[Anonymous]

I am currently deciding on whether to take an inspection trip with M* and would like to hear people’s opinion of them. If you have bought or had dealings with them I would be really grateful if you PM’d me and let me know of your expierence with them.

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

The large real estate companies on the Costa del Sol do not “Network” , they will only show you the developments that pay the highest commissions to agents, and there own resales.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, suggest you organise your own trip and choose a company that was in business pre deregulation of the real estate industry in Spain the year 2000, they will have a GIPE or API license.

[Anonymous]

if youre coming over here to buy an off-plan new build, there are no better or worse than the other Large UK/IRL based ones!

However if you think you want something other than that – dont bother because thats all they will show you, and you will be accompanied the whole time and pressured to buy before you leave spain.

If you want anything other than off-site 2bed 2bath rubbish – do your’e homework on the internet and set up the appointments in SPain, you will find the same house on several agents sites at all different prices!!!

Its not until you are here that you can really see and experience the different areas of the towns. no point in buying what you cant see, feel, and listen to. Do you really want to be in a building site for the next 3 years or next to the M340 for youre holiday!!

Take your time do A LOT of internet research and be prepared to haggle on the new properties!!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Does anyone have a link to a list of reputable esate agents and/or lawyers based in Costa Blanca South or Costa Almeria?

Is it the general concensus then that buying off plan from the large estate agents is a bad idea?

Btw I am making these posts on behalf of my parents. They are quite happy to buy off the big greedy estate agents and Im trying to tell them not to rush into this without doing some sort of research.

[Anonymous]

tell them the only advantage of buying off the big UK ones, is they pick up up take you to a hotel and speak english – is that worth the 0000s of £ it will cost them in the long run? It they are of a strong disposition and can resist the timeshare techniques its a useful way of getting a cheap trip to check out the area 😆

[Anonymous]

They advertise for sales staff in Zoo magazine.

[Anonymous]

Hi Tj

SOmething that maybe of interest – I often get email from developers in Costa Blanca for new developments offering upto 20% commission. As Bert has already stated the only thing you will be offered is a pick up from the airport, a hotel room for the stay – and a lot of high pressure sales tactics designed to make you weary so that you will sign on th eline.

If that is worth upto 20% commission (on a typical property here that could be around €30,000) then go for it – personally speaking I could stay at the Hilton, get a chauffeur driven limousine from the airport and drink champagne every day of my stay for a damn sight less than this.

They are much better coming under their own steam and looking for themselves. Also if you take a look at my website there are a number of articles on there under articles page, buying in Spain. The ones you should read are

Coastal or Inland
Before choosing your home choose your area
how to avoid paying too much for your spanish property.

You will get some ideas what to look out for and what to avoid. Almeria seems to be an up and coming area because the property is so cheap – but then so was Torrevieja and now its the very sort of area that people want to avoid (high crime rate, not spanish at all and like a typical over developed housing estate)

So take care and do make sure your parents do their homework – you only have to read this forum to relaise that of they dont they could be well stitched up

regards

Vince

[Anonymous]

tjbrosnan, I would not be happy if my parents were buying from the big greedy agents after all they ‘load’ the purchase price by sometimes as much as 20-30% because of their fat commissions, then there are up to 11% completion costs to add on as well. Now if they wanted to resell for any reason they may have to wait ages even years to just break even, even if they did find a buyer, and of course the big greedy agents will add another huge percentage to the price for selling. It’s a licence to print money for everyone but the clients generally on new build and off-plan.

As Vince said, you would be better off doing your own research and making an independent viewing trip.

[Author]

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