I am sorry for your frustration... But the title of your thread is the story of my life.
I have no idea what the RV market is like. I know post World Wide "Panorama"
prices on used planes of all kinds went through the roof... $60K C152 and RV10's for $350K.... It JUST may be, not be, maybe, a good time to buy?
IF you have enough money, you can buy a plane. Many RV's are bought locally by people who know the person. Good RV's are fair price sell fast or already spoken for before being advertised. I personally would avoid buying one abroad.
DO not get emotionally attached with a plane or the idea of buying a plane until YOU DO A COMPLEETE pre-inspection. It is better to have $100,000 in your pocket wishing you had a plane than spending $100,000 wishing you did not have that plane.
Unsolicited advice worth every penny you are paying for it: Lower your sights to a used RV-4? GREAT PLANE (may be the best RV?) RV-4 is as good or frankly better in many ways (built and owned both). I like side by side but the RV-4 is great. Richard "Dick" VanGrunsven when asked what his favorite RV was? He said RV-3. You tend to find RV-4's for less. They tend to be older, more VFR, lower HP (150-160), fixed prop... etc.... Trust me a LIGHT weight, RV-4, 160HP, FP wood prop, VFR is a joy to fly. RV-9, RV-12? Open up your options.
A loaded RV-6 with all the bells and whistles tend sto be overweight and lose some RV magic. (Overweight = more than VA's Spec target empty weight.) I have flown heavy RV's and light ones. You notice. Check empty weight. Max gross weight RV-6 is 1600 lbs, RV-6A 1650. Empty weight . RV-6/RV-6A specified empty weighs 965lbs/985lbs respectively. If an RV-6 weighs 1160 lbs empty (yes there are RV-6's out there, +1100lbs empty). With gross weight 1600 lb, full fuel you have 440lbs useful. Fuel 38x6=228lbs. So now you have 212lbs for Pilot/Pax/bags. Lets say you want to fly two 180lb occupants, 360lbs. You need to lose 158 lbs fuel or 26 gal. That leaves 12 gal remaining.. Assume 8 gal/hr. That is 1.5 hrs endurance. Subtract 30 min VFR reserve. About 60 min flying.
AEROBATIC max gross is 1375 lbs..... No way a fat RV, with two up. Even if an RV-6 is a lean, 965 lbs empty, that leaves 410 lbs. So you can fly two people assuming 180lbs. THAT 180 lbs per person includes weight for the required parachutes to do aerobatics with two people. Leaving fuel behind is required. You will have fuel for short (30 min) aerobatic flight. Respect the limits.
Van made the RV-6 for 160 hp and fixed wood prop in mind, like he did for the RV-4. Mid 80's C/S props and 180-200HP engines were kind of rare in RV's, but quickly 180HP and C/S props became the preferred. People started to shoe horn in the heavier IO360(200HP) into RV's. This is why the RV7, RV-8 and RV-14 came out. The latter RV-14 is made for a IO360/IO390 +200HP engines and has 2050 lb gross. Than the heavy car engines came. Woof... TIP: The price on a car engine RV is much lower. I almost bought one to convert back to a Lycoming. BIG ENGINES and C/S props - Remember 20 more HP does not make the RV significantly faster. Constant speed prop does shorten T/O run and increases climb, and also makes approach easier (with more idle drag in fine pitch/high RPM) and slightly shorter roll out. In cruise, same HP, speeds of your fixed prop RV if pitched properly can be almost or as fast as a C/S prop. However the C/S prop will be more efficient in cruise, less RPM, less noise, saving a few bucks in gas. Think car manual 6 speed transmission, driving down freeway, C/S prop you are in 6th gear, FP prop you are 5th gear. C/S prop from a stop light you use 1st gear. FP prop you use 2nd gear. Not a prefect analogy but you get the point. C/S prop is better, but cost way more and is heavier.
Many RV-6 owners just arbitrarily ignore the limits and even annotate the limitations as such, with higher gross limit. When automotive engines were the rage late 90's early 2000's, RV's were over gross even SOLO! Many loaded up RV-6's, angle valve 360's. metal Hartzell CS prop, fancy paint, upholstery, loaded panel. Although a IO360 angle valve is less than a car engine, the 200HP RV-6's had less useful load, I call useless useful load. It is just math. I would not buy a fat RV-6 unless you buy a truck load of ozempic. As I said 160HP, fixed wood prop, VFR panel, simple interior, light weight paint job (not multi layers of top and clear coat) is a joy.
If you and your favorite passenger(s) are on the larger side and want to do cross country with bags, buy a RV-7 or RV-14. Yes they may be more money used, but they are PRE_PUNCHED. That is good if you ever need to repair a wing or stabilizer leading edge (bird strike). RV-6 was drilled in assembly by the builder and pattern is not standard. Not a big deal to me, as you can always drill new blanks, but pre-punch is awesome. Interchangeable parts is a thing.
DECIDE what you want vs. what you need.
I JUST WATCHED a great EAA Webinar that just came out this week, during annual "Homebuilders Week".
"Webinar- Buying a Used Van’s RV Aircraft"
This was presented by Vic Syracuse. . Even if someone is an experienced A&P, DAR, even RV builder, you can miss things. I am not selling Vic's books, but as a 12 time plane builder and operator he has good points. He wrote two books one
Maintenance of RV's and one
Pre Buy.... They are not cheap. I do
not own these books nor do I plan on buying them. Just FYI they may be of great use to a perspective buyer of used RV's..... When you do buy an RV and become an operator, but never operated/owned one, maintenance is key. That maintenance book could be golden to you. There is a learning curve. RV's do wear, need to be maintained and repaired routinely. Since you can do most of this work best be ready. I suppose you can just bring it to a shop who works on RV's, but doing it yourself is part of the fun. My first 1000 hrs of flying my RV, I found, most of the issues for me were FWF, due to vibration, rubbing, fretting, fatigue, wear, cracking (baffle). I repaired, improved, modified many issues to reduce or eliminate the issues. A mature RV that has ben well maintained, fine tuned can be a great value vs a low time hardly flown RV, that has not gone through the teething / break-in (broken-in) period. RV flown and in disrepair or have slip shot band aid repairs, should be avoided. Also LOOK for cracks in the elevator and rudder. Very common. The skins are thin and crack near the last trailing edge stiffener to skin rivet. The reasons are well known. There are building techniques that can assure cracking, and techniques that virtually eliminate it. Things like this are tribal knowledge you should try to understand. BTW that elevator crack is sometimes fixed with stop drill and a blob of sealant injected. I had a crack in one of my RV-4's aileron for another reason than stiffener. I bought new parts and rebuilt it. Stop drill is temporary to me.
At least watch the EAA video (you must be an EAA member). Any one who is not an EAA member may you always have headwinds.... (kidding). If not an EAA member join.
