let me out of my spanish property nightmare

 Hi there,

I was one of those fortunate/unfortunate people who during the celtic tiger in Ireland decided to have a property portfolio.  Unfortunately I decided to invest in the 2 most volatile markets, namely Bulgaria ski resorts and Spanish sun holiday homes.  My nest egg of 500,000 was punted on 4 properties that I was guaranteed would be appreciating assets (guaranteed without guarantees , lol).

Now I find myself in need of recapitalising and so the resale of my properties began in 2008.  I guess this is much like many other people in Ireland and the UK.  So commenced my trials and tribulations in shifting property in a flooded market.  I spent literally thousands of euros between advertising, and estate agents and promotional fees and after 18 months still had no offers even after taking a 40% hit on price.

That forced me into the underworld of sales where I found corruption and lies rampant, save one company who were very upfront about my prospects and never made me any false promises.  I paid them a fee upfront of 50 euros a month (this wouldnt have covered the advertising alone let alone any promotion or work effort they put in).  Finally after 5 months with them they sold my properties in Bulgaria and hoooray I have cashflow and a little capital returned to my nest egg.

Now they are expanding to the Spanish market I think I will do the same.  

The moral for me has been, be careful when you can afford to and only take risks that you are willing to take a hit on.

Who knew the property bubble would burst so dramatically.  At least I am halfway out of this mess and to be honest my losses so far havent been as high as they could have been (even made a profit on one of them....lol)

If anyone has had any similar experiences feel free to comment.