Flyler Posted July 8 Report Posted July 8 I'll spare the details of my long plane search before reaching out to Jimmy. The short and sweet of it: I saw some good planes, I saw some bad planes. I met some honest owners, and a rather dishonest owner or two as well. Nothing was quite right for me. In my travels I had numerous people say "why don't you just call Jimmy Garrison?" So I did. Now I own a Mooney! Jimmy was very forthright and honest, and did not make any speculations. If he wasn't 100% sure on something, he would make that fact abundantly obvious but give me examples of "how it usually goes" based on his experience. Low and behold, that is how it went for me. He recommended aero-space reports for the title search and escrow. It was inexpensive, and Christina was great to work with. She found an old lien from decades ago, and got it released. She got the FAA documents in order and everything went through without a hitch, the first try. I am long winded and sarcastic (not very good pilot communication, I admit) and Jimmy is quite the opposite. Short and to the point. Despite this great descrepancy in communication skills, he was patient and tolerated my antics very well After making a verbal agreement and having the contracts sent over, I paused before signing. I had not actually seen the plane in person. I saw plenty of photos and had all the information, but I had a brief moment of panic. I realized I had relied solely on the reputation of Jimmy, a man I had never met. So I called him up at the last minute and said "I'm buying the first ticket to Texas to look at the plane, I just need to put my eyes on it before I sign this." He understood. Once I got there, I knew within 5 minutes that this plane was exactly as advertised. No surprises. I signed the paperwork right away. So I guess Jimmy is "as advertised" according to his reputation as well. In this case, the seller wasn't interested in interacting with the buyer, and I understand that. With Jimmy, that direct communication simply wasn't necessary. He took care of everything, and took care of me very well. I hope that I have my forever plane but if I don't, I'll be going straight back to Jimmy at GMAX. 7
natdm Posted July 8 Report Posted July 8 Nice. I bought my plane through him as well. Definite issues with the pre-buy, but that was probably a surprise to both of us and no fault of Jimmy's. I called him recently to discuss selling my K for an Ovation and he told me that'd be a silly choice, that I have so much in my plane and on such a low time that I can fly it past TBO and get the same money for it, so he'd feel bad selling it for the price he could get for it. So he convinced me to keep my plane, which is appreciated. 2
Danb Posted July 8 Report Posted July 8 Jimmy sold my bravo for me and was a first class person and first class process, honest forthright etc. 2
AH-1 Cobra Pilot Posted July 9 Report Posted July 9 5 hours ago, Danb said: Jimmy sold my bravo for me and was a first class person and first class process, honest forthright etc. How much does he charge?
cliffy Posted July 9 Report Posted July 9 I have arranged with Jimmy to handle the sale of my D model when I get ready to sell (NOT yet) and/or handle everything if my wife has to dump the airplane with me not there. Couldn't be happier with the arrangement. 1
Thedude Posted July 9 Report Posted July 9 3 hours ago, AH-1 Cobra Pilot said: How much does he charge? I don't how much he charges, but I believe one thing to be aware of is that his fee is based on the list price, not the the negotiated price. So it doesn't affect him as much if the sale price drops from the list price. With that said, I've only been a buyer in interactions with him and I found him to be honest, straightforward, and helpful, which is more than you can usually ask for. 1
dkkim73 Posted July 9 Report Posted July 9 3 hours ago, cliffy said: and/or handle everything if my wife has to dump the airplane with me not there Now *that's* thinking.
DCarlton Posted July 9 Report Posted July 9 3 hours ago, cliffy said: I have arranged with Jimmy to handle the sale of my D model when I get ready to sell (NOT yet) and/or handle everything if my wife has to dump the airplane with me not there. Couldn't be happier with the arrangement. I’ve had similar thoughts but it’s taking a long time (years in some cases) to move some of the airplanes currently on the market for the price being asked. I’m wondering if you’d be better off wholesaling the airplane to someone like Aircraft Ownership Solutions if you want to get it sold and move on. Or perhaps GMAX has a list of buyers for folks that want to price it for a quick sell off market. 1
affricate Posted July 9 Report Posted July 9 Yeah, he's a good man. I bought my Bravo from him over the phone from Tucson. Never saw the plane. Ron Fisher, the mechanic also did a good job and helped me out. Good people, 1
cliffy Posted July 9 Report Posted July 9 7 hours ago, DCarlton said: I’ve had similar thoughts but it’s taking a long time (years in some cases) to move some of the airplanes currently on the market for the price being asked. I’m wondering if you’d be better off wholesaling the airplane to someone like Aircraft Ownership Solutions if you want to get it sold and move on. Or perhaps GMAX has a list of buyers for folks that want to price it for a quick sell off market. It all depends on what the "asking" price is. Many planes languish on the market with unrealistic pricing especially inflated prices due to emotional attachment. Just look at how many are sitting rotting away on the ramps around the country and when contacted to buy the price is way beyond reason. Its no different than housing- priced right houses sell, priced unreasonable they sit on the market forever. I'm not planning on pricing so as to sit on the market for months trying to squeeze the last dime out of the transaction. Time is money and it takes money to "carry" the asset until sale- the longer you hold it the less you net. You reach a point of diminishing returns. Price it right and it will sell, get greedy and it will sit- costing you money. Simple formula. 4
PeterRus Posted July 9 Report Posted July 9 (edited) 2 hours ago, cliffy said: Simple formula. What's the formula? Didn't buy my plane from Jimmy, but he spent more time on the calls with me than he should have. Many thanks. Edited July 9 by PeterRus 1
Danb Posted July 9 Report Posted July 9 11 hours ago, Thedude said: I don't how much he charges, but I believe one thing to be aware of is that his fee is based on the list price, not the the negotiated price. So it doesn't affect him as much if the sale price drops from the list price. With that said, I've only been a buyer in interactions with him and I found him to be honest, straightforward, and helpful, which is more than you can usually ask for. 14 hours ago, AH-1 Cobra Pilot said: How much does he charge? He told me 6% but lowered it to 5% I assume since it was a high dollar sale regardless worth every penny.
kortopates Posted July 11 Report Posted July 11 What's the formula? Didn't buy my plane from Jimmy, but he spent more time on the calls with me than he should have. Many thanks. That’s the thing, Jimmy sells more Mooney’s than anyone else and know very well how to price it to sell based on the current market.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
Ragsf15e Posted July 14 Report Posted July 14 One note of caution from a concerned citizen on this lovefest… yes, I’ve used jimmy several times. Yes I enjoyed our conversation. Transaction was completed smoothly. However, he sells a lot of Mooneys sight unseen. He probably looks through the logs, although I caught some things on my recent purchase that he didn’t see (and both of us missed a big one in the logs). He hasn’t actually looked at these remote sales except for pictures. I say this because he sold my airplane without seeing it and I hope I didn’t misrepresent it to him or the new owner. Not everyone is going to sell through a remote broker and be totally honest/open. Due diligence folks. Don’t count on a broker catching everything, especially on an airplane he’s not seen. 4 2
jgarrison Posted Monday at 09:04 PM Report Posted Monday at 09:04 PM On 7/8/2025 at 11:47 PM, Thedude said: I don't how much he charges, but I believe one thing to be aware of is that his fee is based on the list price, not the the negotiated price. So it doesn't affect him as much if the sale price drops from the list price. With that said, I've only been a buyer in interactions with him and I found him to be honest, straightforward, and helpful, which is more than you can usually ask for. Not accurate. It is based on the negotiated contract price between owner and buyer. If there is a large deduction for repairs after a prebuy, the commission is not lowered to account for the reduced net price, but on the negotiated price. 3
Thedude Posted Tuesday at 05:22 AM Report Posted Tuesday at 05:22 AM 8 hours ago, jgarrison said: Not accurate. It is based on the negotiated contract price between owner and buyer. If there is a large deduction for repairs after a prebuy, the commission is not lowered to account for the reduced net price, but on the negotiated price. Good to know, thank you for clarifying that.
cliffy Posted Tuesday at 01:44 PM Report Posted Tuesday at 01:44 PM 8 hours ago, Thedude said: Good to know, thank you for clarifying that. If there is a large repair cost prior to sale it means you - as the owner- didn't do YOUR job of maintaining the aircraft as it should have been and YOUR "cut" of the deal is and should be, lowered to account for this. Its not the broker's fault YOU didn't do your job.
Thedude Posted Wednesday at 02:17 AM Report Posted Wednesday at 02:17 AM 12 hours ago, cliffy said: If there is a large repair cost prior to sale it means you - as the owner- didn't do YOUR job of maintaining the aircraft as it should have been and YOUR "cut" of the deal is and should be, lowered to account for this. Its not the broker's fault YOU didn't do your job. Sure, my original post was just relaying information I learned (apparently incorrectly) from my experience as a buyer. I didn't try to explain why that was the case because I didn't investigate it further to understand why. Aside from that, I'll reiterate what I said above, which was that I found the transaction very pleasant as a buyer and that I'm still happy with my purchase and my interactions with gmax and everyone involved.
PeterRus Posted Wednesday at 01:10 PM Report Posted Wednesday at 01:10 PM 23 hours ago, cliffy said: If there is a large repair cost prior to sale it means you - as the owner- didn't do YOUR job of maintaining the aircraft as it should have been and YOUR "cut" of the deal is and should be, lowered to account for this. Its not the broker's fault YOU didn't do your job. That's a very interesting take, for sure...
cliffy Posted Wednesday at 04:06 PM Report Posted Wednesday at 04:06 PM If aircraft are maintained per the "book" there should be no surprises when looked at prior to sale. If maintained properly you wouldn't find corrosion, bent, patched or rusty items. Log books would tell an accurate and truthful tale. EVERYTHING IN OR ON THE AIRPLANE would work as deigned- everything (unless placarded inop). The basic fall back is that the airplane is SUPPOSSED to be in as close to "as delivered" condition or repaired/altered in an approved manner as possible. I would bet $1,000 that I could walk out on any airport ramp and find issues with 50% of the airplanes I look at. We see it every day in maint shops. Things that cause us to walk away shaking our heads and wondering why and how. And we wonder here on MS why someone has a huge first annual bill or there so many items found on a pre-buy. Why do people not want to buy old Rolls Royces? Why do they lose so much in depreciation? Because thy take a LOT of maintenance- both in time and dollars. Our ownership of a private airplane carries just as much an impression with the general public a owning a Rolls Royce does. And owning a private airplane takes just a much time and effort as owning a Rolls Royce. That' just the way it is. We don't own a new Toyota- we own an antique Rolls Royce by every measure.
DCarlton Posted Wednesday at 04:46 PM Report Posted Wednesday at 04:46 PM 33 minutes ago, cliffy said: Why do people not want to buy old Rolls Royces? Why do they lose so much in depreciation? Because thy take a LOT of maintenance- both in time and dollars. Our ownership of a private airplane carries just as much an impression with the general public a owning a Rolls Royce does. And owning a private airplane takes just a much time and effort as owning a Rolls Royce. That' just the way it is. We don't own a new Toyota- we own an antique Rolls Royce by every measure. A friend up the street that's no longer with us, had a beautiful RR Silver Shadow in his garage. I saw him drive it once or twice...
cliffy Posted Friday at 03:41 AM Report Posted Friday at 03:41 AM A Silver Shadow takes a LOT of work to be reliable 1
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