Inspection trips and viewing properties

  
Many years ago we used to pay travel and accommodation costs for clients who wanted to come to Spain from the UK to view properties.  This worked very well for some years but times changed and there came a point where we realised that we were being used to provide free holidays.  So we changed our policy.  We stopped paying for flights and accommodation but we still collected clients from the airports free of charge, refunding the cost of their air fares and accommodation if they purchased a property through us.  To a degree this stopped some of the freeloaders but then we found that we were being used as a taxi service.  Clients would get us to collect them at the airports, book into their hotels, book appointments through other agents and then get us to take them back to the airports.  One year later we changed the policy again.  We now charge to collect and return clients to the airport and we  refund three days accommodation plus the airport transfer fee if they purchase a property through us.  An interesting observation over many years is that most clients who purchase through us hire rental cars, which is a good idea because then they can explore the area at leisure and find the location that suits them.  It is absolutely pointless looking at property for sale if you don't know in which part of Spain you want to live.

If someone decides to move house within the UK, it is pretty unlikely that they would look at properties before they looked at locations. In the UK the chances of an agent picking you up from an airport are nil.  Indeed, usually you have to make your own way to the property for sale and the agent may or may not meet you there.  In the UK you would not ordinarily view 40 houses and nor would you make appointments with around 14 agents in 14 days.  If a client has booked appointments with several agents, there is every possibility that those agents have many of the same properties on their lists.  We work with lots of agents in various areas of Spain and it is quite amazing the amount of clients who not only book an appointment with us, but also with one of our partner agents to view the same property.  The pictures are the same and the price is the same so I have never fully understood why clients do this.  However, when a client tells me that they are in Spain for 14 days and every day they are booked except for one day, we don't really want to see them.  Our philosophy is - "if, after you have been out with all the other agents, you have still not found a suitable property, then make an appointment with us".  Statistically, clients who look at over 10 houses with us are not serious purchasers.  We only show clients properties matching their criteria and usually this means that after seeing around 4 properties a serious purchaser will buy one of them, just as they would in the UK.  We get enquiries from people who have been looking for a suitable property for over 4 years so quite apparently they are not in a hurry to purchase.  We also get clients who want to view properties on our lists, who have no intention of purchasing for 18 months - this is a waste of everybody's time because the likelihood of their chosen property still being available in 18 months time is virtually nil, and if it is, the price will almost certainly have increased.

If you do not know where you want to live in Spain, book a holiday and a hire car. Drive around Spain and find the location where you want to live and then book an appointment with an agent to view properties in that area.  Do not use agents as location finders.  There are plenty of location finding companies on the net, some of whom charge for this service and others who do not but it is necessary that everyone understands that our business is specifically to sell houses, not to traverse Spain looking at locations.  If we find that we are being used for this purpose, then we will charge a fee for the petrol and time.