Bri and Katee

Mine would be do not tell the agent your true spend amount, undervalue by 20 thousand or so.
What brought this on? Well watching a property program here in the UK and not a single property offered was under the buyers maximum limit.

Which reminded me of our case. Out of 15 properties we viewed, not a single one came under our maximum amount and the one we plumped for was actually 46.000€ more than our limit! Now bearing in mind our upper limit we told the agent we had was with 10% added for expenses, it can work out a lot more than the buyer expects.

Caveat Emptor!!

twyntub

1 piece? Can't I offer several? Okay, I reckon it is...

* Find out what independent solicitors are recommended by the builder / agent and THEN FIND A DIFFERENT ONE.

We learned the hard way about how independent 'independent' solicitors really are. Doesn't matter if your agent claims to be the very largest, most experienced, most reputable agent on the planet... if they were genuinely reputable they would know never to recommend a solicitor.

Get your OWN solicitor, as only then will they be giving you the best advice.

(oh, and never, never, NEVER give your solicitor PoA...)

SueG

And so say all of us

septimus

That a fool and there money are soon parted.

Mitzyboy

You're a man of few words aren't you!

poshnbucks

My one piece would be make an offer do not pay the asking price unlike the UK your house in Spain can be on the market for 5 years or more in many areas.

scampicat

Do not buy anything you can't see. For example, don't buy a ruin on the assumption you will be allowed to rebuild it, don't buy a small house on the promise you will be able to extend it, don't buy a place without electricity thinking you'll be able to have it put in, don't buy off-plan.

jdr

Look for a little box nailed to the house that says electrickery on it.

Mitzyboy

Dont listen to those that say don't buy off plan .... with the right research and thought its no more risky than buying resales

jdr

If you want to end up living in a building site, show me an urbanization that is finished and all sold.

twyntub

The biggest downside is that you're rarely told the risks and problems that are involved - developments have been widely reported in the Brit press in Spain to have problems such as no electricity supply or dangerous water (some woman the other week was told not to bath her baby as the builder's water contained dangerous chemicals that could do long term damage), along with multiple legal and planning issues which could rumble on for years.

To be fair, there are also plenty developments that have nothing like these problems. Naturally, it's not in the interests of the press to report these positive stories!

I also have to comment that many of the problems are in no small part caused by buyers (us Brits included) being somehow happy to complete without all the paperwork in place, and live 'under siege conditions' like it's the third world ("don't worry, it's normal, this is Spain"). We've lived in a couple of Spanish houses, they've both had drinkable mains water and a mains electricity supply. Why wouldn't they??

Mitzyboy

Mine!

jdr

Was it built in the last year or so?

Mitzyboy

Exactly my point. No one is going to runa news story on how happy Mr & Mrs So and so are in their Urb. Everything went well, all are happy ...... not good newspaper / TV articles.

Yet someone else having their villa knocked down is a real interest story and will get plastered accross the front pages and even on the news. The UK are now making TC progs about holiday homes from hell, people who's buisnesses have gone wrong etc etc .... how boring would it be to follow around a couple who were completely happy!!!!

As I say over and over again, extensive research is key.
Usual stuff like independent solicitors
At the Urb, go and knock on people doors and ask them what their purchase was like
Look for electricity meters outside the houses
If you can, check with the town hall about the plans
If you dont want the inconvenience of building around you for a time then buy a plot an a semi urb part of the urb. There were 5 in ours (although you wouldn't call this an urb by normal standards, it has more the feeling of a town) and we had a bit of noise for the first 6 - 8 months.

Balanced views are needed on this subject, its all to easy for people to write off new builds because things have happened (and serious things I admit) in some areas. But it doesn't mean it has to happen to "you". I did it, so its not impossible.

Oh, and btw I've heard of plenty of nightmares to do with re sales as well, we've had a few on here haven't we with extensions not registered, illegal work, and debts registered agaonst them at the last moment from the outgoing sellers.

Mitzyboy

It was built, I guess, nearly 4 years ago and we have been living permanently in it for 18 months. We came here regularly before that and the only "problems" we had was the noise from them digging out a pool in the rocks about 700 meters away from us.