What does "coming to market" mean, and what does reserving a plot commit you to?

What is actually for sale when a home is a plot?

Three things, and it is worth separating them. The plot itself, which is a marked position on the park with services run to it. The model of home that will stand on it, which you can walk through at a show home elsewhere. And the price, which covers both together.

What you cannot do is inspect the home you will own, because it is not standing yet. The photographs on a listing like that are of the same model elsewhere, or they are the maker's own renders. Both are labelled as such on this site. If a photograph on any listing is not clear about which it is, ask.

Most of this site is not in that position. Prices on the sited homes run from £200,000 to £350,000, and the spread is size and park rather than finish. A 44 by 14 home at Marwell Court and a 56 by 22 at Beechwood Park meet the same standard.

The four exceptions are one Faraday on order for Marwell Court and three homes allocated to Beechwood Park that are still in a yard. The yard homes have no plot, no price and no bedroom count recorded, so they are not listed as homes for sale at all. Ask the sales team what is coming rather than reading a page about it.

What does a reservation fee hold?

The plot, and only the plot. It takes the position off the market while the park prepares your paperwork. It is not a deposit on the home and it is not a contract to buy one.

What arrives next is the set of documents that actually decides whether you go ahead. The licence or the Mobile Homes Act agreement. The park rules. The pitch fee schedule. And, on a residential home, the written statement the Act requires. All of it has to be in your hands at least 28 days before anyone asks for a signature.

That 28 days is the point of the whole process. It exists so you can read the agreement with a solicitor rather than at a desk in a sales office. Use it. We tell every buyer to take legal advice and we mean it.

What can you still change before the home is built?

More than on a finished home, and less than on a house. The model is fixed once ordered, so the shell, the room layout and the window positions are not yours to move. Inside, the maker offers choices on kitchen units, worktops, flooring and soft furnishings, and those are open until the build slot is confirmed.

Outside the home, the park controls what happens on the plot. Steps, skirting, the deck, the parking surface and the garden all get agreed before siting. Ask for that list in writing, and ask what is in the guide price. This is where a quoted price and a final invoice part company.

What you cannot change is the plot you picked. Positions differ in aspect, in how much the deck gets the sun, and in how near the road runs. Walk the plot before you reserve it, not after.

How long does it take from reservation to keys?

For a home already in stock, six to ten weeks is normal. The time goes on the paperwork rather than on the building: the 28-day window, the searches, and the park's own siting schedule.

For a home built to order it is longer. The honest answer is that it depends on the maker's order book rather than on us. Ask the park for the build slot and the siting date in writing when you reserve, and ask what happens if either moves.

Plots on a park that has not opened wait on the park, not the home. Where that is the case the park page says so. We would rather tell you the gates are shut than take a reservation nobody can hold.

What should you ask before you reserve a plot you cannot see?

Five questions, in this order. What exactly is in the guide price, item by item. What the pitch fee is, and when it is next reviewed. What the consent on the land allows, because that is what decides whether you may live there. What the park takes in commission when you sell. And what happens to your reservation fee if you pull out, or if the build date slips.

Every one of those has a written answer. If an answer comes back as a number on a phone call and nothing else, ask for it by email. A figure nobody will put in writing is a figure that is going to change.

On this site the pitch fee is £5,000 a year on a holiday plot and £3,000 on a residential one. The pitch fee guide explains what each covers and how a review works.