I haven't personally been through the process however a friend recently purchased a Piper. Not sure how you would finance it, but he dipped into the equity in his house to get the cash.
One thing he did do was thoroughly check that there was no existing finance on it, or he could have ended up owning the debt too if there was any.
Aside from that he did a test flight, got a maintenance check done, a bit of haggling, got the money, then did the deal. Ongoing costs now are interest payments, insurance, inspections/maintenance, hangarage, etc.
Last edited by BoundaryLayer; 12th Feb 2010 at 01:58.