As a Vendor, like here in UK and any other country it can be very stressful and sales fall through, and yes there are always timewasters , everyone can relate to that in their lives when selling a property.
The only sensible system we know of is in Scotland,
In reply , as you were selling privatley you could have given your Lawyer Power of Attorney to deal with the sale for you , this would have saved you keep flying out, also, it would have been helpful if a friend or nieghbour could have shown peole around for a small retainer?
You go to an Authorised Notary here in UK, look up via Google, you go to him/her with Passports , other id as requested and a Printout from your Spanish Lawyer , print this off and its filled in and Witnessed by the Notary , this is then sent off to the Foriegn Office to be Apostiled and sent by Coutier to your Spanish Lawyer , easy as that!
Not all sales are apartments on the front , new builds etc , direct from builders, some are resales of older property , all these none the less pose serious pitfalls for the unwary and all I have written should also cover these sales too, how many people have bought Apartments only to find they are not even on the correct Water and Electricity suppliers , how many bought new builds only to find they are not Legal , with insisting on an UP TO DATE CASTRADO will any potential purchaser be fully protected.
There are always costs on both sides when buying and selling a property , however , if one is selling its makes quite and prudent COMMON SENSE to be sure that all the sellers paperwprk is in place so the sale can proceed safley and smoothly , what is wrong with that, one wants to sell , then make it psoosible to sell , not make it a burden for the potential purchaser to keep asking questions and chasing up what should be in the Paperwork but clearly isnt !
That is why always , an Experiences Lawyer is used, one recommended via a Consulate , not via some website or Agent . God Forbid!!
Do you really believe that the `caravan` set up next to a building site even with a show home is not an Agent selling on behalf of the Developer , this is where others went to very wrong and lost thousands as we are all aware , you dont honestly think that its the actual Builder selling them do you ? !!!!!!!!!
You had to fly out to oversee selling your property, we , like hundreds of others have flown out , paid for accommadtion, hired cars , used up holiday time to view property that one is assured is all correct , when its not at all the case we, like others have wasted a damn more money than you have, at least you havent had to pay for somewhere to stay time and time again on a wild goose chase from less than truthful Agents etc!
Take it you had an Apartment , if you had to drop 35% to sell thats what the market dictates , same here in UK, some properties have dropped more than that I can tell you , also, if you bought quite a few years ago you have made a very good profit , not as much as you may have hoped for but at least you have enjoyed your time there and now moved on, lucky you, there are some still hoping to sell for 2000 prices or even earlier , those are the ones who are a real load of time wasters , same prices being asked for as 5 and more years ago , not forgetting that the photos they put our were taken years ago as well and bear no resemblence to the tired old wreck it is today for crazy prices, not much fun for the poor people who have flown over and paid for flights, etc for nothing !! Even Agents photos are very rarley up to date and bear no relation to the same property today .
As a Vendor you have no right to demand a Deposit until you and the purchaser have all agreed the price and the purchaser`s Lawyer has had time to check all is Legal and correct , would you expect a Deposit in UK, I dont think so so why should you demand that in Spain , a Deposit in UK is paid on signing of Contracts, never before so your argument does simply not hold up I`m afraid, as for keep paying for up to date info on your Administration fees etc, again this would be done by your Lawyer when making checks and the purchasers Lawyer , these are paid up and any little outstanding is held back on a small retention , any remaining monies returned to the Vendor, quite simple really.
If we were selling in Spain we would do same as here , make sure , before people wasted a journey ans time and money , that they had as much information as possible , up to date photos( inside and out) , room measuerments , what is and is not included in the sale , if they were still interested and wished to purchase we would then give them our Lawyers details and let them get on with it, we would also make very certain all our Legal Paperwork was up to date too, unlike so many in Spain who do building works and thnk thats it , they dont need to have it checked, Regisistered , Castrado up dated , like we have to do here in UK, Building works, extentions passed and approved , Land Registry amended and up dated.
Yes there will always be timewasters , here in UK, Spain too , but we have never come across so many `Agents/ Vendors who simply have no idea of what their property is actually worth , no idea of what they should have in place before even marketing their properties and just seem to think they can sell and no one will know whats going on , it simply wont wash any more , people are well informed , and its a very good thing too , yes there are many thousands of people who have bought safley in Spain, what I am trying to make clear that in the present economic climate their are thoudands trying to sell but not being honest with those wishing to buy and this has to stop as no one any more, any more than they could before, stand to lose thousands of Euros and / or £s , there is no excuse these days for ignorance om either side, however theie are still many ready to take advatage of those less informed , hence the need to make as many aware of potential pitfalls , its very clear `Agents `arent going to be overly upfront , all they want, even more so in these struggling times , is their over priced Commision for which, as we have outlined is a lot for doing a little, even in UK Comission Rtaes are at best 2-3 % and UK market is still very slow too , so 10% is nothing short of greed and its passed onto the Purchaser unlike here where the Vendor wants to sell pays some one to sell , not put off a buyer who has no intention of paying on top of the market price for someone who is effectivley working for the Seller !
Its a stupid and totally non- transparent system and is not enshrined in Law , no Law insists that the Buyer pays for the sale , so why do people think they need to , market forces, seller sells, buyers buys , seller appoints Agent, seller pays Agent , only time a buyer should pay anything is when they appoint a Property Finder .
So its easy to sell in Spain , just make sure all the Property details are up to date , dont think the Purchaser is going to wait while the Seller/ Vendor gets their act together and then bitches that after all the wasted time that the purchaser has gone `off the boil`, Purchaser then starts to wonder what else is wrong and they need to be aware of?
Also, it could , on the other hand be the case that the Vendor / Agent dont bother to deal with all the Legalities until a buyer is interested , sadly by then most buyers dont want to wait around while the Agent/ Vendor race around like headless chickens and then bitch that they have done all they needed to as quick as they could , not good enough Im afraid , they should have had all that ready for a sale from the onset , one whiff if a priblem and peoples eyes glaze over and start looking around while the first one is racing around trying to get up to date Documents , catch 22 but so easilky avoided .
Enough , hope this anwers you particular points , any `Agents` offended, tough, you have hard skin am sure so can take it . taken enough from others for the past 20 years , to the Professional and Experienced Agents , huge apologies, it is no great feat trying to conduct your business when surrounded by such incompetant and totally unaceptable competition , all we can say is up date wensites, push off the uesless ones and show as much as you can how you deal with Clients, it can only help to get rid of the crap!
Returning to those `Awards ` one see`s attached to some `Agents` Websites , we have to say HERE AND NOW, there was not ONE AWARD for client service , Vendors / Purchasers service , these `Awards seem to be for best website , most contacts around the world , easy acces to properties etc but NONE for being the best for clear and honest client service, funny that eh?