Selling Tony's Swift Kon-Tiki Sport 599: a 23-day motorhome sale, in full

The Kon-Tiki Sport 599 is near the top of Swift's coachbuilt range: a 4-berth, low-profile motorhome on an automatic Fiat Ducato base, with a rear fixed island bed and a long list of premium kit. Tony's was meticulously kept - full Fiat main-dealer service history, every habitation check done, Truma air-conditioning, Alde central heating, solar panels, two televisions and a bike rack. It had covered only around 12,400 miles.

Crucially, it had been used, and loved. The photographs Tony supplied tell their own story: pitched by canals and coastlines, on continental hillsides, under the stars. This was not a forecourt trade-in; it was a private owner's pride and joy, and that is exactly the kind of motorhome a private buyer will pay a proper price for.

When Tony came back to us in April, he assumed Motorhome Pig was going to buy the motorhome from him and sell it on for a profit - a dealer model. In fact, brokerage (or “assisted private sale”) is different: the motorhome stays the seller's, and stays with them, while we advertise it, screen the buyers, handle the negotiation and manage a safe completion - for a success-only fee. It took a phone call and a read of the agreement for it to click.

Rather than gloss over the confusion, our team walked him through it in plain terms: a cash or trade price would be around £50,000; the retail route, sold privately through us, could realistically return him significantly more. That honesty - including being upfront that the cash price was lower - is what built the trust.

There was no waiting for a broker to drive out and inspect it. Tony uploaded the photos he had, our team edited them to a professional standard, and the listing was live and syndicated the same day - while every other route he'd tried still had him waiting for callbacks.

He was an engaged seller, too, and the dashboard made that easy: he spotted a couple of spec details to correct, flagged them politely, and the team updated the advert the same day. Then, on 16 April, he filmed a one-take walkaround of the whole motorhome. Video is the single biggest difference between a listing that gets browsed and one that gets bought - and in this case it did the closing.

This is the bit private sellers underestimate. Fielding lowball offers, judging who's serious, holding your nerve on price, not letting a pushy buyer rattle you - it's stressful, and it's where deals get given away. Max did all of it on Tony's behalf: he took the £55,000 part-exchange offer, advised it needed to come up, and worked it to £57,000–£58,000; he took the £58,000 cash offer from Scotland and put Tony's counter of £59,000 back across. Tony could weigh each one calmly, with the numbers and a steady voice on the other end of the phone.

That buffer is the whole point of the service. It keeps the seller out of the firing line and lets a professional - who does this every day - protect the price.

Tony had assumed the full amount would come to him and he'd then have to pay the fee - which would have meant handling a stranger's commission himself. Instead, the buyer settled the £3,599 fee with Motorhome Pig directly, and transferred Tony his part. When Tony double-checked with Max that he owed nothing further, the answer was simple: “no, we've already got it.” He said afterwards he actually preferred it that way.

A fortnight after the sale, Gary rang Tony to ask, honestly, how the service had felt from the seller's side. The conversation is reproduced below, lightly edited for length and clarity, and shared with Tony's explicit permission - “you feel free to use any of that.”

Unprompted, Tony also left this five-star review on Google. We reproduce it in full, exactly as he wrote it.