Originally Posted by
TiredSoul
Airplanes are not unlike real estate and right now I’m thinking the average SE is waaaay overpriced. You buy an $80k airplane that would have been $40k just three years ago.
You may have to take that hit when you’re ready to sell the aircraft.
I used it work for a flightschool that used almost exclusively lease back aircraft.
Wouldn’t do it if I where you.
Its an all around pain.
Tiredsoul is pretty much dead on here. All aircraft now are very overpriced. I fly a Cherokee Warrior that I've owned and restored for the last 14 years, with the new paint, interior and avionics, it's probably worth $100k. I bought it during the '08 recession for $15k and probably dumped $50k-ish into it over the years. In a normal market, I'd probably get my money (not labor, unfortunately!) out of it. Most fixed wing GA aircraft are 30-40% overpriced right now. But, on the other hand I've flown it about 1200 hours. I guess the question is, what's your mission? Buy it just for ratings? Keep it long-term?
I generally don't recommend aircraft ownership for the sole purpose of getting ratings to people, unless they have an A&P (and preferably have good GA Mx experience). You need to focus on getting the ratings, not aircraft ownership headaches. If after you get your ratings you still want to buy an aircraft (and have the financial ability), then go for it. If you do decide to buy an aircraft. GET A THROUGH PRE-BUY INSPECTION! I can't stress that enough. When I was working GA full time, I can't count how many people bought aircraft, and got a crappy pre-buy or none at all. After the first annual, they had more than the value of the aircraft invested in maintenance; or the aircraft was BER (beyond economical repair).
On my aircraft, normal maintenance would be about $3-4K a year at 100 hours a year (excluding upgrades) if I paid someone to do it. My insurance is about $1K a year for $100K hull, $1mil liability (I have about 1700 hours, since you're low time, your insurance might be in the 1.5-2K a year range). I live in a very low cost of living area and hangar rent is in the $200 a month range. One issue you might have is actually finding someone to work on said aircraft. A&P's are hard to find, and good GA A&P's are extremely rare.
If you're looking to lease back an aircraft, the insurance rates that I mentioned above jump to the $7-8K a year range. Also, if your aircraft is a lease back, it will be used on less of a priority than the flight school-owned aircraft. Honestly, I haven't witnessed a situation when the owner of a leaseback aircraft made money (usually they lost money). Also, your aircraft will be treated like...well... a rental. In some cases there might be some tax benefits to leasebacks, but for the most part, the above has been my experience. Hope this helps you out!