Moses2013

I don't know how much you are paying for house, but have you looked at the main real estate pages to compare? Sure we all have different reasons for buying, but why that area?

RussellFamily

Hi - we have looked at nearly everything we can find online in English and Spanish, we like the house. But we don't know anything about the area, or what the different parts of Martos are like. That's why I was asking, if someone familiar with it could comment?

Moses2013

Even if they are familiar with area, it might not be for you. Anyone here would really suggest to rent first before buying. Even if the properties seem cheap, they are cheap for a reason and how easy can you sell again? What is the area like during winter/summer etc. Also in Ireland and own property in Spain, but there's so much more to consider.

Rosemary

Totally agree with Moses. Only you can really judge whether a place suits you even if there are loads of positive comments with few negatives you could end up agreeing more with the negatives than the positive once you have lived there.

My own choice of place to live would have an awful lot of people tearing their hair out and running as far away as possible but it suits me, I chose it by visiting and experiencing.

Rosemary

RussellFamily

Thanks both, we are renting before buying. We've spent the past 10 years living in Central Asia (work related) so we are optimistic about Martos, it will be a welcome change on many fronts! But really want to talk about the town, not our reasons for moving and buying. I'd like to hear the positive, negative and neutral about Martos, especially from anyone who lives or visits with children, and from people who went through the house buying process in Martos.

jonboy

"Cart before the horse" springs to mind. Find the area first and then the house not the other way round. Anyway, so Martos is a name you know of hopefully someone, other than a Martos estate agent, will be along shortly to put your mind at rest or raise the hairs on the back of your neck

cermignano

Welcome. Try reading past posts on this thread. There is quite a lot of info

wicklowjack

hi i am an irish guy living in calla baja
love this street far eneough to be awayfrom town but not that far to walk back with a skin full of beer lol
got everything you could want in the town
it is a family area and good for kids
onlt problem is that thay play till 11 pm on the street
deigo from undiscovered spain is ok to deal with just trust him
and you will be ok

Moses2013

I suppose as the houses only cost 20K there, there's not too much to lose.

Trasnadonnta

Moses,

What is pocket money to some might be a fortune to others, so how much people can afford to lose, is not for anyone to say. It's relative to people's personal circumstances, of which we know nought!

wicklowjack

true 20k was all i could afford . after divorce and the wortd crisis left ne with noyhing after a lifetines hard work so moved here to restart my life
and thingd have not beibg kind to me i do bot reget a moveing here

Trasnadonnta

Wicklowjack,

Your courage in starting afresh is admirable, and because of it, it's highly likeley you'll get to where you want to be in the end despite the bends in the road. As they say it's the journey that counts, and you don't regret yours. It seems to have been an enriching experience so far (not referring to money so excuse the pun!), and from postings I've read on the Martos forum I'm sure many others who have bought similar houses in Martos consider them precious, as well they should, whatever they cost, be it 10k or 100k.

jonboy

Over to you Moses2013?

Moses2013

Well if you are fortunate enough to move to Spain and are considering buying in a place you've never been before, I assume you are fortunate. Even if you aren't fortunate enough, you'd still have spent that money on rent in 5 years alone, as there's hardly anything under €350 these days. OK, you still need to add buying costs too and make sure everything is legal, but apart from that it's what most people will lose on rent anyway.

Trasnadonnta

Moses2013

1) Not everyone wishes to move to Spain. Not everyone can either, due to professional restraints or whatever. The dream for some may be a sunny bolthole in another country which they pursue by saving hard and can finally reach with limited funds in beautiful parts of undiscovered Spain.

2) Others may see Spain as a country where they can reconstruct their retirement following the financial turmoil of the last 10 years, where they can still get back on the property ladder, otherwise impossible at 'home' in advancing years, in a country they have an affinity for. However, they don’t necessarily have enough remaining funds to spend on long term rental to make a more informed choice prior to purchase, when their target is ownership for security of tenure and long term affordability. So they go along with their gut instinct based on quickly acquired favourable impressions of a particular area offering possibility, and follow up with a courageous leap of faith in agreeing to make a purchase. For such people, losing what limited funds they have left would be a catastrophe.

3) I will use my own case as an example of different financial perspectives in different personal circumstances. Having spent most of my professional life in landlocked Switzerland, I returned home 'well off' as some might say, to enjoy a financially comfortable retirement by the sea, to a property purchased at top price just before the crash, and with the firm intention of finding a bolthole in sunny Spain to brighten up the long, wet winters in Ireland. The intervening years saw my investments wiped out by the crisis, in a country currently undergoing a two-tier recovery. My home by the sea is now worth a third of what I paid outright for it. In comparison to what befell others, through it all I have sincerely considered myself one of the very lucky ones.

Undeterred, I’m still looking for my bolthole in Spain. Ten years ago, it wouldn’t really have bothered me to lose 20/30K, apart from being in seriously bad humour for a while! Nowadays, it would be a heavy blow, but considerably more so for those more adversely affected decent, hard-working people from all walks of life who lost jobs, homes, nearly everything, through no fault of their own, yet who are still ‘fortunate’ enough to have the guts to start afresh in another country they like, albeit with severely limited funds.

The concept of ‘not too much to lose’ depends very much on what’s at stake and the level of risk taken, which for some might be perilous if it goes wrong, but who don't have another way out of the aftermath of the crisis.

I initially reacted to your comment because I have found comments in other parts of this site to be insensitive towards people asking whether less expensive properties in Spain are worth pursuing, and even uneccessarily downright arrogant and rude at times, to the extent that people just 'disappeared' from the site when such comments were made, probably crushed (I’m not referring to your comment on this forum. I just considered that comment came from a limited perspective which I took the liberty of attempting to broaden).