1992 M20J MSE N9127S available for sale soon

[LANCECASPER]

On 8/12/2024 at 12:07 PM, gevertex said:

Sure, will definitely be finetuning the price based upon the feedback. 

Since you're open to feedback . . . here are some ideas for you

You have a nice airplane which is a later model in the evolution of the J, so the more running improvements it has, which is a great thing. You have a nice modern panel which will help the most in selling it.

You have it priced as a "turn-key" top of the market J. It wouldn't take that much to make it that airplane. First impression is everything.

-If it was mine I would spend $2000 - $3000 and get someone that can blend paint well and get the airplane up from a "5" to a "7.5". Also, make sure the underneath and the wheel wells look great.

-Since you've already done the carpets I would pull the seats and find an upholstery shop that can do them in leather. You should easily be able to find a mom and pop shop that can do four seats for $4000. If the Royalite panels are yellowed at all I would pull them while the interior is out and use SEM products to clean, prep and paint them.(If you do a search on here you'll find examples of the results this produces.)

-Carefully look over the engine compartment from a buyer's perspective. How do the baffles look? How do the valve covers look? Is everything clean? If not then there's some work to do to getting it there. Since the engine already has a question mark on it (Jewell plus the IRAN), I would have the very best shop do a compression check, borescope, etc. and pay them for a detailed report. Put some hours on it while you're getting it ready and provide oil analysis records to prospects for inspection. 

-Then I would take a minimum of 50 pictures of it with everything possible shown. (Cowl on, cowl off, too many of the interior, too many of the exterior, every conceivable panel shot, etc, etc, etc). I would have scanned the logs into pdfs before the first mention of the airplane being for sale was made. 

-Although it's the market that ultimately determines what an airplane actually sells for, I would carefully research and price the airplane correctly to begin. Pricing it too high gives the impression of trying to catch a naive buyer. The listed price should be very close to where it ends up otherwise it was priced incorrectly from the start. If you've done it correctly you can confidently say that you feel it's priced correctly, but in what areas do you feel it doesn't meet the market price? The last airplane I sold for asking price and it was worth it. The one before was $5000 below asking, but the market was soft. I don't believe in putting fluff in the price for negotiations, since you are actually asking for back and forth in pricing by doing that. If you have a serious buyer and it's priced correctly they will see that. What you hope is that they have looked at quite a few airplanes that didn't show well in person and they are looking for the best example of a particular model being sold. At that stage in their pursuit of an airplane they will gladly pay a few dollars more than they wanted to for the right airplane. That eliminates the people you don't really want to deal with.

Every airplane I've sold was a "No-excuse" airplane where I had no concern what a person was really going to think when they saw it in person, and no worries about what a pre-buy was going to uncover.  You are looking for someone that wants to buy an airplane to fly, not a project to work on. Your airplane is 90-95% of the way there already. The last remaining details will make all of the difference in whom it attracts.

 

[NickG]

44 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

Since you're open to feedback . . . here are some ideas for you

You have a nice airplane which is a later model in the evolution of the J, so the more running improvements it has, which is a great thing. You have a nice modern panel which will help the most in selling it.

You have it priced as a "turn-key" top of the market J. It wouldn't take that much to make it that airplane. First impression is everything.

-If it was mine I would spend $2000 - $3000 and get someone that can blend paint well and get the airplane up from a "5" to a "7.5". Also, make sure the underneath and the wheel wells look great.

-Since you've already done the carpets I would pull the seats and find an upholstery shop that can do them in leather. You should easily be able to find a mom and pop shop that can do four seats for $4000. If the Royalite panels are yellowed at all I would pull them while the interior is out and use SEM products to clean, prep and paint them.(If you do a search on here you'll find examples of the results this produces.)

-Carefully look over the engine compartment from a buyer's perspective. How do the baffles look? How do the valve covers look? Is everything clean? If not then there's some work to do to getting it there. Since the engine already has a question mark on it (Jewell plus the IRAN), I would have the very best shop do a compression check, borescope, etc. and pay them for a detailed report. Put some hours on it while you're getting it ready and provide oil analysis records to prospects for inspection. 

-Then I would take a minimum of 50 pictures of it with everything possible shown. (Cowl on, cowl off, too many of the interior, too many of the exterior, every conceivable panel shot, etc, etc, etc). I would have scanned the logs into pdfs before the first mention of the airplane being for sale was made. 

-Although it's the market that ultimately determines what an airplane actually sells for, I would carefully research and price the airplane correctly to begin. Pricing it too high gives the impression of trying to catch a naive buyer. The listed price should be very close to where it ends up otherwise it was priced incorrectly from the start. If you've done it correctly you can confidently say that you feel it's priced correctly, but in what areas do you feel it doesn't meet the market price? The last airplane I sold for asking price and it was worth it. The one before was $5000 below asking, but the market was soft. I don't believe in putting fluff in the price for negotiations, since you are actually asking for back and forth in pricing by doing that. If you have a serious buyer and it's priced correctly they will see that. What you hope is that they have looked at quite a few airplanes that didn't show well in person and they are looking for the best example of a particular model being sold. At that stage in their pursuit of an airplane they will gladly pay a few dollars more than they wanted to for the right airplane. That eliminates the people you don't really want to deal with.

Every airplane I've sold was a "No-excuse" airplane where I had no concern what a person was really going to think when they saw it in person, and no worries about what a pre-buy was going to uncover.  You are looking for someone that wants to buy an airplane to fly, not a project to work on. Your airplane is 90-95% of the way there already. The last remaining details will make all of the difference in whom it attracts.

 

That is brilliant advice. 

[KSMooniac]

On 8/13/2024 at 12:14 PM, gevertex said:

I may also just keep it for another year. I don't have to sell. That would get me >100hours on the engine then can re-evaluate.

If you don't have to sell, I think this would be the best course of action in this situation.  That engine situation is a scary scenario IMO, and I say that as an experienced owner.  It becomes less scary with another 100-200 hours on it.  As I think someone mentioned already, I would be more interested in your plane without the overhaul + rehab work at a lower price, and then spec out my own overhaul.  (I'm not in the market, though!)

Lance is very wise, and the actions he outlined are more sweat-equity with a little bit of cash outlay to really make yours stand out.  I'd take his advice and put 100+ hours on it, then you'll likely have less trouble selling and get more money out of the deal.  A local hotrod upholstery shop can renew seats very reasonably if you bring them in.  You can buy some nice memory foam and upgrade the seats and modernize the cover layout for modest money like I did with mine.  You have nearly the best J version to polish and there aren't many of them, so you've got that going for you.

[gevertex]

Thanks all. Sorry for the delay, had a hell of a week at work. I still have a bit before I get this back so I have time and a lot to consider. I really appreciate the advice.

[Ragsf15e]

On 8/13/2024 at 10:17 AM, MikeOH said:

You might use Jimmy's price guide as well as vref; I found his to be very thorough.  If you don't have a copy I think he'll send you one since you are an owner.

Just as a data point, Jimmy uses Jewell.