So some of you may know, I moved my Mooney Encore from US to Spain with me a couple years back. Unfortunately, I’ve not found myself flying it as much as I did in the US for many reasons and the maintenance costs and time just aren’t worth it. I’d like to sell it and possibly get something I can operate from grass strips to do more casual flying.
I can fly it back to the US to sell it (I have a lot of interested parties there due to it being well equipped) but someone recently suggested there might be a good market for it in the UK.
Does anyone think this is the case, and if so, where can I advertise the plane in the UK? Remember, it’s N registered (US).
Expanding that to Europe in general, where do people advertise planes for sale? Wouldn’t hurt to try Europe too.
The biggest site is planecheck. I’d try there. They are also very cheap to use, you only pay in case you sell via them.
Quite a few people also put them on controller. It is read by Europeans but also would open the US market more for you.
You can also advertise in the EuroGA Marketplace for €25 
It won’t get as much exposure as Planecheck but we do have very good SEO. It also supports EuroGA which maintains its independence by avoiding advertising banners.
Mooney Encores are very rare in Europe, and highly sought after. I have flown one of them once (N20VK, I believe), and it was the sweetest Mooney I have ever flown. So, if you price it OK, it will likely sell quickly. N-reg is not a problem. Many of the serious IFR private pilots (=those who take interest in something like an Encore) will either not bother it being N-reg, or – quite likely – even appreciate it.
One thing: did you pay import VAT in Europe? If not, that is something that will diminish its value by 20%…
Mooney_Driver wrote:
The biggest site is planecheck. I’d try there. They are also very cheap to use, you only pay in case you sell via them.Quite a few people also put them on controller. It is read by Europeans but also would open the US market more for you.
Thanks, I’ll check out planecheck! I had it on Controller for 2 months but only got one (not very good) lead from a guy somewhere in Germany. I just assumed it wasn’t the best resource for selling here or that the demand wasn’t as high.
Peter wrote:
You can also advertise in the EuroGA Marketplace for €25
Will be happy to support.
boscomantico wrote:
Mooney Encores are very rare in Europe, and highly sought after. I have flown one of them once (N20VK, I believe), and it was the sweetest Mooney I have ever flown. So, if you price it OK, it will likely sell quickly. N-reg is not a problem. Many of the serious IFR private pilots (=those who take interest in something like an Encore) will either not bother it being N-reg, or – quite likely – even appreciate it.One thing: did you pay import VAT in Europe? If not, that is something that will diminish its value by 20%…
Good to hear, thanks. I was a bit concerned about that given I got only one hit from Europe on Controller. It’s an incredible plane, just not practical for me in the Netherlands where I live now. I was barely using it in Spain as it is.
A plane of this type will be of interest to experienced pilots. Obviously most of them already have their own plane. Moreover almost only to IR holders, and obviously most of those will already have their own plane. And being N-reg and with the hassle of getting FAA papers today, you are looking for existing owners of N-reg planes who want to buy another plane. Accordingly, the numbers won’t be huge. The important thing will be to price it right. Too many planes are priced at silly levels. And assume the buyer will be intelligent, so you need to shoot all the maintenance records into a PDF, ready to email to any potential buyer. At this level of aircraft you won’t get many amateurs, so most potential buyers will walk away if they smell a rat It’s no different to Ebay: a good detailed description, with good pics, sells, and a 2-line description with spelling mistakes and crappy photos (the majority of Ebay ads) doesn’t. Well, it doesn’t fetch a good price.
Peter wrote:
A plane of this type will be of interest to experienced pilots. Obviously most of them already have their own plane. Moreover almost only to IR holders, and obviously most of those will already have their own plane. And being N-reg and with the hassle of getting FAA papers today, you are looking for existing owners of N-reg planes who want to buy another plane. Accordingly, the numbers won’t be huge. The important thing will be to price it right. Too many planes are priced at silly levels. And assume the buyer will be intelligent, so you need to shoot all the maintenance records into a PDF, ready to email to any potential buyer. At this level of aircraft you won’t get many amateurs, so most potential buyers will walk away if they smell a rat It’s no different to Ebay: a good detailed description, with good pics, sells, and a 2-line description with spelling mistakes and crappy photos (the majority of Ebay ads) doesn’t. Well, it doesn’t fetch a good price.
I agree. The leads I got in the US via Controller were all very knowledgeable and enjoyed speaking to each one. I’ve taken great care of (and pride in) the plane so communicating with educated potential buyers was a pleasure.
As for the pricing, I’d love some advice on how the European market differs. On Controller it was priced at $175,000USD and given the response I had, I think that was a little low. It has a recently overhauled engine, TKS FIKI anti-icing, turbocharger, built-in O2, and GNS480 GPS. I’m tempted to list it for 160,000€. That might be high due to the VAT problem but it seems to me that that’s just something one has to pay on an imported plane. Thoughts?
An Encore should easily catch between € 160.000 and € 200.000. It is the holy grail of Mooneys. I just bought a 252 and already I see I could do with some increased MTOW. Hopefully your plane stays in Europe. I’d love to see some more Encores in our airspace.
airways wrote:
An Encore should easily catch between € 160.000 and € 200.000. It is the holy grail of Mooneys. I just bought a 252 and already I see I could do with some increased MTOW. Hopefully your plane stays in Europe. I’d love to see some more Encores in our airspace.
Thanks, yeah the increased useful load is great. UL is not one of the Mooney’s strong points…
Congrats on the new 252!
