We are a Scottish couple looking to buy a holiday home in March - Page 2

Thanks for the information.. much appreciated.. I read about all the different charges . Not as straightforward as here anyway . Rule of thumb seems to be roughly 13% of House cost to be added should cover all of the fees . 

Yep 12 -13% will make sure your on budget. Mine was about 12.5%

How much discount could you expect to get when buyers no a property if you  are a cash buyer ?? Thanks 

Hi. What percentage off the asking price of a property are you likely to get if your a cash buyer . 

Watching the various tv shows will have you believe that 20% off is the norm.

We had this in our minds but the agents we spoke to told us those days are long gone and 5% is normal and 10% is possible. "Rubbish" we thought, that's the agents trying to get as much money as they can. We say that in hind sight, based on our experience so far, with no disrespect to any agent.

 I think it totally depends on the property, how long it's been for sale, how much interest there's been at the advertised price and the circumstances that the seller find themselves in.

The property we've bought was only on the market for 3 weeks, we tried the cheeky offer and failed. As did a couple of follow up offers. We even walked away thinking they'd come to us but they didn't.  After a risky couple of weeks worrying someone else would jump in and buy it we had our final offer accepted which we were delighted with, it was the property on our shortlist of 10 when we left the UK to view that we liked most.

At the end of the day it's what you feel it's worth. Mediocre, bland properties are 10 a penny sometimes and it's easy to compromise if you think your getting a bargain.

Set some ground rules - location, budget, style / type of property etc and stick to it. We were almost persuaded to buy outwith our search criteria because we were getting frustrated.

Good luck, be disciplined and be patient. It's out there - don't rush into anything.

Craig

Thanks.. very sensible thoughts that we will try sticking to . Glad you got what you were looking for . So many nice areas around there and plenty of choice we think . Gonna stick to a budget of £75k hopefully. 2 bed apartment on an urbanisation with pool and facilities close by and maybe beach within walking distance. Nice relaxing holiday Home hopefully. Thanks again 

Everything Craig said. A lot of people in Spain are in crippling negative equity so may hold out to minimise their losses.

Before I viewed properties I purchased my euros for the property up front. So when viewing I had a copy of my bank statement to prove I was a cash buyer and to support a cheeky offer.

My plan was to put bids in  12% below asking price and take it from there. As it happened i viewed a private sale property and done a deal direct with seller.

Also look at what's on the market similar and base your offer on this. A good example of this is the battenburg properties in Villamartin. 3 beds range from 88k to 130k. Some of this is agents trying it on, or people in crippling debt who think they can get 2007 prices for their property 

Great advice thanks . Picking up great tips from this forum to help us . 

We weren't in a position to recommend a lawyer to you as we were still going through the buying process.

However, we completed on Tuesday, we have our keys and we're in.

We met with 3 difderent lawyers but were very impressed with MSG Legal in Alicante. They cover much of Orihuela Costa though, so you don't have to go to Alicante.

We dealt with Javier who speaks English very well. He put us completely at ease and fully explained the process and costs. 

His attention to detail was excellent and we felt he protected us 100% even to the extent of rewriting the deposit contract as it did not favour us - the sellers lawyer agreed.

The bill came in exactly at the amount he said it would.

Just my thoughts - we have no affiliation to him. Just very satisfied customers.

Thanks..Much appreciated.. Hope you enjoy your new home .👍