Andalucian dream homes? have you used them?

thanks justin. Just felt that anyone reading these forums would be amazed that any sane person would consider buying in Spain!!

I for one am very glad we purchased and would still recommend it to anyone who was interested.

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We were in Fuengirola and just happened to call into ADH for a browse around and to be honest we were intrigued by the claim "...If it's a Lemon we'll tell you..."  that was in large letters outside (or words to that effect).

We did not feel pressured and were given adequate information to help us to decide whether to return on an inspection trip or not.  We returned to the UK and expected to be inundated with sales calls from ADH to persuade us to return but were not. 

After about a week or two we decided to take the plunge and contacted them to arrange an inspection trip.  All went well with the flights, airport pickup ( and drop off) accomodation and inspection of properties, at no time were we pressured to make a decision.  The guy we were with took time to ask the right questions i.e what do you want to achieve? is it a holiday home or an investment? As it is to be something that we will want to use he was careful to include our likes and more imprtantly our dislikes and build a profile of what we wanted to achieve and what we expected from him and the properties / areas.

We left Spain having paid the 6000 euro deposit to be told that it would not be paid immediately to the developer in case we changed our mind and we would be contacted when we got back home.  The final words were not to feel presured into making a decision and if we decided "No" then this was not a problem and they hoped that we would consider them if we changed our minds.  This was so we could take stock of what we were considering doing in the cold light of a November morning in the UK.  If we changed our minds the credit card would be refunded.

Whilst in Spain we were introduced to a spanish lawyer and mortgage advisor who confirmed everything we had been told by ADH.  Admittedly this was in ADH's offices and I can't see anyone in that situation bad mouthing the company that lets them use their office space to hopefully attract new clients.

Approximately 3 days after our return, ADH contacted us and asked if we still wanted to go ahead and then confirmed that the credit card payment had gone through.  The development is not ready until June 2008 so I don't expect much, if any, contact between now and a date nearer to completion. 

Now I might be naive in placing my trust and a considerable amount of money in the hands of ADH and the no pressure experience could be an advanced sales technique for all I know, but all I can say is that so far my experience has been a good one and I hope that it doesn't turn sour.  As a Yorkshireman I am suspicous of anything and anyone that might be taking me and my hard earned cash for a ride, but I believe that the guy at ADH is genuine and treat me with integrity and honesty. 

 

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

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 We did the same as kelju and used one of ADH's recommended lawyers(lawyers of spain, Marbella) and had absolutely no problems.(ADH operate a rotational system with a number of lawyers so that the same company does not get all the business).

Had I read these threads beforehand though I may well have reconsidered. At the time, when you are none the wiser, you tend to believe what people advise.  If i were to do it all again, when I win the lottery, I would probably use the same lawyers again. I am just very pleased that everything turned out fine.

This message was last edited by lewjan62 on 2/13/2007.

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Phew!! thanks Lewjan62, nice to know someone else has had the same experience and that it's not all bad.  Same as you, if I had read the threads I would have been put off. 

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Must say we used ADH too and their recommended lawyers.  We had no problems either, though I think some of the

services offered by the Lawyers can be found cheaper elsewhere ie wills, fiscal representation and the like.

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We have also used Lawyers of Spain after an intro from ADH. In fact, when we expressed interest in a development, the ADH guy got on his mobile whilst we were drivng back and the lawyer was waiting in the office on our return. On a weekend! (Oh, the lure of a fee!!) He studiously explained everything involved in a  purchase, including all of the additional costs and when they would be due. Service along the way has been responsive and good - and we have had some issues with the development to be dealt with. Yes, I believe this business of charging by a percentage of purchase price is expensive. Next time I will negotiate for a fee based on time. After all, it takes no longer to do the legal work for a 500k apartment than it does for one at 200k.

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I do not know what to say.... I think ADHS is an honorable company, got a few friends working there and they are happy, working like mules, but happy... they are always ready for a "joint viewing" at even very short notice, on Sats and Sundays... you know, when one has the property listed and the other has the client...... I even thought into applying for a sales job with them.... but then I considered my 42 years old and saw that I can not compete with tireless 25 old guys !!!

Actuallly, tomorrow I will take my clients to two viewings on  properties listed by them..... they were very enthusiastic.... and we are talking tomorrow lunch time.... the guy coming with me, Darren, even wanted me to call him early in the morning after confirming the viewing so the owner would not have to make the trip of like 70 km just to open the house if the clients decided instead to go to the mall.....

I think they are a big company fighting hard and trying to survive on a sort of stagnant market...

Cheers,

 

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

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They have actually been garden tools for a few weeks to my knowledge - down there a couple of weeks back and noticed the same thing

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I went out with Andalucian Dream Homes when we were looking last year and to be honest they were pretty good. Professional, on time, courteous and not pushy in the slightest. We did not buy off them simply because we were very specific in our criteria and they could not find the right property, however I would be happy to recommend them. They also seemed quite busy, the showroom in Puerto Banus and in Duquesa was a hive of activity.

We also went out with Elegant Homes who were average at best, Chrystal Shore who were fairly attentive and a couple of smaller agents, one man bands who were fairly incompetent, did not return calls, didn´t seem to take us seriously and didn´t seem to want the business which was a bit odd.

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Juan Pazon take note of the fruitbats comments - fruitbat did you actually buy or were you left wanting

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Smiley. I actually bought a property but not through ADH simply because an ideal property popped up through a friend of a friend. Juan Pazon - there is no need to take note of my comments apart from to conclude that they are on the same line as yours - ADH were very good, very keen, very attentive, polite, courteous, honest and the most professional of all the agents we went out with (returned our calls, explained the process and couldn´t really do enough). Therefore I am happy to recommend their service to anyone even though I did not actually buy off them. Oh and Smiley I wasn´t left "wanting" whatever that means.

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

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Would not deal with them ever again. Once they sold you something.they don´t even remember who you are, after being on the phone every day beforehand. They have convinced people to buy one or more offplans with the promise of great returns and with a definite sale before completion, which of course will not happen because by that time they are not interested. I think they have lost many clients because of this and rightly so. They should be reported for misleading people.

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Individual experiences will vary but me and my wife did not have a good inspection trip, we admit we fell for the hard sale tactics on an off-plan (2 units) in Alcaucin area, high projected figures that we will make monies prior to completion and the sales chap can sell these easily. These units prices under the 200K euro mark and are easy to shift. We felt so pressured to sign and hand over the 6000euros reservation deposit to secure these 2 units as we were told these are going like hot cakes and these are the last remaining units.  There were other clients who had come to view and sales chap said they want to buy and are interested but since we were here 1st we should go for them before its too late.

WE came to our senses too late, our intention was not to buy on this trip just to get feel for the areas etc but these sales consultants are good at what they do (more like timeshare sales), they have targets to meet ..etc

I think we can not get our deposit back as they make you sign this form which has about 10 items on it which you have to inital and sign at he bottom. You don't see this form until the next day after to have signed your deposit via credit card (Make sure you leave these at home). And you also do not get to meet their independant financial advisor & solicitors after you have paid up the deposit. It was after we had meet up with the advisor that it started to sawn that we cannot easily release our UK property equatity as we are tied in for 2 yrs so only way would be to get loan to pay for the 1st instalement on the off-plan units.

On our return to UK we soon realised we could not afford to go ahead so immediately contacted the agents but forget about your deposit. Manger says its with developer, assitance manager said they will hold it and transfer it to one unit, this is to stop us going to another agent. They don't seem to want to know that we genuiely cannot not afford to go ahead and what I don't understand is where will they use this 6000euros. We signed on Sat, we were back in UK on Mon evening. Tues midday we emailed them saying we cannot go ahead, I can't see how have the agents/developer lost out.

We are still trying to get deposit back but I don't see how this is possible. We made a mistake. These big agents are not forgiving, 6000 euros is a big sum for us but maybe not for them, its easy money.

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

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Suki,

It might be worth having a word with maria de castro, she is a Spanish lawyer and will give you the advice you need. I think there is a cooling off period but she will know for sure

You can either wait for her to read your post or send her a PM, a search for her name will find her for you. Her username is mariadecastro (no spaces)

The very best of luck with this.

This message was last edited by noelandwilma on 4/2/2007.

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

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Thankyou Janice, Noe & Wilma for your response. We do feel really stupid about the whole thing, its an expensive lesson for us but it could I guess it could become worse if we ended up borrowing more monies without any guarantee that we can sell these units before completion at a profit. ADH called this the stepping stone investment, we were so ill prepared for this. We do want to move to Spain within 2 years or so and this was our 1st trip to really just evaluate the areas, find out about schools, etc

Once the agent knows you have equatity in your UK property and they also asked if we have our credit cards that we will need to secure any property, the whole angle was off-plan is a great way to make money and when we are ready to move to spain we have enough to put down on a place where we actually want to settle down.

We realise that there is a lot more homework that needs to be done. We are not going to let this experience put us off Spain as thats how we felt.

I will contact Maria and see what she advices, its worth a try and I am also going to get in touch with the developer and see what they say (probably the same as the agents).

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