Jammy b*******

That must have been a very special property..

It was indeed (sigh) .... a pics in my gallery

WOW... Did you really live at the Alhambra

what that bujalow thingy
Looks like my house but I have another level and it's white .

What do mean very good? How do you measure good? Is it because the house sold quickly because of the web agent or you just got lucky with the right punter, right time. Internet agents surely rely of very little personal (if any) involvement so how can you compare this site with any other?. I looked the site it's a bit basic in design but does the job !! Maybe it's the cost benefit ?

And surely there's a glut of supply at the moment (new-build and resales) ? To me selling a house is just as much a lottery of finding a right buyer for your price, location, deal, the 'chain', etc etc.

To me it's "how long's a piece of string" - if you are in a sought after area, house is well preserved, so issues, I guess your chances are better than most.

They quote that their website is designed to be among the top few in most search engines when people are looking for property over here, we actually checked their claim out, and it was true given the searches we put in. We actually had 4 enquiries with the first 4 weeks, and the 4th one sent friends round who put a deposit on it on their behalf.

So some of the normal practices have ported over from the High Street to the Internet then.

I have bought 3 houses in my life and sold 2. On each occasion I have wondered exactly what an agent does as apart from signing a contract and paying out 6% commissions I have had very little personal involvement from them.

Oops, sorry, and picking up the keys.

Sounds OK. Still think it's a bit of a lottery, but you have to advertise somewhere don't you - gotta tell the buyers out there.

We actually sold our house in the UK ourselves, too mean and un-trusting to give money to Agents. We sold in 4 weeks too... with just a board outside and using the Property Ladder (UK based) but that was when the market was booming (sellers had the upper-hand). This was good for us and 2 friends followed us after we 'pathed the way'.

Of course without an agent on our typical inspection trips (3 actually) here we would have been lost and very indecisive, WE WANTED HELP to decide. It was good to have help from an agent (however good/bad they were). I know they have a bad reputation and many deservedly, but a good percentage of people wouldn't do the living abroad thing with them I bet!

A ex-rep (agent) told us that with the cost of marketing, seminars, flights, offices, admin, staff, taxes, employment stuff, cars/fuel, bar-restaurant bills the average cost of an inspection trip is about £2000. Baring in mind not everyone buys, the costs soon escalate to the business. Of course there going to want that back. And we pay for it. In that respect it's no different to any other business... covering costs and adding a profit on. What's fair? you decide!

There's a tip to anybody wanting know how many links to a website is listed by Google (and Yahoo). It helps see if these website are well linked or not.

In the Google search box type link:www.yourwebsiteaddress.com

This tells you how many and which websites link to yours. You need a lot of links to get consistent high rankings in Google I believe. How many links you need depends, I think, on how competitive your 'subject matter' is.

Of course the search words you use can make massive difference to the results. So searching for "Spanish Property" is gonna return millions of sites... it's saturated... so you might narrow it down with Property in "Hondon De Las Nieves" for example.

Speed up your search time and effort with http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/help/refinesearch.html

Some good friends of mine in Alicante have had their property up for sale for about a year with realistic pricing.

Granted it's a bit out of the norm (tennis courts, granny flat, etc) but they've lowered it even more than what the agent urged and only just have gotten one bite.

Shame really as they've now moved to Oz and having to rent there instead of having the money to buy somewhere straight away.

I have a villa up for sale in Barxeta (the campo) and gotta say that I think it is reasonably priced, if fact selling for what we payed for it,and have done loads to the property. Have taken into account all the properties round here and ours is reasonably priced but ... no sale yet, have had a few people round but thats as far as it goes. I also know of quite a few people up for sale and its as if nothing is selling. An estate agent told me that lots of estate agents are selling up as its so quiet, I dont know but it seems that way. pat