beware of estate agents - Page 4

Not as bad as when Atlus international (also known as Medsea and had other associated names/companies) charged 20% commissions, right under the nose of the government, who were too busy looking the other way.

I took a job working for an estate agent when I came to Spain, purely to understand how the market (and estate agents/developers work).  It absolutely disgusted me, or the company I worked with for starters - Spanish homes just for you. Utterly immoral.

I was asked to sell a property to an elderly gentleman, who had an advanced illness, only a few years to live. On his 'wish list' was a quiet apartment, with mountain views. I knew exactly what we / agent - had in stock & knew the perfect apartment. Took the client there, he was happy - job done, or so I thought.

Went back to see my boss - who tells me 'you can't sell him that apartment' - I say 'why'? He says 'because you need to sell him a different one nearby' - WHICH WE EARN MORE COMMISSION ON. I  say 'those apartments you suggest back on to nightclubs, noisy & exactly what the client does not want', he didn't care - I wouldn't comply as thought it was disgusting and greedy behaviour.

I next tried to fight the case with a developer of a client who had been promised a garage on a new build, they'd fudged the paperwork and basically the client, was not going to get his garage, that he'd thought paid for. I stood toe to toe with the developer, telling them they could not behave this way  - the answer 'what do you care, you have your commission'?  Well that may have been true (or would have been if the crook had paid me), but that's not the point, I also thought I was there to help 'my clients'.

After a year of this farce and studying the Spanish property market, I decided to bail & simply could not abide the type of people, no crooks, I had to deal with. 

I'm sure there are some decent and honest agents out there - the problem is, no one qualifies you in this, there's little recompense if you have been misled and worst of all the lawyers in Spain, many are of not great. I've seen so many errors from a long list of lawyers, I wouldn't know where to begin - the first thing is to check everything, ask every question and do so in writing. Or better still take the advice of someone you know who has lived in Spain for a while, who has no hidden agenda ;-)

We went against every rule in the book while purchasing

We knew nothing of the area 

The agents took us the the solicitor they recommended 

They then took us to the bank they recommended 

I don't know if we were just lucky, I honestly can't rate them high enough, we were refused a mortgage after paying our 3k deposit on the property and they worked their butts off along with the solicitor to get us a mortgage,we got approved by another bank, but we couldn't complete before the deadline and they kept us in the know every step of the way, we finally collected the keys last week, on arriving at the apt they had stocked our fridge with beer for him and bought me a beautiful gift for the apt, they have contacted us since we arrived home wishing us well and if there's anything we need help with in the future, we've to contact them, I honestly can't rate them high enough,from the minute we showed an interest in the property they worked hard, they collected us from the airport, drove us to where we needed to be ( bank/solicitor/NIE) after we had done the legal stuff they dropped us off where we wanted to be, came back and picked us up and drove us back to the airport for our flight home, outstanding service!

You were very lucky what nationality were they

I am really interested on what grounds you say never trust an Estate Agent? I have been on the wrong side of an Estate Agent but I have learnt but I would not lump them a into the same pot.

It is so easy to allow one or two bad apples ruin the crop but why? It feels very judgemental and somewhat closed thinking. I just give a wide birth to the not so great people in this life and cherish the good ones.

Honesty always wins and karma takes care of the rest.

Gillian 

They were British ( have been in Spain for around 15 years) I had asked within groups on FB and every single person advised against buying blindly, we took a big chance and it's paid off, at no point from start to finish were we worried at all

Except the ones that are in co hoots with the Agent and mysteriously 13k gets 'lost'.

It is just do your own due diligence.

Even the written legal completion statement was given wrong to me to ease me to buy.

Karma will win in the end.