Hi there! We have a house in Daya Nueva, near Almoradi, we have owned it for three years, we too, were very wary about being put under pressure to buy through these inspection trips. we were very lucky in that we stumbled across Elite Spanish Properties from Earith, Cambs, who were absolutely brilliant, it is run by a husband and wife team, both English, and they could not do enough for us. We didnt even have to pay for any drinks. They picked us up from the airport and literally were at our beck and call for the whole 4 days. There was only me and my hubby, we never shared the car with anyone else, John and Maria were there for us solely. On the second day, we found our dream house and John took us to our local bank and opened a joint account for us, he dealt with the deposit and solicitors and we didnt have to do a thing. As we still had 2 days left, his wife,Maria took us out and about looking at furniture packs and also arranged our NIE numbers for us. All the meals were paid for by ESP and they went out of their way to take us to different types of restaurants so we could taste the local cuisine. In contrast, before we decided to go with ESP, we had visited one of these Spanish Home exhibitions, and also signed up to go on one of their inspection trips, they were called Solinvest, which we later found out were part of Masa. Well, to cut a long story short, as we had already purchased through ESP, we thought we would just go along for the ride, out of curiosity, to see how this company worked, (obviously, we never mentioned this to the agent), well, from the moment they picked us up from the airport, it was a nightmare, we had to share the car with another couple and 2 children, and the car wasnt big enough for 2 car seats, so one child had to sit on MY lap!!! The next day we were picked up over an hour later than the rep told us, and this time we were sharing the car with another couple, whose budget was double ours! We asked for a 3 bedroomed house, and all they kept showing us were 0ne bedroomed apartments, one cost over a quarter of a million pounds (our budget was £90000!) We had to pay for all our own meals and drinks, and the pressure was awful, he must have been on commision only, as he was relentless in trying to sell us totally unsuitable properties. The poor couple with us were nearly in tears, we were fine, as we knew we already had a house reserved, but anyone else would have totally caved in and purchased, just to get him off their backs! Even on the way back to drop us off at the airport, he stopped at his office to show us yet more over priced flats, at one stage we thought we would miss our flight because he was so determined to sell us something! A total nightmare from the very start! When we got back home, the agent this end who arranged our trip just ignored our calls and e-mails as we didnt purchase anything! I do hope nobody else has to go through that sort of experience, because if we had gone with Solinvest first, we would never have bought our lovely place in Spain, we just would not have bothered!!!
Adios!
Gaynor xxx