How we began our search

After first deciding which area we wanted to live in we trawled the internet, looking at properties on many, many different websites to find that unlike estate agents in the UK most of the properties can be bought through many different agents?

We also found that many of the properties that were advertised as available, were not! they were either sold, sometimes months ago or the agent couldn't get hold of the seller etc. etc, very disappointing when you only have limited time in the country. When you are searching from another country you only have the internet and/or pictures as a guide and you do set your heart on certain properties, not a good idea with hindsight but then isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?

We had a vision... sometimes you do need one!

Where was it to be?

Albatera

Carefully we considered many different areas, driving miles from one place to another to see how it felt and our main criteria being Schooling for our three children, to see what facilities there were. We had two children who would go to main stream Spanish school (as we and they felt they were young enough to cope with this) and the eldest to go a private school which followed the English curriculum. As he would eventually be studying for his A levels, a bit too much to ask, we thought, to learn a completely new language at this important time of his education.

Obviously this being so, it narrowed our search down quite a bit as there are not many International Schools in the part of Spain we initially preferred which was a little bit further south. With hindsight and with time on our side we also realised that we would have been too far away from civilisation over in inland Murcia. We also had to consider the time and distance of travel that would be necessary on a daily basis taking into consideration that we would have three children all probably at different schools!

After our initial few visits to Spain we found the area that we felt most fitted our criteria and this we had to do more or less alone as out of the five different agents that we chose from to show us property only one could tell us anything about the schools in the area and that was only because she herself had children of school age. To be fair she was very good, she was English and spoke fluent Spanish, she worked for an agent and was really helpful. Marie Anne you know who you are if you ever read this site! she was the only the only one.

We found to our surprise that we actually knew more about the schools and the whereabouts of them from our own investigations than any of the others put together. Not very helpful really when this advice is just as necessary as that of the property you choose when you are relocating lock, stock and barrel with a young family. No-one it seemed could tell us the correct procedure to get the children enrolled in the schools in the area we chose but with help from the Spanish guy who we ended up by luck buying our house through we managed to get all the necessary paperwork to carry out certain procedures that are necessary here to become a fully fledged member of the Padron! more about that and schools and enrolment on other pages of the site.......

Why so difficult to get informed help?

We are not saying that all agents are the same. But unfortunately for us we didn't come across any that could really help us with all our requirements as far as the house was concerned. One agent who we had booked for the entire day and promised to show us about six properties, showed us only one! and this was not even one that we had asked to see. All the ones we expected to view were in fact already sold or had never been available when we asked about them but no-one had thought it necessary to inform us beforehand. We may then have been able to pick out a few more, obviously the agents knew this before we arrived! After confirming our arrival and plans only days before. Maybe they thought we were not serious! For this reason alone you need to have up to date information and someone reliable who you can depend on to find this out for you. You need all your spare money to set up here so you can ill afford to waste it on trips that are not fruitful.

We will never know why we didn't get this service, and if we were just very unlucky or perhaps lucky because here we are today!  

I would strongly advise that a decision to purchase a property should be made over several visits. The initial one or two visits even possibly being just to find the right area, obviously if you found the house and area of your dreams on your first visit then all well and good. All I’m emphasising is that this is a big decision and not one to be made lightly and often you go home and think of things that you had not thought about before which could make a big difference to your final decision.

Never part with any deposit either until you are sure that everything is in order and a wise thing to do would be to get an independant  solicitor to do this. There is no reason why you need to pay a deposit whilst you are here no matter what any agent says, as you sometimes in the cold light of day think of something you had not thought about when you had not got your feet firmly on the ground. It is quite easy in this day and age to send a deposit over when you have had time to consider and reflect. Obviously if you see the house of your dreams and you are 110% sure then by all means I am just saying it is not something you have to do unless you are sure! 

If you would like more information on how we can help with intitial advice to help you realize YOUR dream please do not hesitate to email us here

BE VERY SURE

As sure as you can be, the taxes when buying property here are high and it is not to be taken lightly! You need to be as sure as you possibly can, I cannot emphasize enough how important this is! To find yourself in the wrong house only a year on will present you with more taxes when you sell so be very careful!

Buying a property is not a short term project and you could end up, if you have to sell a short time later, only recovering your costs if you are lucky! If you are not sure about an area then renting may be a viable option, I know it's money that you will not get back but it is better if you have any doubts to rent for a short time first just to see if the location is right for you.

We were sure or were we lucky?

We saw our property with three agents, not purposely, but we eventually fell in love with it well actually the minute I laid eyes upon it, and if I am totally honest I have never loved a house I have lived in like this one! Anyway we ended up buying it, but ... all the agents had the property on at different prices! This was a surprise to us although we were catching on to how it worked, some of the agents were showing us around the house telling us about the property having only just laid eyes on it themselves!!

Eventually, after having two offers refused through the cheapest agent, we found it was still over our budget. Unfortunately whilst we were very very disappointed (actually I was heartbroken and couldn't look at another property in a positive light) we could not go any higher and this meant we had to resume our search. This particular agent also failed to know anything about the schools in the catchment’s area, but we still came back and had a look around ourselves. 

On the penultimate day of this trip we were lucky enough to be introduced, through some friends we had made on a previous visit to Spain, to a local Spanish agent who by some stroke of sheer luck took us to see the very same property which was destined to be our new home. Believe it or not this time it was within our budget! I was so excited Paul had to keep digging me in the ribs as I was obviously seeming too keen and Paul, ever the salesman wanted to do a deal.

We agreed a price and time scale. It is normal to give a deposit to secure the sale and then a final deposit later on a mutually agreeable date, unlike the UK if either party backs out you could either loose your deposit or be paid by the seller double the deposit for the inconvenience if they back out.

As the property was (Spanishly) totally reformed and not quite finished the sale took just over two months from start to finish which luckily coincided with the completion of our sale in the UK, this is what I meant by lucky, ( I cannot believe we did this, you see this does not always happen and a sale here can go through very quickly). So with a hell of a lot riding on it if we put a deposit down, just 2000 euros as this was all we could come up with at the time. You see, like I tell my clients I had not intended to put any money down on a house this trip.  So in this case it might be an idea to take this into consideration when coming over and be in a position to actually put a deposit down if absolutely necessary to avoid disappointment if you find the house of your dreams.

How we found help initially

Once we bought our home we were more or less on our own after the agents had bid their farewells at the notary, apart from the help from a few people we met through the sale, a Spanish guy called Jose who had made our house ready for sale I could say reformed but thats stretching it a bit when you see the workmanship!!! not the agent though, he was really good, he helped us apply for NIE's later (we didnt need them to buy when we bought) the law has changed now though. He helped us get the children sorted with schools, medical cards etc and through talks about our experiences and that of our friends here in Spain we have decided there is a great need for good honest advice when buying a property in Spain.

I expected to be able to ask agents for advice not to know more myself than some of them did. Why should I not get at least this when the agent that sells me a house is going to get paid for selling it? Surely it is his duty to know more than me? At least I expected him to know the house and if it fitted our criteria, anyone can take someone out and show them a bunch of houses that don't suit and they do!

And now because of our experience we can help you too...just drop us an email