of 2005. Not bad! Then comes the bad news: In the first half of 2006 the average price dropped about 5%, most likely due to the increase in the price of fuel.

Today I would say that odds are against of getting all of your money back in two years, but again I could be wrong again. The 85% recovery that your buddies have given you does not seem totally unrealistic.

If you do take the plunge you should have a different perspective than most of us do who are buying an airplane to own. You gave a very brief description of ONE airplane. It may be exactly the plane for your purposes but you should take a totally objective look at it, and a number of others. You need to be looking for the airplane that you want to sell.
It should have excellent paint (Like New - $5000 retail, $3500 wholesale),
It should have an excellent interior (Like New - $4000 retail, 2800 wholesale)
It should have modern radios-2 nav coms ($1000 retail, $700 wholesale) and will help a lot at resale time.

You should bear in mind that each hour you fly the airplane will reduce the value of the plane by somewhere between $6.50 (retail) and $4.50 (wholesale). If you fly 100 hours per year all things being equal the value of the plane will be reduced by $4500 and $6500.

What ever you don?t put one penny in the airplane for lipstick. Fly it the way it is and maintain it well AND make sure the logs are current and complete.

Good luck!

Wayne,

Is that "new math"? I counted with my fingers and toes, and came up with $450 and $650.

Dog gone it, that's what happens when I cygher with my boots on <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

My experience may be atypical (in fact it's not even quite over yet).

The hook: I found a '76 150M, 480SMOH for $10,000.

The gamble: It had been sitting in the weeds for two years, and was becoming a "parts plane." Among other things, it had been robbed of it's battery, vacuum pump, wingtip strobes, and brake calipers.

The payoff: I put some fresh fuel and a battery in it, and it fired up on the third revolution. I got lucky, in the 1-1/2 years and seventy hours I've flown the plane, I've had no engine troubles at all, and the compressions and oil consumption are excellent!

My first annual was about $3,000 (replacing a lot of missing items), and I've spent about $5,000 more on the radio, intercom, interior, windows, etc. The only thing it needs now is paint, which I had lined up to do (for $8,000).

Recently, my wife and I bought a 172, so my 150 is for sale. If I can get $18,000 for it (which I think is a reasonable expectation), I'll essentially have flown 70 hours for "free" (not counting fuel, insurance, etc.).

If I had painted the airplane as planned, I'd have about $26,000 tied up in it, which is a little high, but well within the value range of a 150M.

I guess to answer the question... yes, it can be done... and you don't even need to take the gamble I took (in fact, you probably shouldn't).

There are some nice, flyable airplanes out there for less than $20,000 (look at the club classifieds).

Some advice: when you buy, buy in the winter... when you sell, sell in the spring. that alone might net you the one or two thousand dollars you need to break even.

Good luck!

Thanks all. All this advice is along the same lines as what I have discussed with other a/c owner/sellers. I do plan to buy in the winter (next month or two) for the cost savings and fly what I buy. There's obviously the sunk costs of pre-buy, pic up, tax, etc but hopefully I won't lose too much in the resale down the road. I'm being very picky to buy something that I know will sell. I'll keep everyone posted. Hopefully I'll have a plane by the end of Feb!

I did just that.
I bought my first plane, a C-150 (midtime airframe, 550 hour engine, nice radios and overall condition) in December '02 for $18,000. Sold it in March '04, after I put about 325 hours on it for $20,000.

Way to go Bryan.

Thanks! I think it helped that I got her at a pretty reasonable price and sold her for the "going rate".