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Thinking about buying a place in Costa Blanca

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:47am
10 replies319 views5 members subscribed
harryspotter

Posts: 2

Location: Altea

Joined: 8 Jul 2020

Hi, off to Spain next month to have a look around.  Started wondering how we do this? Spending a week in the North, Alicante.  Then a week in Guadamar.

How do we know where to buy?

How do we arrange viewings?

Anyone have any suggestions of a plan of action?

Mark

Jeff22

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 7:42am

Jeff22

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Posts: 109

151 helpful points

Location: Altea

Joined: 7 Oct 2017

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 7:42am

harryspotter wrote on Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:47am:

Hi, off to Spain next month to have a look around.  Started wondering how we do this? Spending a week in the North, Alicante.  Then a week in Guadamar.

How do we know where to buy?

How do we arrange viewings?

Anyone have any suggestions of a plan of action?

Mark

Hi Mark

When we were looking for a home in Spain we had already decided what town we wanted to live in, Altea. We had comprised a tick list of must have's, location, garage, pool, space etc. 

Before coming out to view properties I searched the internet and used many different sites belonging to individual estate agents. I found that most properties were on the web sties of more than one agent, also their sites are not always updated and more often than not the properties were already sold. 

A generic site I found very useful was  https://www.idealista.com/en/venta-viviendas/altea-alicante/mapa-google I liked to use the search facility via their map as this allowed us to check out location.

Once I comprised a list of possible properties I then emailed the agents to arrange for a viewing and also to check that it was still up for sale.

This worked for us and gave us the independence to choose what we wanted without the smooth talk from agents.

Hope this helps and good hunting

Jeff 

P.S Before coming out to veiw apply for a NIE number from the Spanish Embassy in UK as you will need this to purchase any property and check out Jim's Guides on this forum

Herefordjack

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 8:23am

Herefordjack

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Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 8:23am

Jeff22 wrote on Wed Jul 8, 2020 7:42am:

Hi Mark

When we were looking for a home in Spain we had already decided what town we wanted to live in, Altea. We had comprised a tick list of must have's, location, garage, pool, space etc. 

Before coming out to view properties I searched the internet and used many different sites belonging to individual estate agents. I found that most properties were on the web sties of more than one agent, also their sites are not always updated and more often than not the properties were already sold. 

A generic site I found very useful was  https://www.idealista.com/en/venta-viviendas/altea-alicante/mapa-google I liked to use the search facility via their map as this allowed us to check out location.

Once I comprised a list of possible properties I then emailed the agents to arrange for a viewing and also to check that it was still up for sale.

This worked for us and gave us the independence to choose what we wanted without the smooth talk from agents.

Hope this helps and good hunting

Jeff 

P.S Before coming out to veiw apply for a NIE number from the Spanish Embassy in UK as you will need this to purchase any property and check out Jim's Guides on this forum

All excellent advice. Another useful site is kyero.com.

When we were searching, we had already narrowed the area down to Denia and surrounds. We did a lot of internet research on property and estate agent websites, and then came over for a week to view about 18 properties with pre arranged appointments with estate agents. Take notes and photos as you go around, they all tend to blur into one otherwise!

Quality of agents (all British ex pat) varied from excellent and knowledgable to downright useless. They'll often try to fit in extra properties not on your list on the off chance, usually ones they are having trouble shifting.

Good luck.

Movingon

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 9:10am

Movingon

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Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 9:10am

"How do we know where to buy?"  

Honestly I don't know how you expect anybody being able to answer a question like that any more than if you'd asked about buying in UK? 

Your wants, needs, and priorities are unique to you so it's only you who can decide if a location or a property fulfils those, or to put it in the popular vernacular, 'ticks the boxes'. 

In any case the overwhelming majority of members here will have only ever lived in the one place in Spain so will BIASED towards - or perhaps against - that and in no real position to objectively advise on living anywhere else.

In my experience of some 13 years living in France and Spain buyers fall broadly into two camps:

- those who are open minded and instinctively know when they've found the place for them - and acted on it. 

- those who have such a strict and narrow vision of their 'dream' that they spend months if not years searching for something which in all probability doesn't even exist.

We're in the former and have never regretted our decisions, and FWIW in both cases ended up buying types of properties which hadn't even been on our radar at the outset! 

Good luck with your PARTICULAR and INDIVIDUAL search. 

Web Designer Guy

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 9:40am

Web Designer Guy

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Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 9:40am

Agree with above, most agents are useless. The vast majority blatantly lie to you, many... MANY... of the houses they market on their sites are not actually for sale, even more they've never actually seen or had contact with the owners, they've just "syndicated" (fancy talk for copied) houses from other agents sites and added them to their own. 

If you think some of the practices in the UK give agents a bad name, wait til to deal with the ones in Spain!

Less than 10% of them will respond to emails; my instinct is as soon as they sniff you are not in the locale and so able to "view tomorrow", they lose interest, fast.

I am going to get flack for this I suspect, but many are corrupt little toe-rags who will literally tell you anything to get a sale moving. And I'm not playing the Johnny-Foreigner card here, the many ex-pats who setup shop in Spain as agents are just as bad, if not worse. Bet advice is once you nail down an area hook up with the local agents, you'll soon suss out the good from the bad. We've got a small handful of agents we trust to the point we'd almost buy on their word. Almost ;-) But it's taken sifting through a lot of shit to get to these guys.

A really good tip (I think) is to hunt the agents who have the properties you like on social media. If they are active it's generally a good sign.

We're now at the end of a three-year journey, which started two years prior. In those three years we've visited Spain 4/5 times a year to research areas. As Jasmin would say, to "stand on the land". On one trip we racked up over 1000kms in a week driving around exploring. 

Our pattern was research online, find areas (villages/town) we liked, spend a LOT of time on Google Streetview wandering around. Then if we liked the look of things fly over and spend a week or so there. We have fallen in love with so many places, then fallen out of love with it once we get there. But that's the point of research. 

We've now settled on two villages where we plan to buy once the prices bottom, or get close to it. Ironically, we've not actually stayed in these villages, but we know them well as they are close to areas we've visited a lot. 

The point I'm trying to make is you will not find the perfect place over-night. Well, you might, but it's unlikely. It's more than likely going to take a lot of trips and an enormous amount of research. 

As Movingon said. It's likely the place you fall for will be nothing like the place you have in your mind at the start of the process. And that's what it is; a process. 

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Cheryl

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 9:58am

Cheryl

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Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 9:58am

August is the busiest month of the year when all the Spanish come to their homes on the coast and officialdom practically comes to a standstill. Many areas will look and feel totally different in February which won't matter too much if it is a holiday home but if for permanent living it could be an issue. You will see the coast road at it's worst (N332) and I can only suggest you do as Graham did and "walk the walk". If the beach is a top requirement then 30 minutes walk to and from in the blazing heat will not be pleasant.
We still don't know what is going to happen post Brexit and if the Spanish make it too difficult for Brits to move out here permanently there will be even more properties for sale and we haven't seen what Covid will have done to house prices yet.
The old saying "Buy in haste and repent at leisure" is particularly relevant at the moment. 

Kelvin1960

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:12pm

Kelvin1960

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Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:12pm

We did 2 reconnaissance trips. 

Trip 1 - on our own - bouncing around without much of a clue.

On the second trip, we met 2 agents. We found a location that seemed right for us - Campoverde. We spent time getting to understand that location ... facilities, amenities etc. We spent time in the cafes talking to people. We then knew what we liked/disliked.

Then we came back again, for 4 weeks. We spent the first 3 weeks systematically looking for a location that was better (for us) than Campoverde. We didn't. So in week 4 we looked at Campoverde houses again, and offered on our home.

I'm sure that our choice wouldn't be right for everyone, but we are satisfied that it was right for us. 

Regarding Estate Agents ... we found them to be pragmatic and sensible. The house we bought was next door to the agent's house. So maybe he had a vested interest in vetting us .... 

But no BS from either side ... we were upfront about our expectations, timescales, finances etc. They were clear about what was realistic/unrealistic. If you BS them, they will BS you, or humour you, or ignore you.

They get hundreds of email/online enquiries from clueless people who have little or no chance of buying anything, or even showing up to look at anything.

Angebadge

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:22pm

Angebadge

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Joined: 28 Jan 2019

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:22pm

Hi Harryspotter

Much good advice here and all of it relevant.

Movingon suggests most people here have only lived in one place in Spain. I’m therefore an exception to that as I had a home in Mojacar, Almeria before we upped sticks and came to Moraira.

It might give you something else to consider if I say why we moved

We’d holidayed, once, in the Moraira area, over thirty years ago and always thought how lovely it was. Twenty years later, friends bought near Mojacar and we visited them and again, thought it a lovely area

Mojacar has a lot to offer and we therefore bought a small townhouse, perfect for holidays. Fast forward a few years, retirement now on the agenda, along with the decision we would spent more time in Spain. The problem? Small townhouse! For a couple of weeks throughout the year it was great, however for more long term living, it was not practical for us. The advice? Make sure it’s future proof.

Although Mojacar Playa is quite green, Almeria province is a desert. Where I live in the U.K. I’m used to rolling green hills and it was something I realised I couldn’t live without. Moraira is hilly and green and satisfied that need

For the first year we were in Mojacar, we flew into Almeria from our regional airport. Ryanair was to only airline that did. What happened next? Ryanair pulled that route. To fly from the same regional airport we had to fly to Alicante, two and a half hours away. That became the proverbial b*** ache ( my husbands description😂), particularly if we came on the late flight. 

As others have said, so much can be done online. If you add Google earth with street view into the mix, you can really start to get a feel for places.

My last point is, as anyone here will tell you, buying and selling in Spain is very expensive, so if you can get it right first time, fantastic

Take your time and the very best of luck. Welcome to the forum🤪🥂



Web Designer Guy

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:41pm

Web Designer Guy

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Posts: 199

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Location: Sax

Joined: 6 Feb 2020

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:41pm

They get hundreds of email/online enquiries from clueless people who have little or no chance of buying anything, or even showing up to look at anything.

That's a very valid point. And from the buyers POV it can be difficult getting across that you are serious. I remember once offering to send one a bank statement showing we really did have money in the bank, but we still got blown off.

For the last year or so there has been a bit of a buying frenzy in lots of parts of CB, with cash buyer often lining up. That's gonna change real soon once the "I need something before the end of the year" Brits are through the system, which seem to be the only people left buying right now.

I suspect a lot of the opportunist agents will disappear next year, and many will have to seriously raise their customer service game to stay afloat.

I had a particularly useless interaction last week with one who is a pretty big concern. They point-blank refused to even tell me which part of a village a house was in, so I could get a look at it on Google Streetview. They kept spouting total nonsense about privacy and security risks. Found the same house with another agent who was more than happy to give us the details we needed. Mind, I can see why the first didn't want us to know it's precise location: It was listed as being "quiet and tranquil", forgetting to mention it was next to a bar.

Angebadge

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:59pm

Angebadge

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Posts: 1108

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Joined: 28 Jan 2019

Posted: Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:59pm

Web Designer Guy wrote on Wed Jul 8, 2020 12:41pm:

They get hundreds of email/online enquiries from clueless people who have little or no chance of buying anything, or even showing up to look at anything.

That's a very valid point. And from the buyers POV it can be difficult getting across that you are serious. I remember once offering to send one a bank statement showing we really did have money in the bank, but we still got blown off....

...

For the last year or so there has been a bit of a buying frenzy in lots of parts of CB, with cash buyer often lining up. That's gonna change real soon once the "I need something before the end of the year" Brits are through the system, which seem to be the only people left buying right now.

I suspect a lot of the opportunist agents will disappear next year, and many will have to seriously raise their customer service game to stay afloat.

I had a particularly useless interaction last week with one who is a pretty big concern. They point-blank refused to even tell me which part of a village a house was in, so I could get a look at it on Google Streetview. They kept spouting total nonsense about privacy and security risks. Found the same house with another agent who was more than happy to give us the details we needed. Mind, I can see why the first didn't want us to know it's precise location: It was listed as being "quiet and tranquil", forgetting to mention it was next to a bar.

Hi WDG

Valid points. Another reason they won’t tell you where is - if you find it, you could contact the vendor directly and negotiate the price on their (the agents) commission. Depending on the price, worth many thousands!🤪🥂

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