How Does Damage

Affect Value?

Consider that you have the opportunity to buy either of two aircraft you have been dreaming about owning.  They are identical in every respect except that one had a hard landing that resulted in damage to one of its landing gear.  The damage was repaired and except for the paper documentation, there is no evidence that the event even occurred.  Both aircraft are identical in terms of flight worthiness.  But, would you be willing to pay the same amount for either aircraft?  Unlikely!

As a seller you would want the appraisal to take in account that the aircraft has been repaired correctly and it is just as flight worthy as the unaffected aircraft.  As a buyer you would want the appraisal to accurately account for the mishap.  Where most price guides simply deduct a fixed percentage from the total aircraft value, Malara's Aircraft Services correctly analyzes all aspects of the aircraft’s history and thus satisfies both the seller’s and the buyer’s requirements.  Most damage events only affect one or two items, e.g. landing gear, wing, propeller, windshield, etc. where as, the major components that account for an aircraft's value are unaffected by the damage.  If an deduction of 10% or 20% of the aircraft's value due to the past damage event, your are deducting that percentage from potentially high value item like the avionics, and engines that were unaffected and may even be new since the event. Does this make sense? Of course not!  Nevertheless, the two aircraft will clearly not command the same amount at resale!  It's not that the two aircraft differ in terms of flight worthiness, but the market will not treat them as equivalent due to the stigma associated with the prior damage!  At Malara's Aircraft Services we make a fair assessment of the aircraft which takes in account all of these factors.

The marketplace decrease in value depends on the type of aircraft, the extent of the damage, and the quality and method of repair.  There are other factors as well.  The market is less accepting of damage history on certain classes of aircraft.  For example, the stigma of damage is far greater to a corporate jet than it is to a single-engine piston aircraft. Malara's Aircraft Services analyzes the current market for each particular type of aircraft when calculating value reduction for the type of damage incurred.  The values of unrelated components are not affected.  This approach is based on our experience in tracking the aircraft market and from performing literally hundreds of Certified Aircraft Appraisals.

Ask your appraiser what method he uses to calculate damage history.  If it is not similar to the system described above, walk away!