Is Now The Time to Buy or Sell ??

Graeme has been very objective thus far & may wish to comment.

Not many (any !!) real estate agents who call a falling market !!!!!

 'empathy is walking in another mans moccasins for 40 miles before passing judgement'

I'll physco analyse you shall I?

You call your self 'eggcup' as its an empty vesile not an egg in sight and as a result have become evil twisted and hate men.

and thats from a Women.

now that sex change clinic elaineG? where is it......

 Eggcup - any chance of you posting a picture of yourself? I am interested and terrified at the same time by your attitude in your posts.

Why a picture you may well ask? Why not if you have nothing to hide! 

Respectfully, someone may have some personal issues/pressures which are better taken off thread !!!!

To answer your question, Harry...

We are focusing on the Costa del Sol around Benalmadena but would prefer to be in a small town/village a little inland.  We know the area quite well as we spent time there whilst first looking for a property to buy.  In the end, we bought in Catalunya because the prices were much cheaper and the scenery is spectacular.  However, the winters in Catalunya can be very cold and wet and we decided we wanted to be somewhere warmer. We enjoyed being in a village environment, providing more oportunities to learn the language and get to know the locals.  We don't relish the idea of living in an area where holiday makers come and go every two weeks or so and it's difficult to make good friends.  We aren't interested in living on a complex  for the reasons stated above and, as far as buying is concerned, we hear too often of the problems re collecting community charges, getting works carried out and we'd rather be in control of our own maintenance works and the prices paid for them. 

If we decide to buy, we're looking for the type of property we had in Catalunya ie; a village house without any communal facilities but, preferable some outside space/garden.  Before, we only had a large terrace...although it was on the roof of the house with spectacular views!  Of course, if you're looking for something that you want to rent out to holiday makers, a property with communal facilities makes more sense.  We're certainly not against living in a place where there are other Brits...it's great to speak in your own language sometimes, especially if you haven't learnt Spanish yet or you know very little. If we decide that renting is the way to go....we'd still rather be in a Spanish town or village but we won't be so choosey re the type of property we want....although we DO still want that outside space. The type of property we would never buy would be one that was identical to hundreds of others for sale!

Even my poor little innocent nom de plume is now being viciously attacked, and it never did anything to anyone.  It's like facing a baying mob; they'll be calling for me to be lynched soon.  Talk about gang mentality.  Start behaving yourselves as I have done throughout all of this.

I've tried to give some good advice to sellers for example and I've also tried to point out the difficulties for sellers at the moment, so that not only the buyer's viewpoint is considered.  Can others please do likewise and if they have nothing positive or constructive to say on the subject and merely want to keep on and on at me, then I suggest they control themselves and zip it.  That is not what this Forum should be about.

 Dictatorial crap - long live free speech!

I don't think the purpose of  the principle of free speech  is having the right to sling insults at people in a way that tries to gag them  and inhibit them from feeling free to express themselves.  Try and use more creative words - not all this 'idiot', 'crap' stuff.  It's not appropriate.  And try and think of something to say that relates to the thread and not to me.

 If the cap fits wear it - my post was just an observation and is not aimed at anyone in particular. me thinks she does protest too much.

Great news!!! It seems my friend has sold his flat. Slightly less than the asking price, but only to be expected.

Campoman - As you are not insulted by any offers, my opening bid for your flat is €1.

 and sight unseen I'll generously  double that.

 creative words coming up.

HRT

I rest my case

Thats it now, I will not say another word about that....., well I wanted to say women, but I can't as there are so many clever, spiritual, content, secure brilliantly minded, humourous women in the world I really didn't want to upset them or insult them by association so I won't.

Mum used to send us to Covenrty if we misbehaved as children so thats what I'm going to do in this case.

Pretty much kills the concept of an open forum when you have stalin wanting to have you strung up for speaking out about a subject.

speak soon

Good night Ros

I'm too young for HRT.  You'll have to blame PMT, if that's the route you're on with your latest strange comment.  I can't remember the last time someone spoke to me in person, in this sort of manner, but it seems par for the course on this Forum.   Am I now supposed to speculate on your hormones as you have done on mine?  If I was having HRT, moreover, what would that imply and what would it have to do with anyone else?  And what about if any of the spiritual, content, secure, brilliantly minded, humorous women in the world  had HRT?  Would they suddenly be thrown by the wayside? 

Does HRT mean that a woman's opinions are less valid?  It all seems a bit Freudian.  Maybe I should be medically defined as 'hysterical' and should be sectioned?    As regards the comparison with Stalin, the only way I'm trying to stop people saying what they want to say is when they fling personal insults at others; that doesn't have anything to do with Stalinism.  Sorry, it's projection again...  I enjoy creative, intelligent and thoughtful debate; for example, I toe no party line on Spain.  I have a think about each issue as it relates to the country and try and make a thoughtful contribution.  In addition, no-one on this Forum knows about my private life and what I think of men and women.  Assumptions and judgements have been made, which are very wide of the mark.

Move on and move over to Tamara's fun new thread.  Or start a new one.  This one is dying a very slow, drawn-out and excruciating death.

Hi Maddiemack,

Thanks for the excellent post below.

Resort complex or traditional townhouse is the guts of the  decision for many expats:

1) My wife prefers a resort with all the conveniences of clubhouse, pools, sauna etc & overlooks issues like unpaid fees, lack of control, transient community, dead in winter etc !!

2) I prefer the traditional house in a Spanish community & am perhaps overlooking all the conveniences of living in a modern resort complex & drawbacks of traditional living !!

Maddiemack has summed up the pros/cons very well & hopefully will keep us informed. It would be great to get other opinions on this key decision.

Regards,

Harry

 Harry -

The issue to me is less the kind of house, more the kind of life, and the kind of people you are.

I'm with you on the "traditional", and, like Maddie I didn't fancy the "community" rules and charges, or an urbanisation setup.  But that's really about how I want to spend my days.  I turn the coffee machine on, and while it's brewing I walk to one of a choice of six bakeries to choose fresh bread for breakfast.  Walking back around the edge the views are stunning.  All my neighbours are Spanish, they look after me, it improves my Spanish language, and when desperate for a conversation in my first language there is a bar run by English people 2 minutes walk away, but it's NOT an "English bar" with all that that can often imply.  All the other shops and offices are within the village too - ferretería, insurance, two banks, two car mechanics, Endesa outlet, lawyers, ayuntamiento, yet it's still small and homely.

For me the sounds of Spanish chatter late into the night outside the windows is not a problem.  For others it would be.  So I think I said this before - once you think you've found your perfect village / town, walk around it at 11pm or later, and again at 6am to see if tractors start up really early!

Yes, my vote would be with village life.  When we moved into our house in a village, a neighbour immediately brought around a large bag of fruit and she has become a life-long friend - she makes us some cracking Spanish food and we make her British cakes and take her to the coast for hospital appointments; another neighbour would send things down in a bucket on a rope from her house higher up.  If you're in any sort of trouble, your car gets stuck, you need to take one child to the hospital and need someone to look after the other one etc., the Spanish are brilliant.  If anything, one will be offended that you didn't ask them and asked one of the other many willing people instead.  They even enjoy helping complete strangers who are lost or in difficulty.  At the bar we've often had to fight over who is going to pay for drinks with the Spaniards slyly settling the bill before we've realised what they've done.

In our experience, villages where there are not a lot of foreigners are the best for being accepted and being viewed as a positive arrival (this did not happen when we lived in a town with lots of expats).  As we had young children when we arrived in the village, they made friends quickly in school and we made friends with their parents, as well as the neighbours also being very good.  Another neighbour is always inviting us in for a small glass (read big tumbler) of his own wine - 'it's not strong' he'll say and then we're no use to man or beast for the afternoon.

Tamara's village sounds very good, as it's not too small; I have known some small villages where there is not even a bar, or hamlets etc. and I wouldn't like that.  It is also true that Spain can be noisy at night, especially with dogs barking at night - I think this is the case wherever you are, but maybe more so in the countryside - you get used to it, and the church bells always sound nice.

We never even considered an urbanisation; I might be wrong, but I think some could be a bit sterile and, for example, a bit strict on when you can and can't use the pool.  Better to have your own little pool if you want it and can afford it (some people have 'splash pools', but not everyone needs these - pools are handy also if you want to clear off for a few months now and again, e.g. when it gets too hot and you can rent the house out, as holiday-makers nearly always want a pool) and you can please yourself when you get it up and running.  I see urbanisations more as a place for holidays and less as a place to live.  That's my opinion.

Really enjoyed your post, eggcup.  Reminds us of why we bought our first place.  Did you learn Spanish before you went to Spain or did you learn once you got there?  When we lived in Catalunya, we found free Spanish (and Catalan) lessons in the nearby town and a couple of years ago when we spent 5 months in Almoradi, inland Costa Blanca, we went to free lessons there, too.  Do such lessons still exist or have cut-backs seen them disappear?

Appears to be  100% vote for village house thus far !!!

Does anyone reside in a resort & if so whats the benefit/ rational ??

Harry

It is misleading to describe living in an urbanisation as living in a resort. Our apartment is very much a home whereas a resort suggests somewhere to go purely on holiday.

I personally would not want to live here full time but for those of us who want to live part of the year in Spain and part elsewhere an urbanisation is ideal. Everything is maintained well and we simply turn up and use the facilities when we want.

There are full time residents (around 20%) but apart from July and August it is not at all crowded. There are always spare beds by the pools etc.

A completely different experience from living in a traditional village I agree but it is horses for courses and this suits us.