wannabethere

EMR

Where in the Algarve ?
Prices have increased significantly in recent years so your budget my dictate where you can buy.
East of Faro will give you a better selection and quality compared to places like Albufeira Praia da Rocha , Armacao da Para..
To be honest you are better making a few shirt visits to various locations to get a feel of what suits you rather than rely on agents as your first port of call..

wannabethere

wannabethere

Andy43

Lagos is ace. We have been to the Algarve yearly for two decades, then visited the Lagos area less than two months ago. Now we're buying there...
Old town is lovely, loads of character. Best old town bit seemed to be accessible between the petrol station and the old walls on the road opposite the marina.
Have a look at the beaches - they're all good, great sand, some sheltered, some with waves. Meia Praia (half beach) stretches for miles to the east. In Lagos centre Praia Batata (potato beach because the locals had to clear up after a shipwreck carrying potatoes) is next to the fort, then Praia Students (it's only big enough to fit one class of pupils on it!), then a few more around the headland of Ponta de Piedade (many religious visitors - coach-fulls there when we visited) to Praia Porto de Mos which will be our local beach, a really nice place with no steps down to the sand (we're thinking ahead here).
I'll stop now...

wannabethere

Nice one Andy,

Can’t wait to visit and take Lagos in. It will definitely come to where our gut instinct takes us. Lagos sounds good though. I think once my heart is set on location and amenities there is to use for usi it will then come how we rent it out to others. As i say its 5 yrs untill i retire so im committed to only 30 odd days a year to use it. Your rental predictions is well worth a thought though.

EMR

Avenida properties and B&P are two long established and knolwdgable , both have offices close to each other on the main road alongside the river.

wannabethere

Andy43

That reminds me - another Portuguese thing - estate agents!
We viewed stuff with three or four agents, and every one either collected us from our accomodation, or asked us to go to their office. Then you get chauffeured around in their car, using their fuel.
They seem to get a massive commission, several percent as far as I could ascertain, and a sole agency contract is very rare, so you'll find some properties being marketed by half a dozen different agents - sometimes with different photos, descriptions and even locations eg Albufeira or Olhos D'Agua or St Eulalia depending on which advert you look at. Very confusing.
Because of the competition between agents they won't tell you the exact address of properties unless you're really persistent in case you're a rival agent willing to go knock on the door and sign the sellers up with your agency.
I spent hours on google earth matching swimming pool and car park shapes to advert photos to decide if a property would be suitable. It's impossible to judge suitability just from the photos and the descriptions are usually complete fiction. 5 minutes drive to the beach... sure, in a McLaren, flat out, in the dead of night. Private pool - yeah, just you and the other 30 apartments. 5 bedroom? Errr, no, 3 bed, office and a damp basement. Sea view? Certainly, if you bring a drone or really big stepladders.

wannabethere

EMR

You will find little information on agents adverts, they do not want you to find properties by yourself., or to reveal the obvious negatives such as next to a main road , or next to a noisy bar etc .
With the current market and multiple listing properties sold by one agent are still on others sites as the owner has not bothered to inform them.
There is no substitute for on the ground research ..

Lelandy

Glad I'm not alone in my hours of Google maps searching! I wouldn't mind all those hours back, but in the end it proved essential. I found the property we eventually bought by this method. I also rejected a few once I'd found them as some were virtually motorway laybys or conversely down long dirt tracks with nothing nearby.

I was searching for a particular place by the shape of it's pool, and saw another place nearby that looked familiar, it turned out to be a property I had discounted because in this instance the Agents photos didn't do it justice. With hindsight I also found the property on Primelocation and A Place in the Sun websites.

Andy43

It is amazing how many you find and think "Wow" and then see the main road or cleverly unphotographed tower block on google earth.

Jasmine can show me around anytime

Shanorme

We got to the point where we demanded floor plans and a satellite image because our list of red lines were not being followed. It certainly weeded out a lot of the junk.

Score76

Bought our house last October, a few miles inland from Carvoeiro. We too got fed up with the exaggerations, if not blatant lies printed in the listings so in the end employed the services of a buying agent. Someone to match your actual requirements with listings from lots of other agencies, even the smaller, purely Portuguese ones who get no exposure in the UK via Rightmove etc, so have listings you wouldn't otherwise find.

They visit the houses first and shortlist them, then chauffeur you round when you come out to view. They split the commission with the selling agent so it costs you nothing.

Cheers, Scott