Over recent months Villa Surveyors has been asked to undertake building surveys and valuations for clients who have not visited the property personally. These clients either don’t have sufficient time or live too far away to undertake the property visits themselves. Therefore, they rely on the selling agents property descriptions, photos and videos to make a decision on what is very often a very significant financial investment.

In those cases where buyers don’t have the option to undertake the visits, there is in my view, a much better option than relying solely on property portal and agents website descriptions on which to base a decision. This involves asking a trusted professional to undertake a property search.

At Villa Surveyors we are able to visit up to four properties per day for property buyers over a two week period, which can be extended by an additional week if necessary. The advantages of having us undertake a search, rather than relying on agents sales descriptions are many. Think about what a Villa Surveyors property search entails.

At the start of the mandate we help the buyer to define the area of search. We start by listening vary carefully to what the buyer wants to achieve. Once we have this clear we are able to provide appropriate advice in order to create realistic expectations and make the search process as efficient as possible. Our clients are able to participate as much as they want in the search. Many of them like to manage the inspection bookings and contact selling agents directly themselves. We are very happy to go along with this.

Villa Surveys does not accept commissions from selling agents or sellers. Once you have decided on a property you want to buy we will do our best to negotiate the best deal for you that we can. We are experienced negotiators. We can also recommend property lawyers, potential sources of finance etc, if required.

We also provide general advice to avoid the pitfalls we have seen buyers make in the past. This commences with taking a number of steps before you commence the property search. For example, if you don’t already have a Spanish or Portuguese fiscal number or bank account, we recommend that you get these as soon as possible in order to avoid delays once you have found a property. A lawyer in Portugal or Spain can help you with this if required. If finance is required we suggest that you start to organise this early.

We have a lot of experience and will do our best to help you avoid making mistakes. If you would like to understand more about our property search service and what we can do for you please get in touch for an initial call, a no obligation quote or send us a message with any questions and we will get back to you.

At Villa Surveyors we will do our best to help make your dreams come true.