Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

Are you happy with them or have they helped you? It's hard to get someone in Spain as it is new to me. I've haven't actually get them to do anything for me yet but I find them very helpful in answering my questions.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

I think what she was saying was no, in the end she wasn't happy with them.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

You need to look in the area up close, you might get a deal and it turn out to be on a building site for the next 20 years.
An agent in the UK is in the same position as you, getting told stories.
Book a cheap flight on Squeezyjet and have a look at the thousands of properties for sale and pick one where the surroundings are finished too.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

You really need to come out to Spain and make the decision from your own research here on the ground.

If you are not able to come out to Spain, then you it would be wise to prepare yourself now for some extremely hard and expensive lessons.

Worst-case you may lose a great deal of money on a house that never gets built or even gets knocked down. At the absolute very least you WILL be paying too much for your house.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

Initially I plan to take this 4 day viewing trip with spanishlifeproperties but after reading in this forum I'm not sure now. It's not a free trip (79 pounds per person). My intention is to have a look round to see if I really like Spain before I make my decision to move. I'm not obliged to buy from them even after this trip according to them.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

Well, there are literally hundreds of thousands of properties in Spain waiting for a buyer at the moment, and some are extremely good value.

A viewing trip is a sure-fire way to not get to see any of them :D

Spain is a massive country... four days will give you NO time to look around whatsoever. You'll be taken from property to property over a tiny area in a carefully orchestrated procedure (and believe me when I say it'll only be the properties that give the most commission that you'll get to see...)

If you want to find the right area, if you want to get the best price, if you want to make the right decision... then rent first. I can almost guarrantee you that the money you spend on the rent over, say, six months you'll get back 10 to 30 times that by getting the right property at the right price.

Like the friend of ours who rented for three months then bought a property for 100,000€ (33%) less than it was being advertised all over the Internet. Only possible by having local knowledge that you WILL NOT EVER GET from a four day viewing trip.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

And they are not really going to lend you rose coloured glasses either are they ?

Take advise from people here not those selling houses for their living from the UK.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

Very good idea - and exactly what we did, after we took a viewing trip to see hideous new build rabbit hutches crammed in alongside each other. We pumped the agent for as much info on living here as we could, and avoided the hard sell, but we were lucky, he seemed very laid back, a lot of them weren't and got very narked with people who weren't interested in their places.

We moved out and rented for 11 months, whilst making the final decision to sell in the UK. Then during that selling time we hunted high and low for a place that suited us.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

can i add that the company you are being 'looked afte ' by are promoter not agent..they say in their selling brief that they are not tied to agents or builders...the properties they advertise are not neccesarily the ones you see..
i would come out on a 1p flight by ryan air...stay in b and b...i can recc a couple in the aea you are looking..hire a cAR AND HAVE A GOOD LOOK ROUND AT THE AREA, BAS, SHOPS, SCHOOLS FAMILY ATMOSPHERE..OME AREAS ARE GHOST TOWNS IN THE WINTER.. oops soory bloody caps lock key again.
i have head of aeas that people have bought on mew urbanisations that only 3/4 houses have been sold out of 100.s..can be very lonely..

have you got childen?
do you need to work/

going to pm you

carole

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

Why buy?

Why not just sell your property and take a 6 month rental (or shorter)?

There are numerous postings on this Forum advising that as the best option. For the life of me I cannot see why anyone has to buy off plan. If you think property prices in Spain are going to be going up over the next year then you could buy off plan. Personally I think you have more chance of the builder having to lower their price when it is completed, or going bust before then.

As one Abogado said to me recently "the concept of duty of care is not readily acknowledged by Abogado's dealing with property transactions in Spain". Choose your Abogado with far more care than you need to in the UK!

As for a few days spent looking at property and making a decision to buy based on that - you have got to be joking. We are now into our second year looking and we still intend to rent for 6 months when we have found an area we think should be fine. So far we have seen loads of property on web-sites that look too good to be true and that's exactly what they were. Great property but dreadful location - how did they miss those power-lines on the photo's etc.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

Thanks everyone for your input. I've gone off with this 4 day viewing trip.
I'm waiting from the Home Office & once I sell my house here then I'll take a holiday to Spain & then decide if I'm moving there.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

Are you saying you've never been to Spain?

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

No I've not been to Spain. All the info I got, is from the websites. That's why I thought I take the chance of the 4 days trip but as you all said, 4 days trip is not good enough for me to make the decision. I just like the Mediterrenan climate & I saw those houses in several websites which look good, nice & affordable. That's why I've been trying to learn Spanish.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

Sadly I'm the wrong person to add to this thread. I bought off plan not as an investment. I bought it because I liked the area.

I did it on a 4 day trip paid for by an estate agent.

I'd been to the area probaly 20 times. Always on holiday.

I will effectively be a home owning holidayer for a while. This makes me happy.

Once I want to move I'll look harder. But I guess I'll already have a base for that.

If I were moving over I'd spend the relatively small some of 3k euro on finding out if I fitted in. Especially if I had kids.

Re: Has the housing crash started yet?
 

So are you happy with your off plan property? Can I ask if your 4 days trip is with Spanishlifeproperties?