Feeling really desperate now - Buyer renaging on Sale

ps and we paid £80k for it 12 years ago.

"She would have done much better if she had bought a second hand home. "
petra that's what I was thinking too. The finances don't add up.
Taking into account currency exchange - £145000 is between 165-180k€.
Which is the price for which we sold our french house in Feb. A large centrally heated 3 bed house with extensive barns and half hectare of land.

I am sorry for the understandable distress and worry this is causing you.

Are you willing to recover what you can of the initial outlay, even if the shortfall on the buying price is very great? In that, would even 15 or 20 thousand back of the initial 135 be better than nothing?

Would you consider asking your sales agent to go back to the people who viewed the home previously and tell them you would consider lower offers? It wouldn't require more viewings (probably) - it would be a possibility worth exploring if you need and want to offload it at any cost?

Do you have any English speaking friends on the site who could show people round? Even if you pay them to do so? Have you tried advertising yourself on lots of internet sites? Do you have lots of photos of the home and the site it is on? Could one of your younger family members help with advertising? If no other option, you could go to the press and get them to run a story on your problems which might be good advertising for your sale.

petra I came to the same conclusion as you.

Sadly for the OP this was never going to work as an investment for retirement at any age let alone for a couple in their eighties was it? The figures would never have stacked up.

Ironically even with interest rates on savings still being so low, they would have been better putting the £135,000 in a building society account. Ok the money wouldn't have increased a lot but at least it would still be intact, and they certainly wouldn't have lost over £40,000 !

The best option now though as most on here have said, is to wait til the Spring then advertise it at a lower rate.

Similar thing happened to us here in the U.K. glamma and we had to pay 5% of the selling price to the site .

If the site is run as they are in Spain and I think it will be when and if a sale is acheived a large percentage will have to be paid to the Agents who run the site,that will have to be factured into any sale price the OPs will receive.
It may be a 5* site but not everyone wants or uses the facilities and will opt for cheaper 2nd hand homes on the site.
I do think the OP should look at the replies offered and be thankful that people took the time to try and offer her help.

Here's another site to advertise on:
www.pap.fr/annonce/mobil-home-vendre-3
And notice the prices are in euros, not sterling.

Who invests in a retirement fund where by her own admittance you will loose £48,000 in 2yrs.
Bought for £135,000, sell 2 yrs later for £95,000 + 2yrs site fees £8,000.
The OP knows that her and her husband didn't think this through and needs to blame someone.
She would have done much better if she had bought a second hand home. Maybe 5yrs old where all the profit has been taken out of it.

Some people are being too hard on the OP.
I think that posters were being kind and as helpful as they could be with the information they had.

Speaking from experience, Fees of £4000 are not unusual in the UK (I cannot speak for France or anywhere else) . Our caravan fees were due in 1st January and we didn’t have 2 beans to rub together so we were forced to sell to the highest......... well only, bidder. It broke my heart . I’m still paying the shortfall of the loan we took out to buy the caravan that was supposed to be our bolt hole. The place that kept us sane and away from “that god forsaken place....work” .

Some people are being too hard on the OP.

I agree that the poster has been rather rude to people who have been generally making helpful suggestions and even scaring their own experiences. We are all sorry for the predicament you find yourself in but to be honest buying such an expensive mobile home in your 80s with an over optimistic idea of what it would sell for 2 years later was hellishly risky.

This is a sad situation and I sympathise. My suggestion, for what it’s worth, try to forget this until after Christmas. Put it out of your mind, on the back burner and try to enjoy your Christmas. Worrying will not rsolve anything and who knows, if your DH is so ill he needs to have less stress and worry.

Then in Spring put it on the market at a reduced price. One that will sell. You nearly sold once, you can do it again. Better to have something than lose all your retirement fund.

If the OP is genuine then I apologise for doubting her.

However, posters were trying to be helpful given the facts as presented to them and to be rude to them is not helpful, desperate or not.

I think the op's tone is a reflection of the desperation she is feeling. Wish I had some helpful advice but I am afraid the only solution is to sell at a greater loss than you had hoped. Please don't walk away with nothing if it can be at all avoided. Could you take a loan to pay this year's site fees. If that is possible it would give you the summer months to sell. Better to lose the £4000 site fees than the whole van. On sites where renting isn't allowed sometimes informal renting goes on because friends and family only are allowed to use the van. As far as the site is concerned friends/family/friends of friends are staying free (as allowed) but rent paid directly to you.

Best I can suggest op but I deeply sympathise with your predicament.

Leboncoin - we sold lots of things on there and they have a section for ventes immobiliers, by dept.

It is not helpful of you to come back on here and to be rude to people who are offering suggestions to you.

Also you will achieve nothing as long as you have the attitude that the situation is hopeless. It isn't.

You can sell ANYTHING - at the right price. It has been on the market for 20 months, which suggests to me that it was overpriced to start with.

Ebay? Advertise it as a bargain. Let's face it if you get something for it you will have cut your losses and get out of the site fees.

?

I hope this isn't another one of Those Threads.

The OP's name is familiar - she's been around for a long time, plus has come back to explain things further.

I hope this isn't another one of Those Threads.

Pantomime season?

I was wondering that petra - someone who has unwisely got themselves in a financial mess, asking for help, then getting annoyed with posters who try to help.

Who invests in something which they know will lose value when they are 80?

I hope this isn't another one of Those Threads.

I'd engage a solicitor considering the value involved. It's not something that I'd tackle singly as an elderly person.

Well said petra. I thought she was quite rude.

cheneslieges132
Why are you now having a pop at people who I think have been very kind and supportive in their replies.
You made the choice to buy a home in France in your 'later years' knowing that your 'time' would be limited with these long drives and the time you would have with the mobile home.
It's not other people's fault that you made a poor financial decision.

I appreciate your distress cheneslieges but I think there have been some attempts at sympathetic and helpful suggestions.
Do think about at least considering to salvage something from this awful predicament.