Property refurbishment - advice

Hi John and Diane,

We have got approval for our Spanish mortgage and are now waiting for a date to go over and compleat, beginning of June probable, I'll let you know how it all goes and will take some photos and post them here

Dave

Hi everyone

Just wondered if you'd made the decision Sheila?  You said the apartment was key ready, ours is scheduled to be finished in October, so hopefully that will be on the cards. We can't wait to come back and see it again, and we are trying to plan a trip in September to get our NIE numbers etc.

John

Managed to phone the solicitor and all is going ahead hopefully now. Thanks for your help on that.

P.S. An atico is the equivalent of our penthouse, according to my Spanish dictionary.

Angie

Hi everyone

I think this is a great site and it is wonderful to find so many kind, helpful and friendly people.  No, I am still waivering, partly because I am also potentially moving house in London so my head is spinning!  Not very good at making decisions any way....

I am also scaling down my working hours as I am retirement age so it isn't an ideal time to take on a mortgage, yet somehow it still feels right when I am not scared stiff!!  Trouble is that everyone keeps pointing out the negative press and looking worried for me.

Whatever happens I do wish you all well and hope it turns out to be a brilliant decision for you.  If I take the plunge I really look forward to meeting you all sometime.

Kind regards

Sheila

After a couple of weeks i decided to chcek this site again and what do you know but there has been some activity.

Our experience was as follows , we put our deposit down with Iberian in August 2005 after taking advantage of one of their viewing trips. The couple that took us araound were excellent and we were not pressured in anyway. Truth is they were spot on and told all the potential issues and set out clearly what costs we could expect to incur. The best bit of advice they gave us was to get our own solictor in Spain and we got ourselves a gem through a business contact that I had who had recently moved to Spain and had used her.

Post paying the initial deposits to iberian our only contact with them was via the website, we tried to organise a viewing trip to see how things were going and they sorted out accomodation for us.

We actually completed the purchase on April 24th and had, had no contcat from Iberian at all, in fact when i told them that we wee set to complete their response was "best of luck and we hope it all works out". Beyond that no real help. In fairness to them however our solicitor was now dealing direct with the builders and our mortgage co (Scottish Widows in Edinburgh) good rates and sensible fees. Our solicitor stated in her own gentle way that she was dealing with the builders direct and did not want any agents getting in the way.

Completion went very smoothly (only 3 hours at the notary) and our snagging list consists of 3 items, one missing internal light, 4 missing knobs on the bathroom cabinet & a sticky external blind to the living room. 

I have reported these items to Iberian as I was asked to do so however there is a guy called Diego living on the complex who works for Idearco and he has said he will sort these items out for us as well as looking at a couple of minor upgrades that we want when we go out later this month.

The apartment was clean and furnished when we got the keys (and again opposite the main square in Almoradi is a little ironmongers that will cut more keys if you want them, they were very reasonable and very friendly despite my appalling spanish)

All in all though we are delighted with our purchase and to give a balanced view it was Iberian who tipped us off about Vegamar so all credit to Lee & Laura at Iberian.

My one piece of advice that is you need a good solicitor out there and I mention below ours who has done a first class job for us.

Jacqueline Gudalajara Robledo

Calle La Paz  16. 3 LL

03180 Torrevieja

Tel 96 670 81 42   Mobile 678 62 85 22

E Mail Bastigestion@hotamail.com

She speaks English and knows her stuff.

Whilst out there I met one other guy who had moved in earlier that week  called Colin, he is looking at setting up a cleaning service for anyone wanting to rent their apartment out so the community is already starting to build. 

Finally, we have bought with my brother and his partner on Escalera 1 on the first floor and look forward to meeting some of you. We have numerous photos of the property obviously witha bias towards our own apartment but I am happy to share them but could not work out how to attach them to this message,

If you want a couple of pictures sending through drop me a line on nickwhitaker1@talktalk.net

Regards

Nick & Debbie Whitaker

Sorry That E mail address for Jacqueline is bastigestion@hotmail.com

Nick W 

Hi Nick & Debbie,

Congrats on your purchase  and I hope you have many years of happiness in your new appartment, it seems to be in a very nice location . When you were completing did you get any info on when the pool will be ready for use,  communal charges etc., we have also bought in escalera 1 and are going out the begining of June to compleat we will be there for about a week and then for about 3 weeks in August and hopefully get to know the town better then. I will PM you my e-mail if you could send some up to date photos

Hope to see you in the sun soon.

David & Vanessa

Hello Nick and Debbie,

Great to read about your Vegamar apartment purchase. Its nice to read about something that has gone well as many messages I have read on this and other sites, seem to be full of doom and gloom. I hope that you will both be very  happy with your new home/holiday home/investment.

We are waiting to here from Iberian when our apt will be ready for completion, but have been given the impression that it will be very soon.

Can you tell me about how the whole build is going, as I understand that not all the apts are finished and some will not be ready until October. Are the communal areas finished and is the pool ready for use as we plan to be out there this summer with our Children.

Perhaps we will get a chance to meet you both sometime, congratulations on your purchase.

All the best

John

Hi John

When do you compleat on your apartment sounds like you are in escalera 1 or 2, are you going over agin soon

Dave

Hi everyone

I'm very jealous that you're all talking about completing on your apartments. We can't wait to complete on ours in October.

Nick and Debbie

In the meantime I'll email you direct re some up to date photos

Angie

Dear All

Re the specific points that were raised

We were advised that the pool area will be completed late May early june and that the entire complex will be completed by October of this year.

I suspect the pool will be nearer end of June however as we go out in 2 weeks time I will have more news then. 

Look forward to meeting you all in the coming months 

Nick & Debs

Hi Dave,

Our apartment is located at near escalera 2 on the ground floor.

Iberian has said that our apt has been released by the builders and just waiting for mortgage survey. We have been told to expext completion date end of this month or June. We will not be able to go out until June or July. 

Nick and Debbie,

Thank you for the update, much appreciated.

John

Hello again Dave,

I forgot to ask, have you any news on when you will compleat?

John

Hi Nick and Debbie

Thanks for the photos

John

Everything is in place now mortgage ect., organising time off work and babysitters at the moment and looking at flying over around the 5th June to compleat, I'm hoping to stay over for about a week,

Dave

John

I have sent some photos to your AOL account because I couldn't get to grips with posting them on here in a hurry.  As I have said in my e-mail, you are welcome to share them with anyone if you think they would be of interest.  My friend's house is the otherside of the orange/lemon groves.

Best wishes

Sheila

Hi Nick

Thanks for the photos. We were over in March and they seem to have done quite a bit since then. Our apartment wasn't even rendered . Its nice to see the communal areas coming along and maybe the pool will be finished for the summer?

If anyone else has got any recent photos I'd love to see them.

Angie

Hello One and All,

I have some good pictures sent over by Sheila, thank you Sheila.

Unfortunately I cannot upload them to the shared photos section as they are not jpeg, and I do not know how to convert them. But if anyone would like to see them just send me your email address and I will be happy to forward them on to you.

John

Hello one and all,

Everyone seems very quiet of late, there must be something happening.

Hi John

Congratulations on the news that your apartment is ready,  That's dead on time isn't it?  I can understand that you are both excited and apprehensive.  Does that mean that your furniture will also be in or do you have to do that when you go?

Just to let you know that I am still considering buying.  I think I may have told you that part of my hesitation is that there is some uncertainty with my work situation but I am also in the throes of moving house in the UK.  So it's a lot going on at once!

Good luck again and I look forward to hearing about the apartment.

Kind regards

Sheila

Hi Sheila,

Good to here from you.

Hi everyone

It has been quiet here, but glad to hear that your apartment is ready John and Diane. I don't know what the weather's like where you are, but its freezing here and very wet!  I'm sure you'll be looking forward to a bit of sun!

Reading back on this thread I think Nick and Debbie will probably be going out there soon and hopefully bring back some more news and photos for us.

Keep in touch.

Angie