Let us start where it all began. For several years my wife and I were looking for a second home by the Mediterranean sea. In 2016 we finally made the decision and bought an apartment in Playa Muchavista. After a lot of uncertainty everything turned out well and the process was actually quite smooth. In this blog I am sharing our experience and success factors. Hopefully our experience is useful for you or someone else
The most time consuming phase for us was the research phase. We actually spent more than a year of research in order to find the right place and suitable objects to check out. If you do not have a specific town or region in mind, I recommend to do some thorough research. What is the weather like during summer, autumn, winter and spring? Temperature, wind and rain. And what about communication? How do you get there? What are the average airline fares? Can you get there at a reasonable price all year long? Who spend time there? Locals, seasonal visitors or tourists? Based on our needs El Campello and Playa Muchavista stood out as great matches. That meant an off season visit to check it out, and Playa Muchavista still delivered. The decision was made!
Next step was identifying the right home for us. We spent numerous hours on Idealista to find the right candidates. Idealista is a great tool, but two topics created headaces, price and location.
The asking prices for the different properties vary a lot. It is really hard to understand why the price of two similar properties vary by almost 100 percent. My best guess is that many properties have been bought at a high price level and that the sellers think the properties still have the same value. We filtered out those properties and opted for the ones that were reasonably priced.
Most of the ads are presented without an address which makes it difficult to do proper research. If the property has access to a swimming pool my best tip is to use Google satellite images to identify the property based on the pool pictures. After a little bit of practice it works very well.
Once the research is done it is time to make appointments to view the selected properties and let the fun begin. Remember, before you accept or sign anything, make sure you have proper assistance. How to acquire the right support team and the actual purchase process is the topic of my next blog. Stay tuned!