1-Introducing this blog- When you start looking for a house in Spain

Purpose of this blog

The purpose of this blog is to send a warning to anyone, whoever you are, that is looking for a house in Spain. I will also give some useful tips about do's and don'ts in this process. And I can tell you this is needed if you want to keep your sanity and your well earned money protected from all the greedy hands trying tpo grab them.
The legislation is extraordinary weird, the bureaucracy a horrible mess (The Process by Kafka is a light summer breeze comparably) and the market is full of dishonest people. 

So with this said, I still do not totally discourage people from buying a second or first home in Spain, but I do urge people to be very, very cautious and you should know about all the problems that may occur. All of them has certainly occurred to me. 

I will do this by telling my story in retroperspective strating, as one should, from the beginning...

And one more thing: The content of this blog is important. It is not for fun (even though I hope you will enjoy it), so please use the buttons in the end of each blog post and share, share, share.

How it all started

In November 2012, after having lived in various rented apartments in Madrid, I decided it was time to buy my own place. Both as an investment but also to lower the ,monthly living costs. 
It needed to be an apartment that I, my self, should renovate (I didn't feel to pay any extra for a newly renovated place that anyway would be to my taste), It needed to be in La Latina or there about and I wanted that "special feeling" about the place.

As everybody else I started to check the various websites where individuals and estate agents advertise what is for sale. This was done primarily by using the web sites www.idealista.com and www.fotocasa.com.

Looking for a place to buy turned out to be a full time job. The information given on these major housing sites is very poor compared to Scandinavian standards, usually there is no floor map and the images are crap.

You also find the same apartment advertised various times on the same web site and sometimes without any real location. Hence you always need to call to make sure the address is correct.

I spent November through June to find my place. 7 months of daily visits to one crappy place after the other!

Some warnings before you start to look for a place

  • First warning: A lot of the apartments on the web sites has no or very few images, but the word "luxury" is definitely used abundantly
  • Second warning: If they have images, try not to scratch your eyes out while browsing the apartments. In Spain there is no one even trying to make the place they want to sell look nice. Just look at these pictures I found today:
 

  • Third warning; You will see the same apartment, with different locations and different price various times. This is due to the fact that there is no coordination, no exclusivity and hence the websites are cluttered with duplicates. 
  • Fourth warning; do not believe a word they say in the advertise. Read between the lines and if you find something you think you may want to buy, you need to double check all the "facts"
Next post will be about the process of looking for a house what you need to do make sure you will not lose your investment as soon as you have signed the contract. Yes that is true, in this country that may happen!

Share:

0 comments