The prebuy inspection is probably one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself as a buyer -- it offers your the best chance of finding the 'big ticket' items that might make or break you or the sale. The Cessna Pilot's Association Buyer's Guide has a section specifically dedicated to the prebuy, something to definitely look thru and give to the mechanic doing the inspection.
As it relates to N40BB, as a final part to the offer negotiations, we had picked a shop in the area to the do the pre-buy and annual (the plane's annual had lapsed at the end of July 2014). Since the plane's maintenance had been done by Augusta Aviation out at KDNL since 1987 (almost 30 years!), we decided on picking an alternate shop to provide a third-party opinion.
This is where it becomes tricky... how do you find a shop that will do a prebuy and is knowledgeable in the aircraft? Hopefully, the plane is close to your homebase and you can have your mechanic do it. However, in my case Georgia was a bit away and bringing it back to the field was most likely not going to happen. So we ended up with some options from the seller's broker, AirNav offered some options (and reviews!), and a post on the CPA's member only forums offered some feedback.
In the end it was decided that the prebuy and the annual would be done by Kinsey Butler at Southern Air Repair at KIIY (Washington-Wilkes County Airport). Kinsey was able to start on it the following week which would give me time to fly down there for the process.
As it relates to N40BB, as a final part to the offer negotiations, we had picked a shop in the area to the do the pre-buy and annual (the plane's annual had lapsed at the end of July 2014). Since the plane's maintenance had been done by Augusta Aviation out at KDNL since 1987 (almost 30 years!), we decided on picking an alternate shop to provide a third-party opinion.
This is where it becomes tricky... how do you find a shop that will do a prebuy and is knowledgeable in the aircraft? Hopefully, the plane is close to your homebase and you can have your mechanic do it. However, in my case Georgia was a bit away and bringing it back to the field was most likely not going to happen. So we ended up with some options from the seller's broker, AirNav offered some options (and reviews!), and a post on the CPA's member only forums offered some feedback.
In the end it was decided that the prebuy and the annual would be done by Kinsey Butler at Southern Air Repair at KIIY (Washington-Wilkes County Airport). Kinsey was able to start on it the following week which would give me time to fly down there for the process.
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