 STILL IN THE DARK ABOUT MOVING?
By Helena Frith Powell, Sunday Times, 6 June 2004
Paul and Sarah Skitmore, Barbara Wood's most recent
clients, contacted her 20 days ago. They had spent six
months prior to meeting Barbara rushing around Spain
trying to find a suitable home before the end of the
school term. "We needed to get the house before
we got the school organised," says Sarah. "In
Spain you can't apply for a school without a permanent
address. And we needed to apply before the end of the
summer term in June." It seemed the harder they
tried, the worse it got. Then they contacted Barbara
Wood.
Barbara runs The Property Finders. For an up front fee
of £550, she will work for you for a year to find
your ideal home and then take you through the whole
buying process. Once it is completed, she takes 2.5%
of the purchase price. "When Paul told me about
the property they were trying to buy, I realised that
they had wasted months on a place that could not be
sold along the terms they had been told," says
Barbara. " I went to see them and ten days later
we went to Spain. I had short-listed two properties
and they bought one of those, the final contract will
be signed next week." Paul and Sarah have ended
up with an eight bedroom farmhouse in the middle of
acres of olive groves, with a swimming pool, lake and
tennis court. All in plenty of time for the autumn term.
They paid 315,000 euros for it. "We are delighted,"
says Sarah. "Barbara completely took the pressure
off us. In addition, we have ended up with a much better
property which we can move into without renovating."
Finding a home abroad can be very expensive. It will
involve at least two or three trips to the country,
hotel bills, restaurant bills, and car hire. "You
can spend up to £10,000 looking for a house in
hidden costs like flights, hotels and meals," says
Sue Atkins from flyingvisits.com, which runs courses
for people looking to buy in France. There is an ever-growing
number of professionals ready to help Brits buy abroad
that maintain using their services will save you money.
Most property finders charge an up-front search fee,
normally between £250 and £500 which is
refunded if you buy somewhere, and you also pay a percentage
of the sale price. Some of them take nothing from the
client, but get their money from the agent selling the
property.
When Paul and Tracey Beaufils moved to France two years
ago, they nearly bought the first house they looked
at. "We made an offer and it was accepted,"
says Tracey. Luckily there was some confusion. The agent
arrived with the paperwork on Wednesday, Tracey and
Paul were there on Friday. "When we finally got
hold of him, the agent told us the property had been
sold to someone else. At first we were furious, but
we later discovered it was just as well. The house was
on a flood plain. When we drove past it during the heavy
rains a year later it was under water."
Tracey and Paul have set up Buy a House in France and
now work to save others from making similar mistakes.
"My job is to help them to avoid disasters and
make their home-buying experience pleasant and efficient,"
says Tracey. "Because I work with all the agents
in the region, I have all the properties on my books.
Tracey takes clients out for an initial tour of the
region and then shows them properties. She will also
guide them through the buying process. For this service
there is no charge to the homebuyer, she takes her fee
out of the agent's commission.
One of their clients is Barry Budibent who retired from
BP in April last year. He and his wife Angela had spent
six months looking for a holiday home in Burgundy. "It
was not a good experience," he says. "We spent
a huge amount of time looking at properties which, if
we had been told more about them in the first place,
we would not have bothered to look at in the first place."
They decided to focus on the Languedoc region of France
on the advice of friends and came across Tracey and
Paul on the Internet. "I called them and we chatted
through what it was we were looking for. What impressed
me immediately was their knowledge of the local area.
On the day we arrived Paul showed us several properties,
two of which he thought we would like the most. We ended
up buying one of them on that first day." The Budibents
paid 150,000 euros for a four-bedroom village house,
a price they don't think they would have got if they'd
been acting alone. "I think he saved us money,"
says Barry. "And I know he saves us time. What
I also liked is that he didn't just dump us once we'd
bought somewhere, he helped us open a bank account and
all sorts of things."
Some property finders offer a country-wide and even
Europe-wide service, but according to Mark Stucklin
from Spanish Property Insight, a consultancy that reports
on the Spanish property market, this is just not realistic.
"The whole point in using a property finder is
that they know a lot more than you do, they have the
local contacts, the local knowledge and the inside network.
For them to offer value to buyers they have to be strong
on the ground and that means being based locally full
time." Jan Pratt who runs Shortcuts Mallorca agrees.
"We get to know about things that the seller might
not want on the open market," she says. "How
are you going to hear local gossip like that from London?"
Most property finders agree that the local connection
is vital if you're going to do the job properly.
When Richard Landen , an editorial director with City
Wire decided to buy an apartment in Barcelona, his first
move was to find a property finder. "I don't speak
Spanish and would have found negotiations impossible.
Added to which there are no listings of agents in Barcelona."
He found Beatriz Carro, who runs Barcelona Relocation
Services, on the Internet. "She managed the whole
thing, from finding me the place, to marching me into
a bank and opening a bank account. In fact the whole
process was easier than buying a property in England.
Beatriz showed me all the different parts of town and
talked me through the pros and cons of each area. I
ended up with a really groovy apartment in Barcelona's
trendiest part, El Born." Beatriz charges an up
front refundable fee of 500 euros and then a percentage
of the purchase price, usually between 2 and 2.5%. "She's
not cheap," says Richard. "But she's fantastic
and has all the connections to make the process go smoothly."
Obviously not all property finders can deliver and you
should do some checking before you part with any money.
Spanish Property Insight publishes a list of dependable
property finders in Spain. Jan Pratt, who worked for
one of Mallorca's biggest estate agents before setting
up Shortcuts Mallorca, advises potential clients to
ask plenty of questions before taking one on. "You
should first of all look at their web site and see who
they are. Where have they got their experience from?
Who do they work with? How do they know the market?"
says Jan. "In addition, try to get some feedback
from other clients of theirs and make sure they present
you with an invoice for the fee and don't just ask for
cash." Mark Stucklin advises checking their credentials
carefully. "Some of them are really not worth their
fee," he says. "I've heard of cases where
they have charged thousands of euros to do some web-searching
you could easily do yourself. Make sure they are professional,
you can tell this from their manner and experience.
If you can't meet them face to face before you take
them on, have a good long telephone conversation with
them." According to Barbara Wood, those that don't
charge the buyer can't really be classified as working
for them. "Before you chose a property finder,
you should ask yourself where they get their money from.
If it's from the seller, then how can they be truly
objective? I have had several cases of clients being
ready to buy a property when I have spotted something
in the title deed that I don't like. I am being paid
by the client, so I can tell them to just walk away
without losing money. It would be a very difficult thing
to do if you stood to lose your commission." Paul
Beaufils argues that in his case, most of his clients
end up living within a 40-minute radius of his house,
so encouraging them to make a bad buying decision is
not an option.
What to look for in a property finder
- A good website that is clear about areas covered, what
they offer and fees charged
- Extensive local knowledge and local network
- A good background in real estate in the region
- Educated enough to negotiate with agents and deal with
lawyers
- Maturity - someone who has been around a while is more
likely to be able to help you
- References from former clients
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