23 Jun 2011 12:26 AM:

Garry and Peedoff

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Your comments have given me reassurrance that the resort in not quite the ghost town it was described as. It seems like there is quite a bit going on and The Spaniard Inn seems very much at the centre of the community. I know it is a great location with the new airport opening and Paramount hopefully opening up. I guess what I was more concenred about was if there were lots of half built blocks and nobody living on the site, but you suggest that is not the case. Next step is to visit, in August hopefully. Thank you for the offer to rent your apartment Garry, I may just take you up on it.

all the best

Roy

 

Community thread: Considering buying

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21 Jun 2011 12:00 AM:

Hello,

I am considering buying an apartment and have seen the Hacienda Del Alamo website which looks really nice and paints a very good picture of the resort. However, I have done a bit more digging on the net (hence finding this forum) and I am getting a slightly different picture. It would appear that a lot of the buildings are half finished with building work stopped and many completed properties sitting unsold and empty. I understand the Spanish Village complex has around 200 apartments completed but not one of them sold. One description was it is like a 'ghost town'. This in itself is not unusual in Spain at the moment but having read the posts on here there a clearly things happening and people are living there but I am looking for some honest advice. Can you give me an idea of what it is really like, what facilities are there and how is the place being run?

Thanks

Roy

Community thread: Considering buying

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11 Oct 2010 9:36 PM:

More fool your friend I am afraid to say Justin. No one would get a lunch out of me until after they had bought! You can't expect people to buy just because you have driven them around a lot and taken them out for nice lunch. You need to do a lot of background work and make sure that the properties you are showing are what the client actually wants. Surely this guy must have known the prices before he decided to view so he could have told they weren't enough of a bargain for him. Probably a time waster admitedly but he could and should have been better managed so your friend didn't waste his time and money.

Also, all the agents on here have been getting very defensive about their hard earned commission, but they are missing the point. No one begrudges sales agents earning a reasonable commission for the work they do - 5% seems to be about the norm at the moment which seems fair and reasonable to me. The point that I and others have made here before is when an extortionate amount of 'commission' get added on top of the vendors price by certain agents. This is not declared to the buyer and the buyer ends up paying a much higher price than necessary as a result of greed by the agent concerned.

Hopefully this practice is on its way out. All we are asking for is fair and transparent system that is fair for all.

Forum thread: Estate Agents Commission

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09 Sep 2010 11:07 PM:

Being a little sensitive aren't we Georgia?? I, and I am sure most people on this forum, don't object to estate agents making a fair commission for the work they do, and most do provide a valuable service, but as I have said many, many times before on here, it is the crooked ones that spoil the market for everyone, buyers, sellers and honest agents alike.

There really is no justification for the same property being offered at substantially different prices by different agents just because the crooked agents think that some buyers won't notice and will unwittingly pay a higher price, giving the agent extra commission - often substantial amounts. This is simply crooked, deceitful and dishonest in my opinion.

Nor is there any justification for the agent Vee describes behaving in the way she does. Again, simply dishonest and crooked behaviour. This type of behaviour does more harm to the Spanish market than anything else.

You cannot deny this type of thing goes on and is more widespread than people realise. It is a shame that the system in Spain allows it to happen, unchecked. Not only do buyers suffer, but the good honest agents (like yourself) do too. Why don't you good guys get together and try to do something to stop it - lobby parliament or something. Start a campaign to drive out all the dodgy agents from Spain. That would help to boost sales!

 

Forum thread: Property prices

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05 Sep 2010 10:25 AM:

You are right, any 'Tom, Dick or Harry' can set themselves up as an agent and the problem is there is no professional body to set and monitor standards.

It is a question of transparency and who pays the agent. If agents don't act for the seller then who do they act for and who pays them? If they are acting for the buyer as a 'property finder' and the buyer is paying them then surely the buyer is entitled to know how much they are paying for this service. But this is never disclosed and because the agent (or multiple agents as you say) add their slice on top, their commission is effectively hidden within the asking price and this can mean the asking price varies considerably from agent to agent as already illustrated, leaving unwary buyers vunerable to being ripped off.

I believe many agents, particularly the British agents, prey on this vunerability and buyers will often pay a far higher price than needed because they don't understand how the system works.

Many agents, not all, seem to exist somewhere in a grey area between seller and buyer but don't act specifically for either - so they must be acting for themselves. To clarify things and to make the market place transparent, agents should state clearly who they are acting for and who is paying them. The person paying them, either buyer or seller, should then be told how much the fee is. We don't mind paying for a service as long as we know what the service is, how much it costs and what we are getting for our money.

Forum thread: Property prices

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