I'm a soon-to-be aircraft purchaser, but have not purchased one before. I'm trying to learn how to do it right. I'll appreciate any advice on this general subject, but a particular snag to my understanding has to do with making sure the title is clear and whether or not one can buy title insurance in case something gets missed. I'm not paranoid, but I suspect that everybody is out to get me.

A title search is cheap and used to be secure enough. You just called the bank on old leans you knew were probably cleared. Now the banks have changed hands so many times that this is no longer safe. Bite the bullet and get the title insurance.

Purchase the book aircraft ownership and read it. It's about $30-40 and will save you thousands in the long run! The last guy I know didn't buy/read like i told him and he wasted several thousand looking at lemon airplanes. Trust me on this if it's your first time!
here I found the book!
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/b ... buyown.php

Go to www.aictitle.com for info

I've had good service with:
Suzanne Pruitt
AIC Title Service, LLC
6350 West Reno Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73127
800-288-2519 Ext. 307

I went to AIC also. I think I was referred to them by AOPA.

EB

If you're an AOPA member, they offer title search and title insurance through their web page, I believe it's under the ownership tag. You just order it online, pay with your card and the next business day you've got your search in hand. I've used it 3 times now and 1 of those times they found a very old lean that had not been released, the owner had told me the title was clear. I believe he really thought it was. It's not to expensive but worth every penny.

Marty

I have a small lien on mine from 1952. When I discussed it with the title officer they agreed that it probably wasn't worth buying insurance for something that old.

EB

I just did one through Aero-Space Reports(AOPA referral) 800-765-2336. Found a 1978 lien that had not been released by two banks ago, local to lien bank people were not helpful, wouldn't talk w/ me since my name wasn't on the lien. Called local bank where I do not have an account, got it done right away.

$75. for the lien info, $20. more for accident reports, 337's, registration info, very worthwhile, prompt service.

Banks are prompt to put a lien on, forget about it afterwards; when one pays off a lien, keep paperwork, FAA doesn't recognise liens, just registers w/ the next person, lien carried forward.

Cheap insurance.

piperpainter wrote:Purchase the book aircraft ownership and read it.

Thanks for the book tip Bryan. Went to Amazon hoping there was a Kindle version. No joy there, but was able to pick up a used one for $4 shipped.

I used AIC as well. I slept well after paying them the $95 for a title search. I'm up in Canada and that didn't slow things down at all. Good, fast service!

I had a problem this winter when de-registering the 185 in order to re-register in Canada. It was an old lien by the previous owner that had never been released. Took 3 weeks of hassling with the new conglomorant owner of the bank in Florida to finally get it released and info sent to Oklahoma City. Spend the dollars and get the title search.

Steve

I've been doing this for years now and I use Insured Aircraft Title in Oklahoma City. Joan Roberts has been in the business for decades now and her team handles all my transactions. I have done three transactions in the last 60 days with them flawlessly. They where larger aircraft, but also did my 185 transaction and it was handled the same as my big ones. I did try AOPA about a decade ago, but the key player left a few years back and it has not been the same. I had issues with one of the others futzing up a transaction, customer pick, not mine.

Always do a title search, if they don't find it and one turns up, they have to deal with it. Besides, they vet all the paperwork before it gets submitted tot he FAA, who will bounce back registrations and Bills of Sale in a heartbeat for seemingly trivial issues. If you try to do it yourself, you may find out two to three weeks after the fact that the seller didn't do the Bill of Sale correctly. So having a professional do it correctly is worth the bucks, kind of like packing your own emergency chute to save on a rigger. Don't know it was done wrong until you pull the D ring.

I used aopa when buying my plane 6 months ago. Cheap for peace if mind. I only did title search not insurance but worth it I thought. Went through aopa web site and called on the phone.

dogpilot wrote:Always do a title search, if they don't find it and one turns up, they have to deal with it. Besides, they vet all the paperwork before it gets submitted tot he FAA, who will bounce back registrations and Bills of Sale in a heartbeat for seemingly trivial issues. If you try to do it yourself, you may find out two to three weeks after the fact that the seller didn't do the Bill of Sale correctly. So having a professional do it correctly is worth the bucks, kind of like packing your own emergency chute to save on a rigger. Don't know it was done wrong until you pull the D ring.

Boy you can say that again. I had to take a commercial flight back to Worshington and track down my 93 year old prior owner and the NEXT prior owner to him just to get mine straight. It's a good thing those guys lived long enough to get it finished. They had both screwed up the paperwork and the Luscombe had not been legally registered since 2004.

EB

180jocky wrote:If you're an AOPA member, they offer title search and title insurance through their web page, I believe it's under the ownership tag. You just order it online, pay with your card and the next business day you've got your search in hand. I've used it 3 times now and 1 of those times they found a very old lean that had not been released, the owner had told me the title was clear. I believe he really thought it was. It's not to expensive but worth every penny.

Marty

Almost word for word what I would have written about my purchase in January. With a few calls I was able to track down the current bank who inherited the lien and they sent the paperwork to have it removed. The lien was from the late 60s on a loan of only a few days while a broker bought and then sold the plane.

I also did it through AOPA/AIC and it was fast and efficient. Buy it! Not only piece of mind, but very interesting to see where the plane has been and who has owned it...which can give you some insight to its past.

Thanks to all. I wish bcp had an email notification service, so I'd know as soon as there were any responses.

Twister wrote:Thanks to all. I wish bcp had an email notification service, so I'd know as soon as there were any responses.

Tapatalk includes notification on subscribed topics.

*edit to add - There is a notification option in the reply screen. Does it not work? I usually subscribe to a topic with Tapatalk...

Twister wrote:Thanks to all. I wish bcp had an email notification service, so I'd know as soon as there were any responses.

We do have that feature. At the bottom of a given topic, click "Subscribe to topic." You will receive email notifications of new replies until you unsubscribe via the User Control Panel. Tapatalk just taps into the native PHPBB3 subscribe feature.

I don't remember when or how it was set up, but I get emails when there are any responses to a thread on which I have commented...without having to subscribe to each one individually. I'm sure it's an option in the settings so check it out.

So here's a noob question on this subject. I fully intend to heed the above advice and make use of AIC for title search/insurance/escrow/paperwork services come Monday but would like to move quickly on a deal. Is it ok to make an offer before completion of a title search?

Thanks in advance
SD