Viewing Experiences - Episode 1

Viewing properties has been a bit of a surprise to us.

Here is a summary of what we have found so far. We won’t mention specific agencies. Some of the occurrences may be unique to an agency, or may refer to more than one. But as we have only used 4 agencies so far, we are still “getting the hang of it”.

• Websites giving vague information about a property, this could be the price, the size of the rooms, the whereabouts of the property.
• One agent told us that they didn’t measure rooms as this was too much work.
• From what we can gather, owners decide on how much they want to sell for, not like in the UK where we are told what it’s likely worth is. We were told by one agent that owners sometimes will not decide on a price until they know who the client is, so that they can ask for more if they think they will get it.
• None of the agents has said they will keep us posted of properties they think will fit our needs.
• One agent advised us to keep checking their website as in a few weeks time they will have seen other people by then… (they don’t seem to operate the same as in the UK where they have you on a mailing list).
• No printed particulars. Only one agent said they would print out particulars of properties we had viewed, for our own information. And then they forgot. As we have internet access we didn’t chase this up, but it’s something to be aware of.
• One website we contacted that we thought was an estate agent is actually a property portal, ie advertising website. If they don't have an AMI number they are not licensed estate agents. To be fair, these sites do advise for you to make sure you use registered estate agents. Registered estate agents have to check that certain things are in order before they post the property for sale, eg habitation licence if required. One agent looked at his "pending" file and told us that there were a couple of places we might be interested in but as he was waiting for confirmation of certain paperwork he could not show us these.
  
• One website uses photographs supplied by the sellers of the properties – that might explain why some of the pics are a bit odd, eg picture of the patio with the family dog squatting in the background and week’s washing on line.
• It’s good practice to be shown properties that an agent thinks will suit you perfectly, but on one occasion we were shown one property we didn’t ask to see, and ran out of time to see the one we HAD asked to see. The one chosen by the agent on this occasion did not suit us. We haven’t arranged to go back again to see the one missed out.
• Viewing a property that the estate agent hasn’t seen in its entirety – there seems to be a problem with access to some properties. Don’t be surprised if your agent has never been inside the place they are showing you. Owners are often foreign, English, Dutch, German, Belgian. Quite often they have “gone home” without leaving a key.
• Houses described as renovation, are sometimes no more than a ruin because they are so dilapidated.
• Project plans for a part renovation that expired 12 months ago. This would mean we might have to go through the whole planning application again, including costs.
• Part renovationed properties that indicate the current owner probably hasn’t actually thought it through! House flow no longer works.
• Viewing all day without so much of the offer of a glass of water – we have now had a cup of tea at one house we viewed. Mind you, the one estate agent treated us to a two course meal, complete with wine and coffee at one of his favourite restaurants. That was rather nice!
  
• One worrying thing is that when we contact an agent a week in advance to make a booking, to suit them and the owner of the property, we turn up on the appointed day at the appointed time, and the owner of the property is out, because the agent has not contacted them beforehand. They are now frantically trying to contact them while you wait in their office/back of car.

THINGS THE PICTURES DO NOT SHOW

• Access roads at 45 degree angles
• Access roads that are barely passable without a four wheel drive vehicle.
• Neighbours (Portugese) glaring at the person selling the property. Can you hear the alarm bells jangling!
  
• Attic space – Roof truss not attached to the load bearing part of the roof! Get us outta here!
• Attic space with sawdust on floor, means the beams may be being eaten by something?
• Water rights - one lovely place we saw had 2 wells. One of the neighbours had been given permission to use 1 well for irrigating his land. That could be a problem if you will need that water yourself. We were told that we could put in a borehole, if we needed more water - this would cost approx 5,000 euros!
• Bear in mind other verbal agreements, such as grazing rights. If we want to use our new piece of land to grow vegetables to be self sufficient, but the neighbour who has previously been given permission to graze his sheep on the land is now told he is not allowed, he won't be happy. In fact, you may need to check that the previous agreement does not still stand?
  

TIPS

• Go armed with cold drinks and snacks.
• Go to the toilet before you set off as there is no guarantee some of the properties have a toilet. In fact, there is no guarantee you will actually see inside a property if the owner is out or a key not available.
  
• Take GPS reading, you can Google map it later.
• Take a compass reading, and bear in mind where the sun will be in the morning, midday, and evening. Think about your lifestyle, do you want to sit out in the evening and watch the sunsets?
• Wear long trousers and sensible shoes if you are looking at a Quinta, or piece of land.
• Take a camera.

POSITIVES

• Use each trip to explore the area. Usually the estate agent is driving, and giving you the perfect chance to soak up the scenery and spot places of interest.
• Look at what has been done with renovations etc to give yourself ideas.
• Use it as an opportunity to pick up snippets of information, both from the owners of the property and the estate agent.
• Enjoy the experience. Usually, the sun is shining. Chill out and relax, and accept that no one is in a rush.