Any Spaniards or ex-pat brits?

[Scouse]

Our negotiations continue with our offer currently at 45% of the asking price.

Sounds great. Whereabouts. Google map link so we can spy?

If you don't mind me asking - what sort of figures you talking about? Presumably you'll need to spend the same again to do up to, what, a 2 bed farmhouse thing?

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Urracal
Guy is asking 65,000, we have bid 35,000. He has come down to 55,000 so far but we don't want to pay more than 45/50,000. We need to spend 100,000(ish) on paperwork and renovations. Main house once reconfigured 2 large beds with ensuite, two further double beds with guest bathroom, Living room/Dining room/Hall/Kitchen. Two separate 100m2 rentals and 100m2 for our storage/workshop and a gym. Pool of course to be built.
Epic views over the Almanzora valley. Great for walkers and cyclists or those that just want some peace and quiet. It's far from a done deal because of the paperwork nightmare with it, but our lawyer is optimistic we could get the deal done in 6/9 months.
Fuck Mortgages.
Fuck Brexit.

edit: fucking snowing here, 14 and sunny there.

 

[Scouse]

That's fucking amazing.

Get it bought before no deal brexit happens. Pound is already for shit. Could lose 25%.

I might be following you at those prices. I could flog a house and live mortgage free tomorrow!

 

[~Yuckfou~]

small update:
Travelling out there again 12th April for a few days, Brexit allowing
Going back with an architect to see what we are and aren't allowed to do. It's on rural land and we are very restricted, but shouldn't be a show stopper.
If all goes well, for sale sign outside here and offer upped to the vendor. *Might* be there by July/August.

 

[Gwadien]

Okay then, since no-one else is going to say it.

I know you're posting on here with your updates for a reason, when is the Freddies Inquisition to your villa?

 

[Deebs]

small update:
Travelling out there again 12th April for a few days, Brexit allowing
Going back with an architect to see what we are and aren't allowed to do. It's on rural land and we are very restricted, but shouldn't be a show stopper.
If all goes well, for sale sign outside here and offer upped to the vendor. *Might* be there by July/August.

Got any pics?

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Okay then, since no-one else is going to say it.

I know you're posting on here with your updates for a reason, when is the Freddies Inquisition to your villa?

Sure bring all the tools you've got and your working gear. It's realistically a two year project.

I'll post pics when (if) it's ours, don't want to jinx it.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Well FFS.
Got a copy of the documents from the estate agent. House fine, amount of land fine. Problem is the land isn't the bit we were told. Pretty much all the land is behind the house in a ravine 100m or so away and completely fucking unusable, it's a black run++. Cunt told the agent the land was including a different parcel which may or may not be owned by the seller, we don't know yet.
Anyhoo, offer withdrawn and Architect appointment cancelled.
Still going in a few days but now doing loads of house viewings, back to square one.
Hijo de Puta.

 

[Wij]

Well FFS.
Got a copy of the documents from the estate agent. House fine, amount of land fine. Problem is the land isn't the bit we were told. Pretty much all the land is behind the house in a ravine 100m or so away and completely fucking unusable, it's a black run++. Cunt told the agent the land was including a different parcel which may or may not be owned by the seller, we don't know yet.
Anyhoo, offer withdrawn and Architect appointment cancelled.
Still going in a few days but now doing loads of house viewings, back to square one.
Hijo de Puta.

 

[dysfunction]

Well FFS.
Got a copy of the documents from the estate agent. House fine, amount of land fine. Problem is the land isn't the bit we were told. Pretty much all the land is behind the house in a ravine 100m or so away and completely fucking unusable, it's a black run++. Cunt told the agent the land was including a different parcel which may or may not be owned by the seller, we don't know yet.
Anyhoo, offer withdrawn and Architect appointment cancelled.
Still going in a few days but now doing loads of house viewings, back to square one.
Hijo de Puta.

Unfortunately I think this sort of thing happens quite a bit when buying abroad.

 

[Scouse]

Well FFS.
Got a copy of the documents from the estate agent. House fine, amount of land fine. Problem is the land isn't the bit we were told. Pretty much all the land is behind the house in a ravine 100m or so away and completely fucking unusable, it's a black run++. Cunt told the agent the land was including a different parcel which may or may not be owned by the seller, we don't know yet.
Anyhoo, offer withdrawn and Architect appointment cancelled.
Still going in a few days but now doing loads of house viewings, back to square one.
Hijo de Puta.

That sucks a fat one.

 

[Embattle]

Unfortunately I think this sort of thing happens quite a bit when buying abroad.

It certainly seems common in Spain.

 

[Deebs]

Well FFS.
Got a copy of the documents from the estate agent. House fine, amount of land fine. Problem is the land isn't the bit we were told. Pretty much all the land is behind the house in a ravine 100m or so away and completely fucking unusable, it's a black run++. Cunt told the agent the land was including a different parcel which may or may not be owned by the seller, we don't know yet.
Anyhoo, offer withdrawn and Architect appointment cancelled.
Still going in a few days but now doing loads of house viewings, back to square one.
Hijo de Puta.

That sucks donkey balls, can you claim any monies spent on surveys etc as the cunt lied?

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Unfortunately I think this sort of thing happens quite a bit when buying abroad.

Well there are often problems but predominately it's the building not the land. They have a tendency to throw a house up when no one is looking. Then somewhere down the line the problems start. Although in recent years the Spanish authorities have been taking a softer line and allowing post build permissions when peeps have been done up like a kipper. The paperwork for these buildings is all in order, I've seen it.

That sucks donkey balls, can you claim any monies spent on surveys etc as the cunt lied?

Fortunately not spent any money yet, I spotted the discrepancy in the paperwork. Luckily I speak enough Spanglish to spot it.

We find out tomorrow if the seller owns all the land or not. The estate agent has a meeting with the seller. If he does and it's included with the sale then we are back on track.

We knew from the offset this wasn't going to be easy because of the type of property we want to buy.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Fuckity shit bollocks.
Not only does he not own the land, but it is owned by the local council.
How he thought he would get away with this I really don't know. Estate agent is equally annoyed as they've spent plenty of time with us on site, emails, calls etc.

So moving on. Viewing 15 or so properties in three days next week. Weather forecast is 23/24 degrees all day, so worse ways of spending our time. Looking forward to some cold beers and tapas.

 

[Lakih]

Good luck dude!

 

[dysfunction]

Fuckity shit bollocks.
Not only does he not own the land, but it is owned by the local council.
How he thought he would get away with this I really don't know. Estate agent is equally annoyed as they've spent plenty of time with us on site, emails, calls etc.

So moving on. Viewing 15 or so properties in three days next week. Weather forecast is 23/24 degrees all day, so worse ways of spending our time. Looking forward to some cold beers and tapas.

Sorry to hear that. Hope you get what you after

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Sitrep:
Spent a couple of days over there earlier this week. Saw 15 or so houses, some great but too much money and no negotiation on price, some not so great. Late on the last day the agent we were with says there is a Cortijo not on your list just up the road, but I don't think you'll like it as there is probably too much work. We said we are here let's look anyway, nothing to lose.
It's a little cracker! Similar to the place we loved, a little smaller with less land. It's got the same kind of position overlooking the valley and the mountains on the other side. Surrounded by olive and almond groves. There's potential for one really good rental, with a possible cabin as well in the grounds hidden away.
So we've already got the paperwork and my Spanglish tells me the land and buildings are all good. Sent it all off to the lawyer but it's god holiday time over there this week so won't hear back until next week.
Mrs Yuck likes it because there are 2 neighbours, one behind us and one to the side, but not at all intrusive. It makes her feel safer should anything happen either to me or if I'm not there. The village, Somontin , is only 5 minutes walk away and has the basics for day to day stuff. There's 2 other villages 5 minutes drive and a small town that has most stuff 10 minutes away.
If the paperwork is OK we are going back in the next week or so with the architect and if all looks good put in an offer. Our house is going on the market in the next week or so whatever happens.
To save money we've decided to buy a caravan and park it on the land until the house is partly habitable. That should be "interesting" in the heat over there, got a feeling tempers may get frayed from time to time .
Trying not to get emotionally invested this time but it's not easy.

 

[caLLous]

Having spent a summer in the south of France in a mobile home, good luck with that.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Having spent a summer in the south of France in a mobile home, good luck with that.

Looking to get the power hooked up there muy pronto. Then get a mobile aircon unit to help with the tempers, plus maybe put a decent sized fridge/freezer somewhere for cold drinks.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Jeez I could write a book about this.
So we've been back since last post to see the house in Somontin with an Architect. It was a no go. Because some of the roof had collapsed (over 30%) we would not be able to get the building permissions we needed. So back to square one again.
So we looked again at the house we originally fell in love with in Urracal. We got some more paperwork sent to us and did some digging. It turns out that it does have the amount of land he said but it's not the land he thought. So OK right? Nope. The land that he thought he owns has approx 100 bee hives on it. He had given permission for his mate to put them on there thinking it was his land. The bees are a big problem, they are attracted in their thousands to the irrigation water when it is running, which is on our land. So this would make a swimming pool completely unusable, unless you like to scuba. So we've checked if he has permission from the council who own the land and he does not. Win, we can have them shifted.
The architect has seen all the paperwork for the house and is making very positive noises about it. He has told us we can do a "Tourist Project", which allows us to do anything we want to the house even demolish and rebuild if needed. As long as we are not nearer than 25m from the land boundary, which we are not.
We've struck very lucky with this architect. He is a local guy, whose main office is in Almeria. He knows the area like the back of his hand and has done the town planning for most of the region, including Urracal. He has already saved us a shit load of money.
So we are there again next week (4th time this year) to meet the architect at the house and plan things out. If he says we are safe to proceed then we need to start talking to the owner who is still asking a bit too much. Every penny is going to count as we will be doing pretty much all of our money. While we are there I'm going to see if there are any local government grants available for tourist projects.
If this all pans out we will have a great house with 2 or 3 self catering rentals and a bike hire business.

Hasta proxima.

 

[Ctuchik]

Fingers crossed it works out!

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Yup, good luck, we're all rooting for you Yuck, not least cos we're all after cheap holidays in those self catering rentals!

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Updateathon:

Ok, so had the architect put together plans, and get costings for the old Cortijo in Urracal. We could afford to buy it and do it up. What we couldn't afford was the licences and the local government engineers fees. These all added up to many monies, we could just afford it. It would have left us with not enough parachute cash so walked away.
But, we had a Plan B house lined up that we could just buy and move into. So we are buying that! It's a newish build that we can make a lot better without need of any permissions. So our intention is to flip it in the next two years. That might give us enough to go back and purchase the cortijo, we'll see.
The new place was an illegal build that has had retrospective permissions given for the build. The land needed to be segregated which has now happened and we are just waiting for the paperwork to drop out the other end. Spanish paperwork is a nightmare with everyone taking a cut during the process.
The new house needs a solar energy sytem putting in . It has no mains and never will have. Had a couple of quotes from Spanish firms via the estate agent and 5/6k euros seems to be the consensus. Going to be doing more research as I want to make sure there is enough storage capacity and the backup generator can handle it. Air-con units all need servicing/replacing, pool needs a bloody good clean and a new pump (old ones been nicked) and a new cover. Kitchen although OK will be replaced and some internal wall "adjustment" made to make the place work better.
Best we can expect internet wise is 12mb , it works with a small receiver on the house picking up a wireless internet signal from a local transmitter. Glad I'm not into fps gaming anymore, god knows what the latency is going to be like.

Oh, our house here. Well had the estate agent come to value, didn't sign up as the numbers on the contract were wrong. Was going to pop in the next day to sign up. Two hours later we had a knock on the door from one of the neighbours, "I have some friends who might be interested in your house". Oooohkay, they rang later that day, came to see it a few days later, put in an offer at a few hundred under the asking price, SOLD! Saved enough on the agents fees to do a lot of the jobs.
Put in an offer on the Spanish house, cutting them off at the knees. It was already reduced by 30% as they are getting divorced and want the money out. They countered, we countered with what we actually wanted to pay for the house (15% below the new asking price), offer accepted. Deposit paid. Bish fucking Bosh.
Looking to move out of here and exchange 23rd August. Exchange in Spain a working day or two later. We've got somewhere to stay while the electrickery gets sorted then we'll move in.
As I write this, 16C here feels like 13C, windy, cloudy and miserable. 29C there feels like 32C, sunny, expected high 32C.

Can't
fucking
wait.

 

[Gumbo]

Updateathon:

Best we can expect internet wise is 12mb , it works with a small receiver on the house picking up a wireless internet signal from a local transmitter. Glad I'm not into fps gaming anymore, god knows what the latency is going to be like.

All sounds awesome, and if it helps....

We have what sounds like a similar system with what looks like a little satellite dish pointing at a church tower 3km away to receive wireless internet.

They offer an 8Mb/s connection, but the 'engineer' who came to hook us up had to come a day late, and we didn't moan, we fed him tea and cake, and he played with our dog, so.... When he was doing the indoors bit with his laptop he said he could turn us up to 11 and until a few more people in our direction from the church get hooked up we'll stay like that. That was almost 3 years ago now and we get a really steady 11 Mb/s.

Latency... My ping is always somewhere between 20 and 30 *things..* and very stable. I only really play iRacing these days and it's fine with that, I'm sure it would be fine with FPS's.

Downsides?

I have to trek half a mile away with a strimmer every now and again and to batter down a load of ferns and brambles which grow right on the crest of the hill that we're peeking over to see the church tower. I also had to take off a couple of branches which would sway over the antenna in heavy winds. But only when they came into leaf.

Heavy rain doesn't affect it, but really misty intense drizzly stuff does and in those rare events the connection drops to 2 or 3 Mb/s and the ping goes everywhere.

Best news.

We're in the middle of nowhere, but Norfolk has a great scheme for getting Proper Broadband to everyone, and because we're in a place where it's cheaper to run fibre over a longer distance, than put in a new box to do FTTC to serve just a few homes, within 12 months we'll be FTTP with a 300Mb/s connection!

 

[~Yuckfou~]

All sounds awesome, and if it helps....

We have what sounds like a similar system with what looks like a little satellite dish pointing at a church tower 3km away to receive wireless internet.

They offer an 8Mb/s connection, but the 'engineer' who came to hook us up had to come a day late, and we didn't moan, we fed him tea and cake, and he played with our dog, so.... When he was doing the indoors bit with his laptop he said he could turn us up to 11 and until a few more people in our direction from the church get hooked up we'll stay like that. That was almost 3 years ago now and we get a really steady 11 Mb/s.

Latency... My ping is always somewhere between 20 and 30 *things..* and very stable. I only really play iRacing these days and it's fine with that, I'm sure it would be fine with FPS's.

Downsides?

I have to trek half a mile away with a strimmer every now and again and to batter down a load of ferns and brambles which grow right on the crest of the hill that we're peeking over to see the church tower. I also had to take off a couple of branches which would sway over the antenna in heavy winds. But only when they came into leaf.

Heavy rain doesn't affect it, but really misty intense drizzly stuff does and in those rare events the connection drops to 2 or 3 Mb/s and the ping goes everywhere.

Best news.

We're in the middle of nowhere, but Norfolk has a great scheme for getting Proper Broadband to everyone, and because we're in a place where it's cheaper to run fibre over a longer distance, than put in a new box to do FTTC to serve just a few homes, within 12 months we'll be FTTP with a 300Mb/s connection!

Doesn't sound to bad then. I've no idea where the transmitter is but can't see trees or bushes being an issue. We are in the countryside but 10 minutes away they've got fibre. There's only a couple of houses around here so really can't see them rolling out here.

 

[caLLous]

If you told me a house without mains electricity could get 12 Mbps internet I'd bite your hand off.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

If you told me a house without mains electricity could get 12 Mbps internet I'd bite your hand off.

Well it's "up to" 12mb, but most people in the area we have spoken to seem to get more or less that. Power cuts that happen from time to time take the service down though.
Most people seem to use iptv and they have no problems. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Captains Log Stardate 1603.2020:

So the "Plan B" house fell through as well. More lies I'm afraid, paperwork next week... my arse, lying cunt estate agents. Luckily we have a very good solicitor and escaped unharmed yet again. That left us staying with some friends we have made out here, our house sold and nowhere to live. Fun times! That was late August last year.

So the search became a bit more urgent to say the least. We were talking to one of the agents and said "If you haven't got the paperwork don't bother showing us". She said "Well we've got this but it's out of your budget, although there might be some room for negotiation". It was an old olive mill or Almazara, still with the donkey powered mill and hand cranked iron mill in the main room! So of we went yet again, knowing we couldn't afford it. We walked through the double front door and fell in love with it, then we went out the back door and saw the land and the view. At that point I knew I had a problem, we both wanted the house but couldn't afford it. It had been on the market for 2 years without offer so we had some chance. We went on a second viewing after seeing all of the paperwork and made a stupid offer 40% below asking price. Long story short after a week we agreed a price 20% below asking price and moved in 4 weeks later!
It's frickin' awesome, 200m2 of house plus a "garage" that's 80m2, and 2000m2 of land. The house was fully renovated in 2004 with all the relevant permissions in place. So although there is plenty of work to make it what we think it could be nothing is urgent. The views across the valley to the mountains on the other side are stunning, and the house has a zen felling about it, it's calm and relaxing. Although we are only 5 and 10 minutes respectively from 1 big and 1 small towns we are deep in the countryside. Our nearest and only neighbour really is 300m away. Importantly our next neighbour (500m away) is a Belgian run bar restaurant!
We have stretched our money so a lot of the work won't be happening just yet. I've partitioned the garage to give me a good size playroom office. Put mains electric in there last week and powerline adaptors work fine in there for t'internets.
Apart from the other stuff (I'll post elsewhere about that) life is good

We had Christmas lunch outside with family visiting, this was the view....

 

[Gwadien]

Captains Log Stardate 1603.2020:

So the "Plan B" house fell through as well. More lies I'm afraid, paperwork next week... my arse, lying cunt estate agents. Luckily we have a very good solicitor and escaped unharmed yet again. That left us staying with some friends we have made out here, our house sold and nowhere to live. Fun times! That was late August last year.

So the search became a bit more urgent to say the least. We were talking to one of the agents and said "If you haven't got the paperwork don't bother showing us". She said "Well we've got this but it's out of your budget, although there might be some room for negotiation". It was an old olive mill or Almazara, still with the donkey powered mill and hand cranked iron mill in the main room! So of we went yet again, knowing we couldn't afford it. We walked through the double front door and fell in love with it, then we went out the back door and saw the land and the view. At that point I knew I had a problem, we both wanted the house but couldn't afford it. It had been on the market for 2 years without offer so we had some chance. We went on a second viewing after seeing all of the paperwork and made a stupid offer 40% below asking price. Long story short after a week we agreed a price 20% below asking price and moved in 4 weeks later!
It's frickin' awesome, 200m2 of house plus a "garage" that's 80m2, and 2000m2 of land. The house was fully renovated in 2004 with all the relevant permissions in place. So although there is plenty of work to make it what we think it could be nothing is urgent. The views across the valley to the mountains on the other side are stunning, and the house has a zen felling about it, it's calm and relaxing. Although we are only 5 and 10 minutes respectively from 1 big and 1 small towns we are deep in the countryside. Our nearest and only neighbour really is 300m away. Importantly our next neighbour (500m away) is a Belgian run bar restaurant!
We have stretched our money so a lot of the work won't be happening just yet. I've partitioned the garage to give me a good size playroom office. Put mains electric in there last week and powerline adaptors work fine in there for t'internets.
Apart from the other stuff (I'll post elsewhere about that) life is good

We had Christmas lunch outside with family visiting, this was the view....

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Tldr Freddy beer 2021 is at your gaff