Buying a resale property - need my hand held!!

Interesting point Gillespie. Personally I would always try to strike a deal on price before wasting any time checking things out. It's easy enough to get an informativa from the Land Registry and start checking everything is kosher, but why bother if you can't even agree a price? And especially if you are using a lawyer to do this, who will charge you for nothing if you end up not buying simply because the price wasn't right.

But that's just the humble opinion from someone who thinks lawyers are almost as overated and useless as estate agents! (generalisation - not intended as a personal insult to any individuals - I just had a bad week!)

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I must admit I have never heard of anyone employing a lawyer before they have even agreed a price.  Like Roberto says, the Lawyer is going to charge me for the work carried out, regardless of whether I end up getting the house or not.

I thought that first:  agree on a price, then hand over a señal and sign the reservation document with all the necessary SUBJECT TO clauses, then the solicitor does the checks.  If the property is not up to scratch, I get the deposit back - clearly stated in the reservation document that it is refundable.  If the property is up to scratch, we continue and sign the contract.

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Jerez Girl. Not sure if it works differently down there, but here the buyer will pay a lawyer (on average) 0.9% of the full purchase price of the property. This fee will be taken at the point of contract as a provision of funds along with taxes etc. However by engaging the lawyer first, prior to even finding a property (yes interview a few and tell them what your needs are) they don´t usually charge until you sign a purchase contract. As our lawyers fees work on a percentage, say 1% for easy sums, then on a €200,000 property they get €2000 - on a €400,000 they earn €4000 - there is no more work required just because the house costs more so they are in a position to be flexible charges wise, thats why you have to speak to a few before you find one who will be worth engaging from the start with a flat percentage fee only. Therefore they should not charge to view 2 or 3 title deeds before you find the property you want. That´s how we work here and there is no reason why you can´t tell Jerez lawyers to do the same thing...after all they are desperate for business too!

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Roberto, I had my lawyer in place before I purchased my house when first came to Spain. It was a good job too as the house I eventually bought was registered as an agriculural building, quite common in the countryside here. I was a nervous type and walked away from the agent knowing all the problems involved, however I met with my lawyer one day discussing another potential property and mentioned the agricultural building in passing as my first choice of location...he said "what´s the problem I can change it to a dwelling if you like it so much". He did without any fuss, so if I had not engaged him first, I could have walked away from my perfect property and lost it. I have, since that day taken nearly all my clients to meet him before showing properties, it has two great effects - the first- serious buyers view with confidence and secondly time wasters are weeded out immediatly because of their reticence to meet him!

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I can definitely see how that works for you, Gillespie, especially as you seem to have found a good lawyer. For first time buyers in Spain I think that's sound advice. I think Jerezgirl has bought before, but maybe she should think about this possibility anyway. 

I have a good lawyer I can call on if I need to. My objection is to lawyers offered as part of the service by the estate agent, particularly when they use this to justify their fees to sellers who really have no need for a lawyer's services. I had a bad experience when the sheer incompetence of the lawyer brought in by the agent nearly cost me a sale. The agent proceeded to prove that they were even more incapable of understanding the deal, and the buyer was on the verge of walking away. The agent (Spanish) suggested I speak direct to the buyer (Spanish), which I did (in Spanish!), sorted out the misunderstanding, and concluded the deal to the satisfaction of all parties, especially the agent, who still got paid his commission despite be so utterly useless. 

I never read the Agents Fight Back thread, for fear of seeing my name taken in vain there. I know there are professional, conscientious agents working hard to make an honest living out there, but I absolutely detest imbeciles who jeopardise people's futures and investments by pretending to have an in depth knowledge of the business, when chances are last week they were escorting a bunch of 18-30's on a guided pub crawl. It's these muppetts that give the rest a bad name. I just wish they'd stay away from me!

This message was last edited by Roberto on 3/10/2007.

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Hi Gillespie - I think the lawyers do work a little differently here.  There aren´t any of those English speaking one percenters in Jerez.   It all seems to be done by the hour - and I don´t think conveyancing is big business here as from what I understand the Spanish almost never use a solicitor for the purchase of a house.

But anyway, as long as I have a good reservation document clearly stating that the deposit (only 1000 euros anyway) is fully refundable then I don´t think I can go too far wrong by instructing the solicitor once (if) a price has been agreed.

And yes, Roberto, we have bought in Spain before.  This will be our third time in fact.  However, this is the first time that we have bought a resale.  The other two were off plan purchases and I have to say the procedure was extremely uncomplicated compared to this resale.  I would have felt much happier buying off-plan this time too, but unfortunately there just wasn´t anything off-plan that was right for us.

I´ve decided I am going to call the seller direct next week.  I´m not going to go behind the agent´s back (too risky) but I just want to ask if the agent has been passing my offers on to him - but I think I already know the answer!  I think I will also ask him how much he has told the agent he wants out of the deal...I mean, that is how it works here isn´t it?  For example the seller says "I want 190,000 euros" and then the agent adds their little bit on top.   If I know how much money is in it for the agent, then I know how much I have to play with!

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Sounds like a good game plan to me - best of luck to you.

The lawyer I have used for various things here in Torremolinos is a really nice bloke, who can never give you enough time. Often I've popped into his office without an appointment, just to ask a question, and have passed a pleasant hour or two chatting with him about all sorts of aspects of Spanish law - or the weather, whatever comes to mind at the time. Thank God he doesn't charge by the hour!

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Likewise for me too Roberto - good lawyer here worth his weight in Gold - Good Luck Jerez Girl - re your post a few back SharonW is buying in an area that is generally blitzed with property for sale (at least i think she is) While she has managed to negotiate an excellent price it may well be that it was overpriced to start with and it could also be the seller was desperate to sell - while some people might come down 25% others wont - I bought a house last May and paid the asking price - the price was fair for what it is, I was willing to pay it and I did not want to lose the property to anyone else -  I seem to recall at the very start of this thread you indicated the one that is your preference is already the lowest priced of the lot -

Only you can decide whether it worth the asking price - nobody else - by all means try and get to the vendor direct if you suspect monkey business but at the end of the day you have to decide if you willl pay the ask if there is no margin for negotiation

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Hi All,

Yes Smiley is right we are buying in an area that is blitzed with 'for sales'! however we were very specific in what we wanted, e.g. urban, villa, pool, good sized plot, good sized property, fairly young etc etc! (not too many requirements eh!!) and these are very hard to come by here within a price range we could afford (although there is definately the argument that properties are overpriced anyway). The property is certainly worth a lot more than we paid for it and yes, luckily the guy was very keen to sell! We also played a couple of cards in that the property is not registered for IBI and the pool is not registered, minor things but for our negotiations a contributing factor!!  Everyone is different, our second choice property the guy is very desperate to sell, the property is old and the urbanisation is due to be legalised so some heavy costs could be involved in the future (not a good selling point!) but he would not come down 6% on the price!!      I also agree that if you do not want to lose a property then be prepared to pay the asking price if all else fails!!

Regards.,

Sharon

      

 

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Hi sharonw,

I am no expert, far from it, but when I read that the property is not registered for IBI or that the pool has no planning permission, alarm bells rang.

The IBI is not such a problem, as this is a new build (how old is it?), the IBI valuation and first tax bill can take anything up to 2 years to get. so that's not a worry..........

However, the pool could be. If there has never been planning permission for it, if you are not found out, you can keep it, but youcan't included that in the value of the property if you come to sell, as in the future, consequent owners may be told to destroy it.

There are others in the forum who will no doubt put my post right if I have got things wrong, but that's the way I see things, so be careful!

Kind regards,

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Hi Fibby,

Thanks for reply and you are absolutely correct,

The property is 6 years old, and we have ensured the seller has now begun the process to be registed for IBI. We have been told this will take 6 months to 1 year and the seller has to set aside an amount of funds to cover 'his' bill when 'we' recieve it!

The pool did have planning permission, (so it is legal) just never registered. We plan to do this anyway in the near future, I like things to be 'above board'. In any case we will not be selling! Ever!!!!

p.s. for anyone who is interested my lawyer is excellent, have used her several times. She is based in Fuengirola and I can give her details if required.

Kind Regards,

Sharon  

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we are just about to complete on a re-sale property and have got the final breakdown the total costs come to about 13% of the purchase price which to us seems higher than we were led to believe . Have got a full breakdown of the costs from our solicitor and he seems to be able to justify them but still not totally convinced !. Our agent said the costs would be only 9% so that extra 3% is a lot of euro's

Any thouhgts please

  

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We were told when buying off plan, that we would have to add 13% on top of price, so maybe you haven't been given the right info at the beginning

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JPD, 13% is usually about right.  Many agents state "add 10% for costs" but it's generally nearer 13% in reality.

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Ok great thanks for your help, were just a bit worried when other people were telling us how high it was.

Cheers

John and Trish

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Does anyone have any knowledge of urbanisations good or bad mountainside of the Golden Mile (Beechside too expensive)

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Does no one know this area? Any help would be appreciated.

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Hi Tinto,

Are you talking Costa Del Sol?

If so, I can't help, sorry, but someone on here will answer you on that one.

Regards,

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This message was last edited by JeansSis on 5/17/2007.

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Yes Costa del Sol and don.t have a property bought as yet

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