How do you sell a static caravan?

A._Badger

A relative of mine needs to sell a static caravan, which she has on a holiday site on the South Coast.

She has been offered a ridiculously low price by the site owners (as you'd expect) but she hasn't been able to work out what it's actually worth. On eBay, similar caravans appear to have sold for as much as £17,000 - yet others, of identical spec, are in shop windows on cards and on eBay for £8,000 and I have a suspicion that the £17,0000 sales may be faked by the site owners to inflate the apparent value of the caravans they're selling.

Can anyone point us in the right direction, please? Is there a best way of selling these things? How do you gauge a far price? She's an old lady with no understanding of the Internet - and I know absolutely nothing about selling caravans (as is pretty obvious!).

Sorry if this is the wrong board, but it seemed the best choice - please move if I was wrong.

Sammy-Jo_2

Having investigated purchasing a caravan ourselves on a number of different sites we became aware that one of the terms of their contract would be for us to sell back the caravan to the site owners. I hope this is not the case for your relative but might be worth checking out . I think some site owners will also act as brokers. Also, Daltons Weekly paper seemed to have lots of ads for static caravans for sale when we were looking.

jollyanna

Static caravans in my area (south coast resort) appear on Rightmove and the local press via regular estate agents. They mostly seem to come with an inducement of this years site fees fully paid up which is quite a saving so you could make a point of that when trying to sell.

emmell

There are lots of things to determine the 2nd hand value of statics, if it is being left sited then the type of site and facilities, distance to the beach if coastal, whether the caravan can be sub-let. On our site the site operators don't buy or sell vans but will give you a Glass's guide valuation, this valuation can be achieved if p/x'ing for a new van but if selling to a private owner then a premium can be achieved but a percentage of 15% of Glass's guide is paid to the site operative. Of course age and model are significant factors, some statics only cost £17,000 new but some cost £45,000. I suggest you try a caravan forum, I think there is one called caravan site finder, there is a forum for holiday home owners (static caravans), there are owners and site operators on the forum.
ML.

Rolandtheroadie

Theres loads more too. Is the caravan ALLOWED to stay on the site if sold to someone else? How long is it allowed to stay on site if sold on. (relative may have lifetime rights if they've had it from new but it may not be transferrable, a site I looked at was forever if you bought it new, but 10 years old if you bought it from someone 2nd hand).
If it has to be sold off site, there may be fees involved in the site owners disconnecting everything and taking it to the front gate.They wont normally allow you to do this yourself. Then transport cost for the new owner.

A._Badger

scotsman4th wrote: »

Theres loads more too. Is the caravan ALLOWED to stay on the site if sold to someone else? How long is it allowed to stay on site if sold on. (relative may have lifetime rights if they've had it from new but it may not be transferrable, a site I looked at was forever if you bought it new, but 10 years old if you bought it from someone 2nd hand).
If it has to be sold off site, there may be fees involved in the site owners disconnecting everything and taking it to the front gate.They wont normally allow you to do this yourself. Then transport cost for the new owner.

Thanks to everyone who has offered advice - all of which I have relayed to ancient relative, who is going through the paperwork concerning what she is (and isn't) allowed to do by the holiday park concerned.

I found a 'how to buy a static caravan' note on eBay in which the author said, in effect, that the first thing to do was ask how you would sell it when the time came. Having realised what a minefield this is, I can only say how right he was!