Estate Agents

CGI in Guardamar. Just down from the Mercadona. Highly recommended 

Thanks you I’ll check them out 

Hi Cathy,

We bought our house from Casas Manuel, albeit via our own agent, Live Spain for Life (Sharon Richard's, fabulous agent).  Unfortunately, Casas Manuel are one of the agents that still try to get buyers to pay the so-called "Reservation Deposit" when your offer is accepted on one of their properties.  They became quite aggressive with me when I refused to pay them €3,000.  Fortunately, I'd exchanged email addresses with the vendor, so agreed with her that we would pay this amount to our lawyer, as an act of good faith, who included a clause in the draft contract that, should the sale not proceed, the €3,000 would be returned to us.

Casa Manuel are by no means the only estate agent that try this on, even though there is no basis for the "Reservation Deposit" in Spanish conveyancing law, so be prepared to stand your ground.  Whoever you do buy through, my top tips are to engage your own, independent lawyer, not one tied to the estate agent, and never pay any money to the agent, only to your independent lawyer.  Once they've done the searches and agreed the contract with the vendors' lawyer, they will advise you when you need to pay the legally binding 10% deposit - in our case, that was 10% of the purchase price, minus the €3,000 we had already paid to our own lawyer.

Kind regards,

Kim

That’s interesting thanks Kim. Casa Manuel said to me that they don’t charge any fees and to beware of any estate agents charging fees!!! You have to be so careful. If you don’t mind I may need to pm about this going forward I’m only at the search stage at the moment! Thanks. Cathy

Hi Cathy,

Yes, of course, no problem for me with PMs.

By the way, in theory, Casas Manuel aren't actually charging you a fee by asking for this "Reservation deposit" - if the sale proceeds to completion, any money you may be persuaded to pay them should be included in the settlement account.  However, there have been many examples of agents taking these deposits from buyers and then, if the sale doesn't proceed, the prospective purchaser has struggled to get the selling agent to return their money.  It's the way some agents get buyers, as well as vendors, to cover the agents' costs, because they will eventually charge the vendor a fee once the property is sold - two bites of the same cherry.  It's the vendor who has a contractual relationship with their selling agent, not any prospective purchasers, so don't be pressured to paying anything to an agent.  Coincidentally, just a couple of weeks ago, one of our members, Robbie73, reported being caught out by this - see their comment about half way down this thread:

Coming Over this Month on a scouting trip

I don't know which agent Robbie73 used, but they may be happy to share that information with you if you send them a PM.

Kind regards,

Kim

Thanks I’ll “study” that thread!!

The reservation deposit has become a tool used by agents to work out who has a serious intention to buy.  I’ve seen cases with people putting offers in on different places at the same time  to see which they could barter down lowest and then pulling out of the other two.  Investors / builders are very guilty of that. It wastes a lot of time and energy and makes the vendors a tad angry. 

The amount of reservation deposit is negotiable, usually. You can counter suggest an amount. Just say it’s all you have access to at the moment.  If your best offer is rejected by the vendor your money should be immediately returned . If it is accepted , the sale proceeds and your deposit is offset against the final balance owing. 

Hi, we completed on a Guardamar property in December. We used Casas Manuel. I couldn’t fault them. Nothing was too much trouble. Swift responses to our questions and they arranged for the removal of the unwanted furniture that was left behind. 

Hi thanks for the reply. Do you mind me asking but did you use a solicitor recommended by Casas Manuel or your own one? I know it’s always best to use your own independent one but sometimes it depends. Thanks. Cathy