10 Mar 2011 5:43 PM:
I totally agree with the google maps suggestion but agents are very protective.
I always ask for the catastral reference because it gives you the boundaries (well approx!) the registered house details (within 5 years or so!) and you can see the location and whether it's next door to a pig farm, quarry, tip etc. If an agent won't give me it, I find another one who will. For people just starting looking in Spain, this is a valid suggestion for the whole country. Just get the reference and enter it into the catastrals website. If you select sigpac or one of the other overlays, you see a satelite image just like google but with the boundaries and house outlined.
This is starting to appear like an agent bashing thread but a lot of them have only themselves to blame. I could post an whole list of "tricks". The best thing for anyone in Andalucia is to always ask for the Ficha Informativa or DIA. Most of the poor agents can't be bothered to produce these so that's a good indicition. In the interests of fairness, there are a few good ones but there names are tarnished by the ones who don't play ball.
Thread:
A few tricks that real estate agents use
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