Re-sale mobile homes in Spain.
What does FSBO mean in the mobile home for sale listing?
For Sale By Owner is the answer. When you see FSBO on a listing online it means you are buying the home directly from the owner.
As in the UK, the buying and selling of a mobile home is an open market here in Spain. The park owners (nor anyone else who comes to that) cannot force a valuation on the seller. The seller will always be the one who decides what they think their home is worth.
Market place:
The open market system works. If the seller overprices their home it does not sell, it is as simple as that. The park and agents can and do offer market value advice, though, based on what is selling.
If a correctly priced home has a potential buyer that likes the home after viewing it they will no doubt offer what they think it is worth. An offer for the home based on the asking price. If the seller accepts the offer, then the sale process begins.
A signed offer sheet and a 200€ payment instantly removed the home from sale.
The home itself is of course in Spain on a Spanish park. The owner sells the home with the right to assign a Spanish park contract. The park contract relating to the sale is subject to Spanish law and has an English translation.
Are solicitors involved? Not required for any sale to take place in the park of course but not discouraged at all. Buyers are very welcome to use a solicitor/lawyer if they so wish at their expense.
On rare occasions, it has been a UK solicitor (acting for the buyer selling their UK property) making the final payment to the seller. The payment made using funds from the UK sale. Both the UK property sale and the mobile home sale in Spain completing on the same day. We liaise with the solicitors when that happens.
The park contract and owners:
A mobile home sold within a residential-style park (without actually moving) makes life easy. This is because ownership of the home is easily transferred based on the park contract that the current owner has already signed. They go hand in hand.
On Park La Posada and Corrales Park, only the owner of a mobile home can have a rolling park contract assigned to the plot the home is on.
The system also ensures that there is a full history regarding ownership of any home from the moment it arrives as a new home in the park.
The system works perfectly because any buyer then knows exactly who they are buying the home from, what they are buying and, of course, exactly where it is.
Paperwork:
The Padron registration (town hall) and residencia (Police) come after the sale. The documents obtained by the park are free of charge for all new residents/owners as part of the complete Retire to Spain package. That ensures a change of ownership is also registered in Spain.
Thanks to the “owners only” park contract system it means that a Sales Agreement by Private Arrangement “SAPA” document (originally prepared by solicitors in the UK) is used as a means of transferring ownership.
The SAPA document sets out the terms and conditions for the sale. The park and park agents oversee that the agreed legally binding terms between the seller and the buyer within the SAPA.
The park contract changes hands at the same time on completion. The new owners take possession of the rolling park contract in their name.
The cost of preparing a SAPA document is part of the 200€ paid to reserve a home and take it off the market as per the offer sheet. That is the only process that takes place during a park visit. Everything else takes place once the visitors have returned home.
