5 Easy Steps To Sell Your Aircraft - A Complete Guide

Are you looking to sell your aircraft and find it a daunting task? No more worries; we are here to help you with our simplest, easy-to-follow, step-by-step, detailed guide on how to sell aircraft. We covered everything from preparing your aircraft for sale to ensuring a secure payment in your bank account. Assuredly, our guide will help you make the process easier and smoother as much as you need to go. So, let’s delve into the guide and make your sale successful. 

Steps To Follow For Selling  An Aircraft  

1. Preparing The Aircraft For Sale

The first and foremost important step to sell a private aircraft is to ensure it's in top, best-selling condition. This involves a complete mechanical evaluation, inspecting the interior and exterior to ensure everything is in perfect working order. 

• Maintenance and Service Records: Ensure and assess all the logbooks, checklists, and records for maintenance. Recording all the work done, repairs, adjustments, and inspections accomplished helps improve the aircraft's credibility and market value.
• Airworthiness Certification: Determine whether the aircraft has been accepted for ad hoc compliance with the regulatory airworthiness standards and has a valid airworthiness certificate.
• Engine Condition: Evaluate the engine condition with the total time since new (TTSN) or the time through overhaul ( TSO). These indicators provide an approximate overall picture of the aircraft's value and reliability.

Further, along with all the above factors, some other considerable parameters are flight hours, performance metrics, fuel efficiency, and range. 

2. Set A Realistic Price

Next, setting a rational price for the aircraft is important to attract buyers and ensure a thorough sale. First, what you expect (asking price) and the desired (selling price), though the latter directly depends on market conditions.

For less frequently used planes, PC-based market value assessors such as VRef or the National Aircraft Appraisers Association services may be used. 

These tools base their estimates on reported sales, though the rates obtained depend on current and accurate data. It is important to be as close to the market as possible to delay your time on the market while at the same time looking for a reasonable price.

3. Listing Your Aircraft For Sale

After getting your plane into its best shape, capture clear and detailed pictures of inside and outside aspects such as avionics, interior panels, running gears, and other remarkable aspects of your plane. Make your images clear and brightly lit to attract buyers' attention immediately, and shoot the aircraft from different angles.

Make an informative and stimulating listing that underlines specific qualities such as recent changes or additions or remaining periods of guarantee. Post your aircraft on reliable websites such as A Buyer, Trade-A-Plane, or Controller.com, as they allow posting your aircraft for sale to anyone and make the process easy.

If you prefer a more professional approach to sell a private aircraft, then using the services of a competent aviation dealer is very effective. The brokers have connections and access to resources and people. They take the burden of advertising, negotiating, and handling legalities so that it becomes less complicated. 

4. Preparing for Buyer Engagement and Ensuring Compliance

This will ensure that you are ready to handle inquiries and offers. You should also have at hand all documents that may be relevant to the buyer, including maintenance records and airworthiness certificates.

1. Always answer an email within a few days or as soon as possible, and be polite and friendly.
2. Ask potential buyers to view the aircraft or take a test flight, which often makes the difference between a sale and no sale. 
3. Consult with aviation legal counsel to ensure a smooth closing process, which may include preparing the bill of sale and transfer of title. They will also ensure that you meet all regulatory and legal demands. 
4. Leverage aviation legal advisors to review and advise on compliance with all of the regulatory requisites and your best protection under the agreement. This will ensure a secure and smooth financial transaction.

5. Deal Closing and Making the Final Sale

The final step in selling an aircraft is wiring and ensuring that the transaction is through. Comprehending such a stage necessitates necessary observation to guard both the partnering organizations against probable enmity and to eliminate prospective issues. It is a high-stakes issue; check that list of doom, check the social networks, the pilot’s licenses, and the employment references. If needs be, ask your broker/dealer for more info.

Money must be transferred from one account to another securely. Monetary transactions should be avoided because they are complex to explain, and issues may arise in certain areas, such as the Internal Revenue Service. Select bank wire transfers in case you want to obtain an immediate confirmation, and your check may be forged.

Ensure you and the seller have to sign the FAA Bill of Sale, where one copy is to be filed with the FAA while the other is kept in your safe deposit box. The necessary legal support is expressed by the documents that can transform the transaction into a legal one.

Last of all, let both insured parties contact the insurance carriers of such transfer so as to determine the acceptability of policy provisions. This move also assists in eliminating costs since contracts and other documents drawn to eliminate foreseen risks or contain them do not only continuously evolve but are also drawn to achieve a perfectly risk-free sale.

Figure Out if You Want a Broker or Sell It Yourself

What's more? You need to figure out how to sell aircraft, either with the help of a broker or by yourself. Both options come with distinct pros and cons. Below is a comparison to help you make an informed decision. 

Sum Up!

Follow this 5-easy-step guide for a successful process. The entire process, from preparatory work and objective documentation to marketing and closing, requires close attention and thorough preparation. It is only important to involve qualified personnel from the onset and constantly keep them in the loop to achieve the optimum result and sell your aircraft confidently with secure transactions.