Top 5 tips for finding great Costa Brava property agents

Whether you are looking to move to the Costa Brava permanently or just want a holiday home where you can escape several times every year, the chances are that you will end up finding your property through an agent.

While it seems that real estate agents are universally loathed, they do still perform a necessary function in bringing buyers and sellers together and help push the buying process through. However, how helpful they are in practice can vary wildly and in order to get your dream house you need to have a good agent.

The current state of the property market

The economy throughout the entire Iberian Peninsular remains dire after a massive property boom in Spain ended in collapse and with unemployment at 27 percent nationally there is plenty of stress in the system.

Property prices have come down in price from the peaks of five years ago or so and anecdotally there is strong demand for properties in some areas from Scandinavian and Russian buyers.

Russians flocked to the Costa Brava last year during the summer, with some resorts reporting 40 percent of all occupancies were Russian and that is forecast to rise further during the summer of 2013.

At least some of those holidaymakers are sure to decide that the Costa Brava is for them and invest their rubles in property here; while demand may be way off what it once was, that doesn’t mean there is no demand, although it is likely to be certain types of property in specific areas.

Personal experience of Costa Brava property agents

You would think that given the state of the economy that property agents on the Costa Brava would be tripping over themselves to follow up on anyone who has shown the remotest interest in buying. However, experience has shown that they are extremely unlikely to follow up with you even when you’ve told them exactly what you’re looking for.

Buying a house three years ago we saw properties offered by three or four agents. One of these showed us a property we had expressed an interest in, but also showed us a property that in no way matched what we were after.

We then spent some time explaining what we were looking for, just to make sure. He told us he had 200 properties on his book as was selling…. well, nothing basically.

Given that he wasn’t selling properties you’d think he might have time to find some properties among his 200 that might be suitable for us. However, when he finally got in contact 18 months later we’d already bought from another agent.

Another day, another area, another agent; we looked around a property that was in deep need of work, but it had potential. In the end we decided against it, but we told the agent what we wanted. She took down notes and said she’d call…

We never heard from her again, although we did here from the owner of the property a few weeks later asking how the agent had treated us. He was appalled and we advised him to change agent.

Eventually we did find a good agent who DID call back (I know an agent down in Valencia who tells me that it is normal for agents not to return calls, even in these desperate times), we saw quite a number of properties and eventually bought.

But those other agents could have found us something too, if only they’d taken the time to understand what we were looking for and find that type of property for us.

Boom years resulted in many new agents but sales skill is in short supply

What is the reason for this complete antipathy towards finding what buyers want?

I suspect it is that most estate agents in Spain came into the business during the boom years and don’t really have any idea about how to sell. To a certain extent selling is a numbers game, but once you’ve got people who have demonstrated they are serious about buying you need to look after them and move them closer to the sale.

They didn’t like a property? That isn’t because they’re not buyers, just that it’s not the right property. Ask them why and try and understand what the real motivations are.

Once you have an idea of that find a property that is more like what they want.

Don’t show them everything you have, match the buyers with the types of property they say they want to buy and keep chipping away until they see one they like. And if you don’t follow up on your leads you’ll never make any sales; people tend to need to build up a relationship of trust before buying. House buying is rarely a quick decision as it is likely to be the biggest purchase in the buyer’s life and the need to get it right.

Incidentally, I know that a few of the properties we did look at with the other agents are still on the market, but now with very much reduced price tags.

What to look for in an agent? My top 5 tips

So given all the negatives about agents on the Costa Brava (in fact throughout Spain), how do you find someone you can trust and who will help you find your dream house?
Based on personal experience my advice would be as follows:

1. Ask for recommendations from people who have already bought here. That way you get rid of some of the trial and error and guesswork about who might be a good agent. This is something we were unable to do, as we didn’t know anyone living in the location we eventually settled on.
2. Make some enquiries with agents and see how quickly they respond to your enquiries and how much information they provide. Slow to respond? There is no reason for it these days, they should be bite the hand of anyone who looks serious about buying.
3. How closely do the properties you are shown match what you’d asked for? While you’re unlikely to see properties that exactly match your mental image of your dream house, they should meet some of your requirements at least.
4. As you are shown houses, how does the agent respond? Asking questions to further clarify what you are really after is a good sign; you may realize that you need to compromise after seeing a few houses and your requirements therefore change.
5. Although it is not obligatory for agents throughout Spain to be licensed, regulations in Catalonia mean that they should have a real estate agent’s licence. Many operators, particularly foreign owned, do not comply but whether that is an issue or not us up to you and your own judgement.

Buying a property is one of the biggest decisions that anyone makes and it can be doubly stressful when buying overseas due to differences in both culture and law. This makes it imperative to find a good estate agent who will help you find a property that matches your needs and helps guide you through the buying process.

By taking some time to choose a property agent carefully and continuing to evaluate them while looking for properties you give yourself the best possible chance of finding what you are after quickly, the biggest risk to picking a poor agent being that you’ll waste a lot of time seeing properties that really you’d never want to live in. If you’re travelling from the UK or elsewhere in order to buy a house then that is a lot of wasted effort, so pick wisely!

Tags: Estate Agents, Property, Real Estate