Spanish Agents - Estate Agents you gotta hate them or just go in prepared

BEWARE

or should that be

BE-WARE

12 things to avoid when property hunting in Sotogrande Spain

(Applies to Spain generally)

• The agent whose website has 100’s property most of which are no longer on the market

• Estate Agents that show you lots of property you are not interested in

• Estate Agents who forget you are even coming

• Estate Agents that still show Illegal property

• Estate Agents that show you blighted property

• The bankrupt Estate Agent that’s desperate and very pushy

• The part time have a go Estate Agent that does not know the market

• People who claim to be experienced property agents who are not

• Estate Agents who work out of a car & have no base

• Estate Agents who book you too many appointments simply to stop you going elsewhere

• The notorious dodgy Estate Agents there are plenty in Spain

• The estate agent that when you arrive does not speak your language

This list may sound silly but 70% of people who come to Spain to look at property will run into problems due to one of the above or even several of the above. So often client’s looking at property on websites arrive here expecting to see 20 homes and find out that most of the website are old listings.

Why Our Bespoke Service will save you time and money

As an agency Tailor Made source property based on your exacting requirements . You tell us what you want or send web-links of property you like. Tailor Made offer our clients a finding service at no cost to you the buyer.

Tailor Made estates will source your requirements directly from good local Agents and evaluate each property with you long before you arrive to view.

When you do arrive we will chauffeur you to meet each estate agent at each property and after the viewings a coffee to discuss what we have seen and consider values.

Our clients then receive the benefit of our specialist negotiating skills in order to buy property at the price you want to pay that is not way over the going rate.Think about it if you went direct to an agent that agent is being paid by and is working for the owner

To start the process put us to the Test

We ask you to find a property in or around Sotogrande and send us the link and we will provide our evaluation and response

Let just recap - By instructing Tailor Made estate agents you will arrive in Spain be collected by us on the day of viewings and only shown property that you are interested in seeing,working to a schedule of timed appointments and dealing with good agents.

Easy reliable and efficient use of your time and it will not cost you a penny.

Finally at the end of your inspections you have someone to analyze what you have seen and an agent that will work hard to negotiate the best price.

At Tailor Made estates we speak English & Spanish and have good connections through family and personal experience of local golf, International School,Boating,Tennis as well as other family hoobies and sports

Tailor Made estates Sotogrande www.tailormadesotogrande.com

Tailor Made estate agents . Office in UK www.tmea.biz

In Sotogrande Spain Tailor Made estate agents have more UK interest for Spanish luxury homes market

A upturn in the Spanish luxury homes property market and a strengthening of the Pound results in more Brits arriving and bargains being snapped up in Sotogrande Spain Signs of improvement in the UK property market and stronger Pound is having a knock on effect here in Sotogrande Spain. Am pleased to say the phones are ringing again as people revisit the prospect of buying a home in Spain.Having said that the hardest hurdle to bridge is the price difference between what owners will sell for and what buyers are willing to pay and with low interest rates continuing many owners in prime locations are holding their prices. Sales that have been happening have in the main been for bargain property. The press would have us believe that in Spain the market is littered with give away bargains and yes there are plenty of cheap homes around most areas. Having said that the press often fail to mention that a lot of these vacant properties in Spain were not desirable in the good times let alone a recession. Too many greedy developers over building and reducing building specifications creating concrete jungles many of which are half built or remain unsold. Here in Sotogrande much of the property that was for sale has been removed from the market because owners have rented them long term or simply decided to wait It seems to me that people are now street wise about buying in Spain and these days are asking all the right questions. As a country the South of Spain has tackled the huge corruption issues and many a developer, Lawyer, Planning officers and town Mayors languish in Spanish Jails guilty as charged.

The risk factor in the property market is not what it was and slowly but surely progress is being made. I feel people recognize the improvements and whilst many changes to the law are long winded, bureaucratic and frustrating the end result will be to stamp out many of the risks and issues Spain's property market.

As an agency selling property in Sotogrande Spain, the risk is further minimized simply because this area one of Europe's largest upmarket private residential estates is well established. The development was originally set out in the 1960s and has grown to become one of the main holiday home locations for many wealthy Spanish.

So there is no surprise that this estate with so much natural beauty and sporting facilities has attracted many city lawyers, top sports people and Spanish Government ministers to choose Sotogrande for their second homes.

My gut feeling is that Spain is about 18 to 24 months behind the UK market and for property in wealth locations particularly in respect of upmarket prime location homes.

Sotogrande does have its share of bargains although no where near the levels the generalizing press would have you believe. In the last 12 months property has been selling for me it is a reflection of some owners wanting to offload after reaching an impatience threshold.

On our books a 5 bedroom villa in Sotogrande that would once have been on the market for in excess of 1 million euros yet recently these owner have conceded to re-market the property inviting offers on 595,000.00 euros. In any given month you can find 1 or 2 such bargains but the truth is that with low interest rates many owners in wealth locations prefer to be patient. Trouble is that for some unknown reason Agents are still valuing property far too high and when presenting their values throwing in the old agency gem "We will put it on the market at price X but people will make low offers anyway so no point reducing" For me this is an outdated approach to agency, and any sales person worth their salt will know that if you establish a value close to your selling level then you are more likely to be looked at by a lot more prospective customers than you would with an extortionate unachievable price. This 3 bedroom waterside apartment once 760.000,00 euros has just exchanged contracts for 310.000,00 euros a real steel for a property on the waters edge and 100 meters from the beach.

Its not uncommon for a property in Sotogrande to go on the market at 1.5 million the owner knowing the reality that its not worth more than 900,000.00. Real buyers know their budget and may NOT look at property 100,000.00 over their budget so the closer a property is priced to the sellers bottom line the more chance there is of selling.

It is very frustrating for me as an agent when giving a true selling value that's a much lower valuation than provided by my competitors and then 2 years down the Road the property sells very close to my original indication.

Francis Payne Tailor Made estate agents Sotogrande tel.0034 956790320

Offices in Sotogrande Port

Spanish beach resort homes Away from madding crowds

Alcaidesa beach resort Southern Spain Tailor Made estate agents of Sotogrande have on the market an end of terrace town house with good ocean views in sight of the rock of Gibraltar. The development "Los Cotos de Alcaidesa" is found on the more established West side of Alcaidesa much of which was sold pre 2007. Los Cotos de Alcaidesa were virtually all sold off plan from 2004 and this established gated urbanization is looked after well maintained.

Living in Alcaidesa is all about the beach

and it boasts a large beach stretching for many miles and backing onto the Guadalquiton cork forest. The last remaining beachfront Cork forest in Spain. The beach is wide and sandy and access is within a few minutes walk of the property.

Along by the beach you will find the village plaza a few shops bars restaurant in a circular courtyard. Down by the beach are a restaurant and 2 chiringitos [beach bar restaurants]. For those that enjoy golf the Alcaidesa golf club has 36 holes and the older course is well established and runs along the beach cliff top. For supermarkets and bars restaurants Sotogrande is a few minutes drive.As well as a holiday home location the resort is popular for many working in Gibraltar but preferring to live in Spain.

The House on the market for sale at 275.000,00 euros is 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms with a Lounge Diner opening upto an elevated terrace balcony

.There are wonderful views from this balcony that also looks onto the gardens and the freeform community swimming Pool. The upstairs bedroom balcony really does open up the panoramic vista and to wake up living with this view must be wonderful. Nearest town Sotogrande nearest city La Linea & Algeciras. Airport Gibraltar 25 minutes, Airport Malaga just over an hour

For more details contact Tailor Made estate agency Sotogrande Spain sales@tailormadesotogrande.com or tel. 0034 956790320 Tailor Made estate agents also have offices in Poole town centre Dorset and Sandbanks Poole.

Property buying Spain Agents desperate to sell

Estate Agents in Spain desperate to sell Are you looking to buy a property in Spain then lets start with assessing the agent you will be using. The best way to check out and qualify an agent is to search on a property portal as opposed to an agent direct website. So lets say you Search for a villa in Sotogrande up to 1 million euros in zoopla overseas the same property may come up with several agents in the area. So now choose a property that interests you and then ask the same questions to each of the agents listed. Make sure they are questions that will lead the agent to qualify the property being offered.

1. I like this property is the value realistic

2. What is your opinion on the location

3. Can you comment on the finish and quality of construction

4. How long has it been on the market

5. You seem to have 10 times more property than anyone else are they all on the market

So now you are looking for well constructed sensible replies that an experienced agent will respond or pursue on your behalf. You maybe surprised at some of the variety of responses to the same questions and will be able to work out which agents are the blaggers and which offer a proper honest service. Why not ask the agent questions outside the property field. For a family you may ask if they have children at the school or maybe you are keen to get involved in sport so ask whether they are keen golfers. An agent that knows more about the interests you are pursuing could be useful toward guiding you toward your own goals for living in the area. Also be warned there are a number of local agents in Sotogrande that simply leave every property they have ever listed on their website. It makes them look bigger than they are. We had one client recently that asked to see 12 properties with a local agent all listed on the website of those 12 the client only managed to see two and both of those were out of date on prices. Another owner had sold a villa 7 years ago and spotted it still for sale

So often when people arrive in Spain they end up going home confused. The typical scenario is that prospective buyer arrange to meet several agents all desperate to make a sale all keen to take up as much of your time as possible. The normal trick for the first agent {call him/her agent A} is to keep you occupied for as long as possible to the point that you are fed up with looking at property beyond the many they have shown you, the same agent will do their best to find out what other property you have agreed to look at with other agents on the grounds that they are your best friend in Spain and will give you good honest advice as others are not to be trusted.

Often prospective buyers will have print outs of property from all the agents they have communicated with prior to flying out to Spain. Agent A will have a keen eye to see what others you are looking at. So do not be surprised that towards the end of the day agent "A" suddenly announces there are several others that you must see before ending the day and that those others just happen to be amongst the sheef of papers you have been shuffling round on your lap through out the day. What a coincidence

So by the end of the day you are exhausted after been shown only a couple of the properties you initially were interested in and loads that were never of interest in the first place. Of course you are told that showing a wider variety is all part of Agent "A" assessing your needs. The next day you meet up with the second agent only to find you are arriving at property you have already been shown. What a waste of every ones time.

My suggestion is that if you take the time to qualify the agent and build up a raport prior to flying out to Spain then ask that agent to become your finding agent .

In effect you have found an agent you like and checked out the property on the books and if those are not suitable the same agent can take you to see other property on offer with other agents. A good agent will have good links with reputable other local agents and know which are the unscrupulous agents to be avoided at all costs. Sotogrande has a good few estate agents to choose from and I am aware of a number of out and out blaggers, a few fruit cakes and some very good straight forward agencies.