Problems selling a holiday home at Finlake Holiday Park (Devon)

Nona

Hi all, please let me know if this is in the correct forum asap.

I'll keep this as short as poss.

I want to sell my holiday home at Finlake Holiday Park. A local estate agent who has sold some properties at this park agreed to advertise for me. This was approx 2yrs ago...crucially just as the old sales manager at Finlake left.

I had a buyer last year, the estate agent organised viewings etc. A price was agreed with myself and the buyer. The estate agent arranged a meeting with the sales team at Finlake...then woosh, it's all fallen through.
I found out that the buyer had suddenly decided to buy a different holiday lodge (I'm smelling a rat by now as the park owns other lodges for sale..). I complained...got nowhere.

Now to the last week. My estate agent called me with bad news. He was not going to represent me any further because the same thing happened with a different buyer/seller. The estate agent organised viewings etc...got them into the sales office at Finlake...woosh, the buyer suddenly chooses a different lodge.

I can go to another estate agent (unless Finlake's potential bad reputation has already been noticed..) but if the sales team at Finlake can offer other lodges at a lower price (or a better lodge at the same price), what chance have I got of ever selling??

I need some legal advice on where to go to get this resolved. I want to sell quite badly to re-invest my money (sale price is +£85k...a substantial sum for me), but I don't see a way to do this. The park restrict viewings, don't allow a 'for sale' sign outside the lodge and you have to go through their sales team to get a sale.

Help!

SmashedAvacado

so, you want to prevent someone else with property selling for less than you're prepared to sell for. Tough one.

Comms69

Nona wrote: »

Hi all, please let me know if this is in the correct forum asap.

I'll keep this as short as poss.

I want to sell my holiday home at Finlake Holiday Park. A local estate agent who has sold some properties at this park agreed to advertise for me. This was approx 2yrs ago...crucially just as the old sales manager at Finlake left.

I had a buyer last year, the estate agent organised viewings etc. A price was agreed with myself and the buyer. The estate agent arranged a meeting with the sales team at Finlake...then woosh, it's all fallen through.
I found out that the buyer had suddenly decided to buy a different holiday lodge (I'm smelling a rat by now as the park owns other lodges for sale..). I complained...got nowhere.

Now to the last week. My estate agent called me with bad news. He was not going to represent me any further because the same thing happened with a different buyer/seller. The estate agent organised viewings etc...got them into the sales office at Finlake...woosh, the buyer suddenly chooses a different lodge.

I can go to another estate agent (unless Finlake's potential bad reputation has already been noticed..) but if the sales team at Finlake can offer other lodges at a lower price (or a better lodge at the same price), what chance have I got of ever selling??

I need some legal advice on where to go to get this resolved. I want to sell quite badly to re-invest my money (sale price is +£85k...a substantial sum for me), but I don't see a way to do this. The park restrict viewings, don't allow a 'for sale' sign outside the lodge and you have to go through their sales team to get a sale.

Help!

Well that's supply and demand. You need to lower your price...

kazwookie

Ask the sales team to sell it for you, they will charge you a commission

Ask a different estate agent to help you (find out which estate agent other sellers use)

Lower your price

Rent it out

Marvel1

Nona wrote: »

The park restrict viewings, don't allow a 'for sale' sign outside the lodge and you have to go through their sales team to get a sale.

How convenient for them to sell their own

Get the sale sign outside and maybe lower the price.

Nona

Maybe I have not explained it correctly. Finlake are effectively using the local estate agent to advertise the property, organise viewings, and agree prices...then when a buyer comes in, they undercut the price the buyer has agreed with me with one of their own properties (Finlake have a sales team onsite, but do not advertise or use estate agents...they only post on websites).

They will always be in a position to undercut a price that a buyer has already agreed with me as they are a large business. I have dropped the price a little to reflect the price that similar lodges have sold for...I know it's a fair price in the current market.

It's a pain not being allowed to put a 'for sale' sign outside my own lodge..

AnotherJoe

Nona wrote: »

Hi all, please let me know if this is in the correct forum asap.

I'll keep this as short as poss.

I want to sell my holiday home at Finlake Holiday Park. A local estate agent who has sold some properties at this park agreed to advertise for me. This was approx 2yrs ago...crucially just as the old sales manager at Finlake left.

I had a buyer last year, the estate agent organised viewings etc. A price was agreed with myself and the buyer. The estate agent arranged a meeting with the sales team at Finlake...then woosh, it's all fallen through.
I found out that the buyer had suddenly decided to buy a different holiday lodge (I'm smelling a rat by now as the park owns other lodges for sale..). I complained...got nowhere.

Now to the last week. My estate agent called me with bad news. He was not going to represent me any further because the same thing happened with a different buyer/seller. The estate agent organised viewings etc...got them into the sales office at Finlake...woosh, the buyer suddenly chooses a different lodge.

I can go to another estate agent (unless Finlake's potential bad reputation has already been noticed..) but if the sales team at Finlake can offer other lodges at a lower price (or a better lodge at the same price), what chance have I got of ever selling??

I need some legal advice on where to go to get this resolved. I want to sell quite badly to re-invest my money (sale price is +£85k...a substantial sum for me), but I don't see a way to do this. The park restrict viewings, don't allow a 'for sale' sign outside the lodge and you have to go through their sales team to get a sale.

Help!

Zero. So offer yours at a lower price and sell via them.

davidmcn

Nona wrote: »

I need some legal advice on where to go to get this resolved.

What makes you think there's a legal solution here? You can't stop buyers from finding out about a more competitively-priced alternative.

Nona

davidmcn wrote: »

What makes you think there's a legal solution here? You can't stop buyers from finding out about a more competitively-priced alternative.

They only find out about other offers once myself and the estate agent have done all of the running around (advertised online and in the estate agents, arranged viewings, then discussed/agreed a sale price).

My buyer went through all of the T&C's over the phone with the park and were ready to sign the paperwork with the sales team to buy MY property...then it's all fallen through.

Nona

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Zero. So offer yours at a lower price and sell via them.

I recently tried this...they didn't offer at all. They only said that the most they have paid for an owner's lodge is approx £30k less than my sale price.

I have monitored prices at the park (and at other parks in the south-west) and it's consistent with those for sale.

AdrianC

It clearly isn't consistent with other sales on YOUR park, since you know that they're selling cheaper than yours is up for...