gwav8or
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2015
- Messages
- 253
- Reaction score
- 32
So I recently found an aircraft I wanted to buy. I’ve been looking since selling my 140 back in April. The one I found had 95% of all my desired specs. The price was a bit more than I had intended to spend but wasn’t outside my budget. So, I made an offer and it was accepted. The seller said he had at least two others ready to buy. I had told him up front that I didn’t have a loan approval yet but that I didn’t expect a problem. We are both professionals, no kids and low debt. When I received the copy of the contract from the seller, they were asking for 5k deposit. The deposit was to be nonrefundable unless an airworthiness issue came up during the prebuy. If for some reason my financing fell through, I would lose my deposit.
Seller was unwilling to change the wording of the contract so that I’d get the deposit back if financing fell through. They did lower the amount but not low enough for me to feel comfortable with the amount at risk. Even being confident in getting financed.
The seller was also unwilling to wait a couple days for me to secure financing.
I’ve bought and sold aircraft in the past. Neither were set up with such a high deposit nor the possibility of loosing the deposit if the buyer didn’t get financed.
Was I just lucky when I purchased and naive when I sold or is this a common practice? I can understand a large deposit but not refusing to return it if the buyers financing falls through.
I know I could get pre-approved but that’s all that is. Not a guarantee. The bank could refuse financing for any reason they wanted.
Seller was unwilling to change the wording of the contract so that I’d get the deposit back if financing fell through. They did lower the amount but not low enough for me to feel comfortable with the amount at risk. Even being confident in getting financed.
The seller was also unwilling to wait a couple days for me to secure financing.
I’ve bought and sold aircraft in the past. Neither were set up with such a high deposit nor the possibility of loosing the deposit if the buyer didn’t get financed.
Was I just lucky when I purchased and naive when I sold or is this a common practice? I can understand a large deposit but not refusing to return it if the buyers financing falls through.
I know I could get pre-approved but that’s all that is. Not a guarantee. The bank could refuse financing for any reason they wanted.
