Is this a fair price for our Caravan??

[Rosie]

We have been trying to sell our ABI Arizona (2004) since spring this year. It is a lovely caravan, in excellent condition and fully equipped for letting. There has been some interest but people are put off by the site fees. We now have it on sale including this year's site fees and have reduced the price. I have also e-mailed a trader. He has offered us £5000. Should we accept it? What do other people think?

[dasboot]

I have seen them sited for way more but i have also heard of traders offering way less than five grand if its to be taken off site.I don't know the details of your site fees but i'm sure you could sell it for more than that privately

[Teakbank12]

New owners normally have to pay site fees even if you've already paid.
A caravan is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.
When we decide to sell we shall sell to a trader & only have to pay the site disconnection fees.

[stu1]

We have been trying to sell our ABI Arizona (2004) since spring this year. It is a lovely caravan, in excellent condition and fully equipped for letting. There has been some interest but people are put off by the site fees. We now have it on sale including this year's site fees and have reduced the price. I have also e-mailed a trader. He has offered us £5000. Should we accept it? What do other people think?

Hi Rosie!....do you have to pay commission to the site if the trader buys it?

Atb Stu

[Teakbank12]

Hi Rosie!....do you have to pay commission to the site if the trader buys it?

Atb Stu

Stu
You only pay the site commission if it is sold onsite to stay onsite, not when a trader takes it from the car park loading area.

[Rosie]

Thanks for your replies.

We actually included this year's site fees in the sale price. We have reduced the sale price as well! We didn't include the commission plus VAT as it would mean we would actually only be getting about £6,700 ourselves for the caravan. If a dealer would give us £6400 we would definitely sell to a dealer. Considering the caravan cost over £18,000 when bought in June 2009, and has been really well looked after, it would be a bargain for anyone buying it at that price. The problem is people are put off when we tell them what the site fees etc are.

With regard to site fees it annoys me that we have paid our site fees for the full year but these are not transferrable (and we don't get any refund if we sell after June) but to try to sell the caravan we offer to pay the site fees again for the purchaser!! It's great isn't it!!

[DianeW]

Our site had already been paid half of the site fees by the sellers when we purchased our van Feb 11, in a private sale, even though we had to be approved by the site, and they did all of the agreement etc. But all we had to pay was the other half of the fees, no mention of them not being transferable.

I guess all sites work differently, i wish you luck with your sale, hope you get the best price you can.

[nudzy1001]

Hun if you dont mind me asking, how much are your site fees, because thats what put people off when buying on our site, ours are between £2100 and £3700 depending on our pitch.
We were thinking of selling ours to a dealer.

[DianeW]

No dont mind at all.....our fees are £1750 + VAT, then extra is rates, water rates, gas and electric, plus your insurance.

[Rosie]

I sympathize with you nudzy1001 you are in the same situation as us. Our caravan is excellent and worth much more than it is advertised for but, as you say, people are put off by the site fees. Our site also charges more in site fees to someone who buys privately. We paid £2600 in site fees but whoever buys our caravan from us will have to pay £3176!! I can't understand why site owners charge so much because in the end we will probably have to sell to a trader and the caravan will be removed from the site.

[treetopper]

Rosie,1st of all sorry you selling your van.At the moment it is a buyers market.
We have always put our sites fees away monthly.... that way we would sell at the end of a season ,and have the price of what we would get for van + site fees in our back pocket.

[Angela B]

As I understand MY site's conditions, are that if you have paid your site fees in full, you get the remainder back that you don't use so to speak... hurray... a positive!:D
Alot of owners pay their fees on a monthly basis (a charge is incurred, not sure how much though)

Good luck Rosie, for me, on my site, at the beginning of the season, it was a little disconcerting to see lots of caravans for sale, and loads of empty pitches... Now, there are just a few left, and only a handful of pitches left!
Caravan prices start with older one's (1994)from £4000 to a brand new one for £32,000:eek: Funnily enough the cheaper one's sell quite quickly, it's the one's around the £9 to £15,000 that are hanging around...
There are some quite major changes to our site rules being made lately (I am pleased to say) so it will be interesting to see who goes and who stays...

[treetopper]

Our site fees are pro rata on termination up to june then zero.I would back up what Angela has said re vans selling,must be staycation .

[Rosie]

Hi Angela, I'm quite surprised to hear you say that there are only a few caravans for sale on your site and only a few pitches. On our site I have never seen so many caravans up for sale (the site owners are actually putting for sale signs in the empty caravan windows which I haven't known before). Of course the site owners are allowed to put sale signs in the windows whereas private sellers (like me) aren't allowed to do so! Probably because private sellers ask a lot less for their caravans than the site owners and that wouldn't look too good would it? The site owners also make it more difficult for private sellers by not offering a discount on site fees to the buyers. I can't quite figure out why they do this because surely they would prefer to have someone buy the caravan and remain on the site rather than forcing the private seller to sell to a trader who would then remove the caravan from the site.
There are actually some really good static caravans around at the moment at low prices - if people can just afford the site fees.

[chelseagirl]

We have had 5 old vans "leave" over the last month. The owners have bought newer vans to go on those pitches and they have all sold bar one. Prices ranged between 8K and 12K and the only one left is the 8K one, possibly because it is smaller than the rest as it had to go on a pitch that a 28 x 10 came off. Couldnt fit a bigger one on!!!!