Jack, Sundowner – N6363U:
When it comes to resale value or selling prices, what will determine a fair sale price? My Sundowner is a 1983 model with 1700TT and ~150 hours on a Lycoming Factory reman, with everything new from the firewall forward. I’ve added a Garmin 430, a Garmin 330 Mode S transponder, a Garmin 340 audio panel with four jack positions, a JPI 800 engine analyzer with ALL of the probes, a lightweight starter, a new DG and new AI, a Pulselight flashing light system, three-point Whelen Comet-flash strobes, Tanis engine heaters, new landing gear donuts, new seatbelts, etc. The paint is 1983 original but in very good shape – I’d call it a 7.5; and the interior is all leather, done in 1999. Everything works at least as good as new.
I figure that I have over $80K in the airplane, over the 5 years that I have owned her. Would I ever be able to sell it for that? Only if the new prospective owner had more bucks than sense, and a deep set of pockets. I could buy a really sweet high performance airplane in good shape airplanes for that amount. But, I went into the deal knowing I was getting an exceptional Sundowner, that was never a trainer and had low total time. I equipped it the way I wanted it. I figured it was going to be in the family for a long time. There is no way to economically justify the money I have put into it; I knowingly bought, improved, and maintained with my heart instead of my brain.
If I ever have to sell her I may take a bath – but somebody will get a great deal on a fantastic Sundowner!
Jack, you do have a good grasp of the situation, as it is normally viewed. On the other hand, how you fare in an eventual sale will be highly dependent on the circumstances. If you have to sell in a hurry and must therefore accept a more typical “market value”, you’d be at a great disadvantage. On the other hand, if you will be able to take as long to sell as is needed for the right buyer to come along, you’ll fare much better. A well-educated buyer, perhaps from BAC or the MML, will be far more likely to be willing to pay you what the plane is actually worth, and will be glad to have the chance at it. That also assumes they won’t have financing problems at the higher valuation.
Few aircraft will ever recoup the entire cost of upgrades. Estimates range from 30% to 70% recovery, depending on the upgrade. Having said that, many planes sell for far above their so-called “book value”. This is especially true of those that change hands between a local seller and local buyer, when the sale occurs due to a note posted on a local FBO bulletin board. The high-end plane is usually known to all the “locals”, and brings top dollar. Those sales tend to get ignored when outfits like V-ref calculate aircraft values. They ignore the salvage sale prices and the high-end sale prices (as being “out-of-range”), and basically report the broad middle ground. This is particularly true for planes such as ours that have relatively low market turnover (especially Sierras).
Greater pilot-public awareness of our planes, and the debunking of associated myths, will also continue to increase their value. I consider the 200 HP Super IIIs to be in the same boat today that the 400 HP Comanches were in, back around 1985. Few people knew what the Comanche 400 really was back then; just that they burned a lot of gas; they sold then for relative peanuts. Now they are known as the pocket rockets they really are, and you very rarely find one for sale at any price (unless it is a “project plane”).
The Skipper is a great two-seater; in my opinion, vastly better than the 152 or Tomahawk. You seldom see one for sale. They virtually always have much better panels than the competition (many are IFR), typically have far fewer hours on them, and are much more comfortable. They nearly always bring more than a 152 or Tomahawk, from the knowledgeable buyer.
The Duchess is a much more reliable, comfortable, and safer light twin than almost any other available model. It would be virtually perfect if Beech had put IO-360s in it, rather than the O-360s. If I owned one I would be terribly tempted to seriously investigate an IO-360 conversion, though rudder authority might be a showstopper at the higher thrust level.
The general field of 19s and 23s varies widely from pristine models to in-progress flying projects to tiedown derelicts. Selling prices are far more dependent on condition and equipment than on model and year, for planes like these.