property news
Tere are many beautiful areas all along the Western Costa del Sol coastline, many of which you probably haven’t even heard of, I have personally bought and lived in 3 completely different locations over the past 16 years and loved every area for different reasons. So I would recommend clients keep their initial area search fairly broad and allow us to open their mind to fabulous new areas they may not even know existed. A number of clients come to Spain with a certain type of property and fixed budget in their mind, however, aſter a week of viewing lots of different properties they realise they can’t tick every box and come to the realisation that to get exactly what they want, they are going to have to increase their budget. Tis means booking a second viewing trip, incurring further costs, to view properties in their new, higher price range. So I would highly recommend potential buyers give their agent a preferred purchase price and also a (stretching their purse strings) max budget. Tis way you will get to see a good selection of all property available on just
the one viewing trip. Don’t be afraid of stretching yourself to get you perfect property, all things being equal owning a property almost always gets steadily more affordable every year you own it. Te cost of a mortgage does not increase year on year, varying at most with interest rates. Tat means that your mortgage will get steadily more affordable as a proportion of your income year by year. Barring any personal setbacks, a property that was difficult to afford when you bought it will almost always be more easily affordable five years later. Mark my words with the prices still low in Spain but now steadily increasing every year, you will be wishing you had stretched yourself or invested more into property when you look back many years from now. You are unlikely to find a property that has everything you want, so you will have to make certain tradeoffs. Make sure you distinguish between what is superficial and what is fundamental. For example: many clients initially ask for 3 bedrooms which comes at a premium, but oſten the 3rd bedroom is only for the rare occasion that family may visit. Te clients oſten then realise that it’s more important to find the perfect property for themselves, which in many cases would be a higher quality and better located 2 bedroom apartment for a cheaper price. Te occasional visit from family can be resolved simply by incorporating a sofa bed in the lounge. Also, if you find a property that fits all your requirements, but is in need of some repair, i.e.; old kitchens and bathrooms etc., as long as the price reflects the work needed, a good agent can organise quotes for the refurbishment to be done for you. Your agent should have a real feeling for what you want from a property, ideally we need to see exactly what’s in your mind. Some clients have a clear vision of what they want, but others are open to see what is available and then refine their search. Te sooner the agent knows what is important to you, the sooner you are going to find it. So try and give the agent more than just price, type and number of bedrooms. Try and describe your dream home, for example are you dreaming of a
character apartment in the centre of town walking distance to everything, or are you dreaming of a modern development in the hills with large open terrace and sea views. Everyone’s overseas dreams are different. If you don’t have a set vision and want to explore options, make sure the agent shows you lots of different areas and types of property. We have so many clients come to us asking for a villa in a town they visited once, but aſter a few days of viewing lots of properties end up buying a large modern garden apartment or penthouse in a completely different area, as it fits their dream lifestyle better than the villas they viewed.
Choose the right agent!
When I first came to Spain, I spent weeks scouring all the agents’ websites and carefully selected around 30 properties via 5 professional looking agencies. Tey all confirmed the appointments with me, however, they then started showing me completely different properties, nothing like my original list. When I asked what was going on, it turned out that none of the properties I had selected from their websites were available, as their websites were a year or two out of date. It obviously infuriated me and I took a mental note there and then, that when we opened our Spanish real estate business we were not going to follow the crowd. So we set up a Master Agency a more professional real estate business that list (takes on) lots of their own properties.
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