After the success of the last two days with a major front runner from each day we had high hopes for today. But sadly it was not to be! I don't suppose you can expect everything to be great, today didn't even have houses that could come up to the standards of some of the ones we rejected over the last couple of days! Amazingly enough there was some major red flags with all of them that made us reject them which was a shame as on the web they looked really promising.
What we have found is that obviously the Estate Agents only want you to see the great features and not stuff that might make you rule them out immediately. Some houses are being shown with 4 or 5 pictures that cannot hope to show you all you'd want to see from the homes. Plus asking the awkward questions of home owners is fun too, one today admitted they were in no man's land at the moment for their version of council tax and when they do decide which town they are part of they will be liable for 4 years back tax, cue awkward looks!
I'm not going to waste bandwidth upping pix today, that's how disappointed we are! ;) I changed my mind after getting proper internet on 16/04/12!
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| Mojácar Playa house - redeeming feature the kitchen! |
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| Cramped lounge, know all agent! |
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| Original kitchen makes up utility - tired!!! |
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| Cramped master bedroom! |
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| Small pool area overlooked as you can see. |
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| Beyond that arch was a dirt track you needed a 4x4 to drive over!! |
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| Not a bad looking house.... |
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| Nice tile and decent sized lounge leading to confused bedroom layouts! |
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| Not too bad a kitchen. |
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| Nice pool area, showing off it's best looking features. |
Seeing is believing. We have three more houses to view Friday which are located close to Almería City that has a population of 200,000. The area in which we are located now is about 45 miles east of there. Saturday we plan to see two more houses in our current region.
ReplyDeleteOf the 13 homes that we have viewed, we want to return to view our two favorites. We still have to get our papers in order to open bank accounts and transfer money into them prior to hiring a solicitor (lawyer) to examine all the land and water rights as well as tax payments for the houses of interest. Many homes do not have all the needed documentation and the buyers get stuck with lots of problems and a huge bill. So we want to make sure everything is kosher (does that still pertain in a Catholic country?) before we make an offer.
Today we walked around the central area of Los Gallardos. It is a picture book Spanish town of about 3000 located halfway between the beach and the mountains.
Keep the spirit up.
ReplyDeleteWe've learned the same lesson looking for houses through Internet websites.
My advice, ask the locals were are you now. I mean when you go to buy the bread or the butcher. Or even in the bar. I'm sure someone will now someone else that are selling houses.
Second one, pick an area of your choice from the visited ones. Drive around there and keep an eye for the "Se Vende" signs with phone numbers. In this economy many sellers are trying to sell without involve an state agent.
We've been very lucky on our search, but at the moment number one is one found by our previous state agent. Go figure! :)
Don't give up. Cheer up and keep looking, I'm sure you will find the house suitable for you.
I'll try to keep reading the blog, because tomorrow we are flying to the UK! :(
Cheers,
David
i always loved a place called Aguadulce which is on the outskirts of Roquetas, you can still pick up a decent sized villa in the hills but have the benefit of having a town nearby! other places to try are Heurcal Almeria and Viator. They both sit just off the A7/E15 but are close enough to almeria to enjoy the benefits without the house prices
ReplyDeleteoh and also when you get your internet up and going can we have lots more pictures please
ReplyDeleteWell we are now in the amazing position detailed in the newer blog posts!! More pix uploaded now too Phil ;)
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