How does the Spanish estate agency system work? - Page 3

Very helpful comments from Matthew, Shaun and Gerry - spot on, 100% accurate.  Remember, whilst estate agents and solicitors are friendly,  in the matter of buying or seling a property they aren't your friend. Thats a BIG difference. Your relationship with them is professional. Exercise the same caution and saviness that you would when buying a property in the UK and deal with them as business associates or acquaintances. Good luck with your search. 

Shazzy, we found the whole process very straightforward. Looked at properties online and also made some viewing appointments before we left for Spain. The system works very similar to the UK, once you've found a property make an offer, then haggle if the offer is refused. We were asked for a 3k euro deposit after agreeing a price. We viewed a number of properties through several agents and definitely no charge.

With regards to using a solicitor, it just so happens that we used the solicitor that the agent uses, but only after plenty of research to ensure that they had recommendations. I have to say that Angela Morales is excellent, she looks after all our expenses such as non-resident tax, council tax etc (obviously there is a charge for this service but well worth it in our opinion). She also set up all our direct debits. I cannot recommend her highly enough!

Good luck

Justin

Thank you Justin and everyone else for all the helpful replies. 

We have researched quite a bit about the buying process and costs, plus the ongoing property costs, but there was this grey area of how estate agents operate. 

This is only for a holiday home. We have done online searches of properties but we only know Mojacar, Vera and the pueblo and it's impossible to get the full measure of the specific area a property is located in without visiting. Hopefully that will be possible sometime next year ...