20 years ago clients would book with one agent, buy a holiday or retirement home and walk away, content with their purchase.  In 14 years we had no complaints.  When we moved inland however, all of this changed.  The properties were very cheap and almost anyone in Britain could afford to purchase something.  The clients changed, in that we were not just selling to retired couples or holiday home buyers, but also to young couples with children and to clients who had decided that living in a caravan, next to a ruin they intended to restore was infinitely cheaper than living in the UK.  Often these clients would require a mortgage on properties with a sale price of less than £35,000 and for a couple of years we assisted them in obtaining their mortgages.  During this time, we started to get complaints.  This type of client had difficulty raising a reservation fee and deposit.  Quite often they would agree to send us the required 10% deposit within two weeks of their return to England, leaving anything between £70 to £1,500 as a reservation fee.  Sometimes we would wait for up to three months for a deposit and in a couple of cases, when the deposit did not materialise, the owners or the estate agents listing the property would sell to someone else.  In Spain, the law is that you lose your reservation fee or deposit if you do not comply with a contract either written or verbal.   Other problems came about with this type of client's expectations of the services an estate agent provides.  They would turn up asking to borrow money, gas bottles, furniture and all manner of things.  They would expect us to be on hand to translate whenever they required, whether they were in shops, medical centres, chemists etc but they would not expect to pay for these services.  We would receive calls from them sometimes over two years after they had purchased.  Hence we decided on another change of policy.  We placed the following notice on our website:-

WE ARE ABLE TO ARRANGE MORTGAGES ON MOST OF THE PROPERTIES ON THIS WEBSITE AND WE COULD ARRANGE MORTGAGES ON HOVELS BUT WE WILL NOT.  STATISTICALLY CLIENTS WHO HAVE  PURCHASED A PROPERTY FROM US,  REQUIRING A MORTGAGE ON A PROPERTY VALUED AT LESS THAN £35,000,  HAVE BEEN STRANGE PEOPLE WHO CAUSE US PROBLEMS.  HENCE WE DO NOT WANT THIS TYPE OF BUSINESS.  ANYONE ACTUALLY NEEDING A MORTGAGE ON PROPERTIES AS CHEAP AS THESE NEEDS TO THINK SERIOUSLY AS TO WHETHER THEY CAN AFFORD TO LIVE IN SPAIN!

This notice has been on the website for around 4 years and we have only had one negative comment about it, which was from someone who said that we were discriminating against people trying to get their first step onto the property ladder in Spain and that we would lose business through this statement.  We wrote back citing 5 examples out of a list of 33, detailing problems we had experienced with these types of clients and stated that if were going to lose business, it was the sort of business that caused so many problems that we could well do without it.

When we ask a client what their top budget is, we have a reason for doing so.  Often a client who is looking for a cheap property will have a concept of false economy.  In Spain, at the moment, it is often cheaper to purchase a new property than an old one because renovation costs can be high.  Trying to obtain a quotation from a builder to renovate an old property is similar to extracting teeth.  The reason that they will only estimate rather than quote is because when they knock down old stone walls or remove ceilings they do not know what they are going to find.  If they remove plaster from a ceiling, under which there are wooden beams, they may find that all the beams are rotten and need to be replaced hence the price will be higher.  They cannot know this until they remove the ceilings.  Equally if they need to lower a floor to any great extent, they do not know what is under the floor of an old property.  Often they do not have foundations and if they hit rock it may be necessary to hire machinery to break the rock (this is expensive).  The same applies to installing a swimming pool - if they hit rock they will have to hire a machine hence, more expense.   There are many other factors that make quotations almost impossible to supply.  There are now very few cheap properties in Spain that are in good condition.  We recently sold one property at 30,000 euros and the renovation costs will probably total 15,000 euros at the end of the job.  This is a very good buy in that when the renovation is complete the property will double in value.  However, we have had one property like this for sale in a year.  Most of the properties in this price range are in need of extensive renovation and can cost well over the sale price to complete.  Hence clients would be better advised to purchase a property in much better condition for a higher price, in which case the renovation will cost less.

We are often told by clients that they are builders.  Those who a real, qualified builders struggle over here because the construction materials are completely different to the UK.  A master builder would need to spend a minimum of three months working with a Spanish building company to learn how to use these materials.  There are a lot of Brit "builders" in Spain who are nothing more than DIY enthusiasts so a lot of care needs to be taken when choosing who will undertake your house renovation project.  On the plus side, for the British "builders" they will complete your job quicker than a Spanish builder.  On the downside is that you may have to get a Spanish builder in to put right work that has been done by a Brit "builder" in which case it will cost you far more than your budget allowed.  On the downside a Spanish builder will take more time than you would believe to complete your project although he will normally be cheaper than the equivalent Brit.

Something that all nationality builders have a problem with, when being asked for a finishing date, is the reliance on materials and service companies.  The local materials company may tell your builder that they will deliver his building materials on Thursday - the problem is that you wont know which Thursday.  Endessa owns all of the electricity companies in Spain.  If you have had a Brit electrician complete your installation, he is not qualified to work in Spain and will need to get a Spanish electrician to certify his work.  The Spanish electrician will not always be happy to do this because the Brit has taken work away from him but if he does certify the work he is likely to want a high fee for doing so.  When he has certified the work it is then up to the electricity company to connect your electricity.  This could take anything between 3 - 18 months.  Telefonica has the monopoly on telephones - it does not matter how many times you telephone them, they will connect your telephone when they want to and this could take anything between 1 week to 9 months.

We have lots of enquiries from people who want detached properties, out in the country with lots of land.  They also want mains water, electricity, internet access and telephones.  The chances of having these services in properties located in the middle of nowhere are slim.  My Spanish partner has been waiting 22 years for an electricity supply to his farmhouse.  Farmhouses that are remote are not near anything, so if you want mains services, schools, hospitals, bars, restaurants etc., do not buy a detached farmhouse surrounded by acres of land.  The best place to purchase a property, where you will have all of these services is in a village.  The Brit concept of a village or town house bears no relation to reality in Spain.  Town and village houses are often enormous.  My own house is 240m2 construction and the walls are so thick that I have never heard my neighbours, nor they me.  I also own a bar and our neighbours don't hear noise from that either.  One client once asked me if my house was earthquake proof - my answer was that my house was 100 years old and was still standing.  I would imagine that it will still be standing for at least another 100 years.  Village houses are also cheaper than detached farmhouses and cost less in general to renovate.