I am in the process of completing my PPL and looking to purchase an aircraft to build on my training and have fun with. Given cost constraints and desired performance, the Kitfox seems to be a good choice for what I need. Unfortunately with living in southern California, real estate is a highly sought after commodity and trying to find a place to build the aircraft myself would be extremely expensive. I was considering purchasing a used Kitfox to avoid this issue, but I am not sure how reliable doing something like that is. Are there specific things that I need to do to ensure that I get a reliable build or is it one of those things that I'll just have to accept the risk on? Are your everyday A&P mechanics fairly knowledgeable in the Kitfox system to give a good pre-purchase inspection or do you have to find a specialty mechanic?
I would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions on this.