Steve VarsanoFounder at The Jet Business

Can you buy a jet with cash?

Name: Can you buy a jet with cash?
Uploaded: 2024-09-23T16:32:25+00:00
Duration: 59 s
Channel: Steve Varsano
Description: In this YouTube clip, aviation broker Steve Varsano recounts a memorable early‑career encounter with a prospective lessee who claimed to run a lobster…

23 Sept 2024 · 1 min

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In this YouTube clip, aviation broker Steve Varsano recounts a memorable early‑career encounter with a prospective lessee who claimed to run a lobster business out of Miami. The man wanted to lease a twin‑turboprop airplane for a full year and, lacking traditional credit, offered to pay the entire lease up front. After inspecting the aircraft together, the client produced a briefcase full of cash—literal piles of bills—as the lease payment. Varsano describes his discomfort counting the money, his hesitation to accept such a cash transaction, and the oddity of the situation, highlighting the red‑flags and trust issues that can arise in aircraft sales and leasing.

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Has anyone tried to offer to buy a jet for cash? In the early days. Did you sell? I did have one instance. Twin turboprop airplane. He wanted to lease it for a year. It was so funny because we were going to see the airplane with this guy. He was telling me that he was in the lobster business based out of Miami and he was picking up a lot of lobsters from the Caribbean islands. Did that raise any alarms? Interesting, you know. And one day I says, you know, I don't think that story is going to help. But listen, if you want to lease the airplane, we can go see the airplane. And if they don't have a credit, maybe you pay for the payment payments up front or something like that. And we went and looked at the airplane. We left and we're flying back. He goes, I want to lease the airplane. I'll pay for a full year's lease up front. I said, okay, great. I said, so send me the money. He goes, no, no. And he's flying his airplane, right? He reaches back, literally, and he pulls out a briefcase in the back seat and he gives it to me. What's this? He goes, that's the lease payments. What are you talking about? And I opened it up and it was just piles of cash in there. So I'm like, what do you want me to do? You want me to count this? I said, I can't give them this cash. It's funny.