Posts Tagged ‘part’

Special Housing Depression update with George4title and VisionVictory. Part 2 will be posted on Friday April 10th at youtube.com/george4title Part 3 will be posted on Sunday April 12th on the VisionVictory Channel TBA Part 4 & 5

Visit www.PhilDeCarolis.com to sign up for my free weekly newsletter that includes Economic and Real Estate updates or for more Peter Schiff videos and real estate advice from an experienced Investor Let me help you protect and grow your wealth NOW before it is too late. Contact me right away for a referral to my own personal broker with Euro Pacific Capital that can advise you on the purchase of precious metals (Gold, Silver, etc..), Commodities And/Or Foreign Dividend paying stocks to hedge against rising prices and your loss of hard earned wealth. Join me in preserving your savings so that we can utilize our retained purchasing power to purchase Discounted/Cash Flowing California Real Estate Assets at the bottom of this downturn for pennies on the dollar that will rise in value dramatically during Californias’ next cyclical inflationary real estate bull market.

Visit www.PhilDeCarolis.com to sign up for my free weekly newsletter that includes Economic and Real Estate updates or for more Peter Schiff videos and real estate advice from an experienced Investor Let me help you protect and grow your wealth NOW before it is too late. Contact me right away for a referral to my own personal broker with Euro Pacific Capital that can advise you on the purchase of precious metals (Gold, Silver, etc..), Commodities And/Or Foreign Dividend paying stocks to hedge against rising prices and your loss of hard earned wealth. Join me in preserving your savings so that we can utilize our retained purchasing power to purchase Discounted/Cash Flowing California Real Estate Assets at the bottom of this downturn for pennies on the dollar that will rise in value dramatically during Californias’ next cyclical inflationary real estate bull market.

Visit www.PhilDeCarolis.com to sign up for my free weekly newsletter that includes Economic and Real Estate updates or for more Peter Schiff videos and real estate advice from an experienced Investor Let me help you protect and grow your wealth NOW before it is too late. Contact me right away for a referral to my own personal broker with Euro Pacific Capital that can advise you on the purchase of precious metals (Gold, Silver, etc..), Commodities And/Or Foreign Dividend paying stocks to hedge against rising prices and your loss of hard earned wealth. Join me in preserving your savings so that we can utilize our retained purchasing power to purchase Discounted/Cash Flowing California Real Estate Assets at the bottom of this downturn for pennies on the dollar that will rise in value dramatically during Californias’ next cyclical inflationary real estate bull market.

Isnt everything the last 5 years seem to be about some big money real estate scam? Here is an A&E “Flip This House” scam that was shown to viewers. Part 2 of this story is located HERE www.youtube.com

Bad Real Estate Agents in Disguise

I classify bad Real Estate Agents are those sneaky Real Estate Agents who claim to help you, but really just looking to get the commission.

How do these bad Real Estate Agent masquerade as good ones?

1. The Bad Real Estate Agent pretends to be a Hard Worker
If you hire a Real Estate Agent, you want them to work hard for your money because you do. And Real Estate Agent knows that. Salesmen know that. But working hard never guarantees success. A Real Estate Agent, like all people, should be have some level of workmanship, but not to the point of slavery. Do not be gullible enough to believe your Real Estate Agent will climb mountains for you. It is just a job. He should have other priorities. Do not base your Real Estate Agent selection based on how hard they work or how must time they spend with you. If your Real Estate Agent is wasting too much time pretending to work hard, then your Real Estate won’t have time to actually get you valuable information you need to make an informed decision. The moment the contract is signed and the agent get the commission, Bad Real Estate Agents will run to the next sucker and never want to talk or help you anymore.

2. Charmer
Every now and then, you’ll meet the person who knows exactly what to say. He knows the words you are looking for you and make you feel comfortable to trust him. When trusting an agent, don’t look for how kind, gentle, or how witty he is. Look for the results. What has the Real Estate Agent really done for you?

3. Not providing sufficient information.
Information is vital for you to make important decisions. Bad Real Estate Agents will hide information in order to get you to make the decision to buy the house. To make sure the agent is being absolutely honest with you and providing you all the information you need to know, always have another reliable source to verify the information.

One good way to find honest Real Estate Agents is through referrals. If you friends have experience good results from the agent, then at least you found someone honest and you know the results.

Do NOT go through the Internet and pick the first agent you see or the agent that has the most advertisements. They are just spending marketing money, which they intend to recover from you. I especially find the ones that are top ranked search engines to be the most conniving, especially the Mississauga location!!!

Now for the good news. If you are fair and you are looking for a human being Real Estate Agent and you treat them like a human being with no slavery expectation, you should be able to find a decent Real Estate Agent to help you. There are indeed plenty of honest agents that are really hiding because they are too busy helping their clients. You have to scout around and do a lot of homework to find that close-to-perfect agent that matches your needs. Using the information in this article, you should be able to filter out the bad agents.

Now, after all this discussion, one may even be asking whether you need a Real Estate agent. In private homes sellers, you do not. Only homes where sellers have a Real Estate Agent, you do need buyer’s Real Estate Agent to protect you. Whether you want to purchase home through private or through an agent should not be a deciding factor. Simply look at the house you want to buy and the price you want to buy it at. If your selected house requires a Real Estate Agent, then you should get one, too.

If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail me at admin@freerentalads.ca

You are also certainly welcome to e-mail me your good and bad home buying experiences. I may or may not choose to post them up.

For those who have not read my part 1, please do so.

My next articles will take a closer look at tactics Bad Real Estate Agents pull.

Visit www.PhilDeCarolis.com to sign up for my free weekly newsletter that includes Economic and Real Estate updates or for more Peter Schiff videos and real estate advice from an experienced Investor Let me help you protect and grow your wealth NOW before it is too late. Contact me right away for a referral to my own personal broker with Euro Pacific Capital that can advise you on the purchase of precious metals (Gold, Silver, etc..), Commodities And/Or Foreign Dividend paying stocks to hedge against rising prices and your loss of hard earned wealth. Join me in preserving your savings so that we can utilize our retained purchasing power to purchase Discounted/Cash Flowing California Real Estate Assets at the bottom of this downturn for pennies on the dollar that will rise in value dramatically during Californias’ next cyclical inflationary real estate bull market.

shortsalehotline.com Short Sale Experts Negotiate Your Real Estate Bailout – Mortgage Foreclosure Assistance Plan – Free Prevention Alternative to Foreclosure Fraud and Scams. http will Help you Survive the Mortgage Meltdown Crisis. Avoid Foreclosure and Bankruptcy. Get your Bailout with our Real Estate Short Sale, Mortgage Foreclosure Loss Mitigation Prevention Process. Sign Up For a FREE Consultation With Our Approved Foreclosure Prevention Specialists – Go To Short-SaleHotline.com and Complete Our Easy Form – It Takes 2 Minutes and Can Help Save Your Home. http

Manufacturing A380 The A380 had 49% more floor space than Boeing’s 747, leaving additional room for features such as on-board shops, bars, casinos, or even nurseries. The A380, like other aircraft, was manufactured in three class configurations – Economy, Business, and First Class. The standard layout of the A380-800 comprised 22 first class and 334 economy class seats on the main deck, and 96 business class, and 103 economy class seats on the upper deck. The first-class seat could be opened out into a bed… The Materials Used About 25% of the A380 was made of composite materials. The advantage with composites was that they were robust, lightweight, and could withstand heat and cold more than a metal. Reduction in weight was one of the greatest advantages of composites, leading to less fuel burn, fewer emissions, and lower operating costs. The two categories of constituent materials of composites were matrix and reinforcement. The matrix material surrounded and supported the reinforcement materials by maintaining their relative positions. The reinforcements were to impart special mechanical and electrical properties to enhance the matrix properties… The Technologies Used Airbus used many novel techniques and technologies in developing the A380. A few of the prominent techniques included Modular Avionics, Network Systems Servers, Power-by-wire flight controls, and new hydraulic systems. Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA): The A380 had an avionics architecture called IMA …

Visit www.PhilDeCarolis.com to sign up for my free weekly newsletter that includes Economic and Real Estate updates or for more Peter Schiff videos and real estate advice from an experienced Investor Let me help you protect and grow your wealth NOW before it is too late. Contact me right away for a referral to my own personal broker with Euro Pacific Capital that can advise you on the purchase of precious metals (Gold, Silver, etc..), Commodities And/Or Foreign Dividend paying stocks to hedge against rising prices and your loss of hard earned wealth. Join me in preserving your savings so that we can utilize our retained purchasing power to purchase Discounted/Cash Flowing California Real Estate Assets at the bottom of this downturn for pennies on the dollar that will rise in value dramatically during Californias’ next cyclical inflationary real estate bull market.

Buying a house -  The realistic approach

This article is not about the secrets of buying a rental property for no money down and half the price of the market value of the house. I am not Tom Vu or Don Lapre and I am not in jail.

In Canada, the no money down home did use to exist, but not anymore. Some banks and/or lenders were willing to lend you the 5% down payment so that you don’t have to pay a dime out of your own pockets to purchase a home. However, given the current financial situation with tighter lending restrictions, there will be no bank or lenders who can do that in Canada.

The buying home for half price did use to exist as well. At one point, foreclosures in Canada would allow foreclosed homes to be sold at rock bottom prices. The new law, which has been in placed for many years now require the homes be sold at the highest possible price for foreclosed homes or else the lenders could be sued. Hence, sometimes foreclosed homes sell higher because Canadians have the misconception that foreclosed homes are a really good deal causing it to have a reverse affect. There have been many people buying foreclosed homes believing they got a good deal and not doing a thorough check as to the actual value of the home.
Now, clearing out the quick money maker myths of buying homes, there are still many things you need to be aware of before starting.

If there exist ever an industry with more sneaky sales tactics and money motivated people, it has got to the Real Estate industry. As a buyer, you could be dishing out $350 000 and everyone wants a piece. The Real Estate Agents want a piece. The lenders want a piece. The lawyers want a piece and the sellers want piece. No wonder there are so many scams in this industry.

The first thing to be aware of is the Real Estate Agent. A Real Estate Agent is suppose to act on your behalf to buy or sell the home. Both the buyer of the home and seller of the home will have their own Real Estate Agent called a Buyer’s Real Estate Agent and a Seller’s Real Estate Agent.

In Canada, each Real Estate Agent gets an average of 2.5% and sometimes 2% for the commission of selling the home. Some Real Estate Agents provide cash back rewards. Canadian Real Estate Agents gets higher commission than anywhere else. In United States, their Real Estate Agents only get 1% of the commission and their homes are actually much cheaper. Even though Real Estate Agents are the least educated of the parties involved in the buying home transaction, they seem to be getting the biggest piece of the pie.

Do not listen to mls.ca and their gimmicks on Real Estate Agents are ethical. (http://www.howrealtorshelp.ca/swf/). Where do they get the idea any Real Estate Agent off the street is ethical. Their claim is based on these tests that they pass to become a Real Estate Agent. Agents passing a test does not meant hey are ethical. It only means they can remember enough to pass the test.

One would believe it should be the Real Estate Agent’s job to help the buyer ensure the home is of value. Rightly so, many buyers depend on the Real Estate Agent to protect them and provide them advice and in my opinion, the ethical Real Estate Agent should do that. However, the true reality is that Real Estate Agents do not make money unless if the home is purchased. The reality is that the Real Estate Agent’s salary is not truly dependent on giving you advice. The Real Estate Agent’s job is to get the buyer to buy a home through them so they can get paid!

As a result of this, what ends up happening, are two types of Real Estate Agents with variations in between. The first type is the honest agent with the belief “If I work hard and treat my buyer right, the buyer will come back to buy more homes from me. The second type is the “I need to get the buyer to buy a house quickly so that I can move on to the next buyer (sucker) so that I can maximize my time for profit.” The bottom line is that you are looking for the first type and you want to avoid the second type.

We’ll call the first type, the Bad Real Estate Agent.
We’ll call the second type, the Good Real Estate Agent.

So what kind of characteristics does the Good Real Estate Agent have that the Good Real Estate Agent does not have?

1. The first characteristic is Patience.
Bad Real Estate Agents will attempt to sell you a home quickly to get the money quickly. Do not buy a house without spending a lot of time looking at several different homes. Be careful of tactics such as Real Estate Agents claiming it is the perfect and acting like a salesman rather than providing you information.

2. The second characteristic is information.
A good Real Estate Agent needs to provide you all the information to let you make the informed decision and we are not talking about their opinion. Real Estate’s opinion does not matter. Real Estate Agents have data such as the history of the house being sold at, homes being sold near the area and type. A Real Estate Agent should be able to provide you with a compilation of official documents that tells you these kinds of data to let YOU make an informed decision.

3. The third characteristic is care.
You will know this during the actual signing of the contract to purchase the home at a certain price. Once you become interested in a property and want to buy the property at a certain price set by YOU, you have to write up a contract. The contract consist atleast three conditions that will null the sale of the home and a security deposit.

The common three conditions are, buyer can get financing, the home passes inspection and the appraisal value of the home is above the price to be purchased. Generally, you will want the lenders to appraise the home so that you know the fair value of the home and the lenders would only lend of you are buying the home at fair market value.

The security deposit is an amount you will provide to lock the home from being sold to other buyers while you perform to checks to see whether these conditions have been met. If these conditions are not met, then you SHOULD get your security deposit back.

The Bad Real Estate Agents will want to you provide very few conditions and a big security deposit. Doing so ensure the home is more likely to be sold.

Do NOT go through the internet and pick the first agent you see or the agent that has the most advertisements. They are just spending marketing money which they intend to recover from you. I especially find the ones that are top ranked search engines to be the most conniving, especially the Mississauga location!!!

If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to e-mail me at admin@freerentalads.ca
You are also certainly welcome to e-mail me your good and bad home buying experiences. I may or may not chose to post them up.

Harry Dent on the upcoming Depression and why Oil is going to explode. This is part 2 of his intro. www.WealthSummitLive.com He will also talk about Obama and his finance advisors at the Wealth Summit live event in Orlando Florida. Harry speaks at numbers events including Tony Robbins Platinum Partnership. Here is what you will learn from Harry: * You will learn what the next great economy downturn will be, and how to prepare for it * You will learn which countries are going to go in recession and which countries are going to boom. * Which industries or sectors are going down next and which ones will start to Roar. * Which sectors to place your investment cash right now. * You will learn exactly how Harry can accurately predict what is happening to the economy and based on his research he saw this coming 5 years ago. * What is predicted to happen in the next 5 or 10 years, and how you and your family can profit from it * How to inoculate yourself against tomorrows worst, and position yourself to take advantage of changing conditions. * Learn what is the best way for me to protect yourself against a falling dollar * Learn will happen with oil prices and how can you prepare on a personal level * Learn when is a good time for me as an investor or new home owner to reenter the marketplace. * Learn where is the best place for investors to focus to make money in this environment * There will be an extensive Q & A with Harry to answer your personal questions.

www.localmentor.com host Michael Jake shows how a wholesale house flip happens. A walk through of a typical REO, Bank Owned House, Estate House, tired rental property, and how the deal was Found, How it was Funded, and how the profit was made and how much! Learn more Colorado Creative Real Estate Investing Techniques at www.localmentor.com

TUT+ leeched premium content.

Part 2. The Free Property Inspection Trips to Spain – Warts n’ All.

FRESH OFF THE PLANE.

I have written this section of the article with the assistance of  personal experience in the industry, having personally undertaken an inspection tour, family and friends who hae toured and most importantly experienced sales reps who still work in the industry, so they have no axe to grind but perhaps their conscience got the better of them. The only remuneration they received was a couple of cafe con leche’s each. The surprising thing was that I had arranged to meet two reps but when word spread half a dozen arrived with offer from many others.

Your tour should proceed along these lines. Show homes are close on Saturday afternoons and all day Sunday and flights are more expensive over the weekend so most tours tend to be during the midweek. Tour duration is normally 5 days 4 nights. For the purpose of this article I have formatted a Monday to Friday tour.

MONDAY:

A couple of years ago a trip to the arrival lounge at Alicante or Murcia airport would have seen you rubbing shoulders with dozens of agents sales reps /  salespeople / property consultants / tours guides ( I will call them reps from now on) all standing there with their clipboards with their clients names printed on them, often looking nervously as passengers came through the sliding doors. Similarly a trip down the coast road from the airport you would literally pass dozens of agents cars all brightly liveried and each company with its own colour cars. The credit crunch has killed off the numbers but made the agents need to extract every last euro from clients almost an art.

Your rep will great you with a big smile and engage you in small talk as they walk you back to the car. The reps should also take the luggage off you or at least the wife. During the journey back to the hotel it is taboo for the rep to talk about property for fear of the client feeling under pressure. What the rep is doing here is selling themselves, after all who would buy off somebody that they either did not like or did not trust? Your rep is sticking strictly to step one of the seven steps. The holy gospel of the rep which is drilled into them from day one. The steps are as follows and I will refer to the as we progress. I will shortly be writing an article solely covering the seven steps in much greater detail.

1. SELL YOURSELF – Make yourself likeable to your clients

2. SELL THE COMPANY – We are established, trustworthy, large, family run, UK based….

3. SELL THE AREA – Sell the lifestyle, pace of life, cost of living, health, beaches ……..

4. SELL THE PROPERTY – Once sold on the lifestyle find the property within budget.

5. FINANCE – Sort out loans, mortgages, affordability etc.

6. CONTRACT – Complete a property purchase contract and get €3000 deposit.

7. CONSOLIDATION – Introduce to solicitors, open bank accounts and look after them.

When you rep gets you to the hotel, they will jump out of the car and open the door for you, they will get your bags and check you into a very swish 4 or 5 star hotel on the beach with stunning views (see # 3). Once they have checked you in they will take you up to the room, open the door and take you in. You will often find that the curtains will be closed in the room. This is an arrangement that the agent will have with the hotel. This enables the rep to do the great reveal. They will walk to the window and pull the curtains back with gusto revealing a beautiful view of the beautiful blue Mediterranean Sea. Having just left a grey, miserable, cold, wet and windy UK, this reveal makes the client feel that they have found heaven.

Most clients arrive late afternoon, so the rep will leave you for a couple of hours to rest and come and collect you for dinner (the tour will include all meals). The rep will still not be speaking about property, they will, still be selling themselves and the business. They will tell you about how they came to live in Spain, how great it is, how their kids love it…… this is undoubtedly true as I am willing to testify but it is all part of the sales process. The rep will also start telling you how great the company is and how good they are to work for and how well they treat their staff. The truth is that they are all non contract, commission only sales people who are in fear of their jobs from tour to tour because if they do not sell and hit targets they are out! The rep will also outline the itinerary whilst you are with them:

Monday: Arrive, settle in and go for dinner.

Tuesday: Pre tour meeting and area tour, go for dinner.

Wednesday: Look for properties in areas you have expressed an interest in.

Thursday: Continue search, or if purchasing complete contracts, payments etc.

Friday: Continue search or if purchased, consolidate and back to airport.

Following your nice evening meal you will be dropped off at the hotel and arrangements made to meet you in the hotel reception at 9:30am the following morning. As they leave the rep will be on the phone to their manager telling them what they think of you and the likelihood of you purchasing. You will be graded as red, amber or green or on a scale of 1 to 10 as a prospect with red or 1 being no chance. All clients start as amber or a 5 on the scale.

TUESDAY.

A good hour or so before the rep collects you on Tuesday they will have a breakfast meeting with their manager where they will discuss in great detail their impression of you. The manager will produce all the paperwork that they have on you. This will be notes and transcripts of conversations that you have had with the companies telesales staff, or the home visit rep or even with the manager when they called to confirm your attendance a couple of days ago. All the questions that you have been asked no matter how innocent have the intention of garnering as much information as possible. This meeting that the rep ha with their manager will determine the course of action that they will be taking with you over the next few days!

The rep will come and collect you on time. They will be in their uniform, light pants, either white or blue shirt/blouse, brown shoes, sunglasses and immaculately clean company car (the cars are inspected each day and reps fined €50 for dirty cars). Your rep will then take you to a lovely café by the beach, or on a golf course or with fantastic views. This helps sell the lifestyle, but the choice of café is determined following your conversation the previous evening when they gleaned the information out of you to make this choice.

The purpose of the meeting is to determine what you are looking for i.e. holiday home, relocation, investment or business, your budget and your preferred location. The rep already has this information as this information has already been obtained from you when you arranged the trip in the first place. The one thing that the rep will do is promise never to show you properties above your budget, they will site affordability issues however the truth is that people who over extend when in Spain are 4 times more likely to cancel when they get back to the UK.

Meeting over you will jump in the car. One thing to note here is that the rep will always have a cool box or paperwork on the seat behind them. This means that the clients will sit in the passenger seat and the seat behind. This stop them being able to make eye contact with each other, communicate without the rep hearing and the rep will be able to see the client in the rear view mirror.

The day will be spent completing an extensive tour from Alicante in the North to Cartegena in the south and up to 50km inland. You will visit town, villages, beaches, golf courses, mountains, you name it they will cover it. Anything or place you express an interest in will be noted for use later. If you like a particular village or beach, they will stop for a look around or a coffee. Although you do not know it you will be following a pre determined route aimed at showing the area in its best possible light.

Whenever you do stop the rep will be glued to your side at all times. They do not want you talking to the natives because they may tell you something that you do not want to hear (i.e.  how much commission the agents charge/make). The rep will always seat you away from other people, never at a café with free papers (other agents advertise in them) and never near an estate agent window because invariably they could have the same properties for sale for considerably less money! (most properties for sale are on with many agents).

Following completion of your area tour you are returned back to the hotel at 6pm, some 8 ½ hours after you were picked up and informed that the next couple of hours are your own and that the rep will pick you up at 8pm for dinner. As a parting shot the rep will warn you about “bar stool Johnny’s”. They will tell you to be suspect of anyone who approaches them in the hotel bar or foyer as they could be a con merchant who will know that they are on an inspection trip and will coerce them out of thousands of euros. There may be a modicum of truth in this, however its main reason is to stop clients talking to each other and comparing experiences. One rotten apple can spoil a barrel…..  You will be picked up at 8pm and taken to a nice restaurant for a three course meal and wine and taken back to the hotel at 10:30pm. You have been with you rep for 13 hours.

WEDNESDAY.

Following the extensive and tiring area tour you will be hoping for an easier day today. Your rep will collect you again at 9am fresh from a debrief with their manager where the plan of attack will have been drawn up. Today is all about property, after all, this is the third day you have been in Spain and you have not seen any property yet.

There has been a lot of thought put into the art of showing properties. The rep will have listened to your preferences and listened to your opinions when on the area tour. You general chit chat will have been noted and the answer to innocent sounding questions during dinner will have been noted, analyzed and actioned.

When you arrive at a property you will be brought in on a route that shows the property and area to its best. The show home will be immaculate; it will be on a nice big plot or have great views and will invariably be the most expensive plot on the site. The show home will have been dressed by a designer. Your rep will now take you round room by room, telling you what is included and what is not, what the payment structure for this particular developer is

You will never be shown the best property first. The first property will often be chosen because it does not match many of your requirements. You will be asked for your comments regarding, size, location, views, rooms etc and asked to score the property on a whole out of ten and the area out of ten. If you score the property highly and area poorly we need to look at similar properties in a different area. If you score the area highly and property poorly, we need to look for different properties in the same area.

The rep should note your thoughts, comments and scores and move on to the next property based on your requirements.

Amazingly the reps I spoke to stated that if somebody was genuinely interested in purchasing that they only ever showed 3 or 4 properties before they found the perfect place.

Do not be surprised if at some point during this day that the reps manager accidentally bumps into you either in a show home or at a café somewhere (those furtive phone calls the rep makes or receives when they slope off out of earshot are the management gauging the progress of the tour. If you hear the rep saying amber or green you might know what they are talking about now). The manager is there to check on how well the tour is going, check up on the rep and try and point the clients in a new direction should they need to, or to reveal a deal that can be done or a special offer that has only just become available.

The pressure will be really on the rep towards the end of the day as you should have seen a property that meets all your requirements by now. The pressure exerted on the rep will be passed down to you in a more subtle way in the form of more direct or leading questions.

You will be dropped off again at 6pm and collected at 8pm for dinner. The conversation at dinner will be a lot more focused. You may also find that on this evening all the reps and their clients eat in the same restaurant, often taking it over. The reps are allowed to bring their partners to this meal. This is all part of the sales process as the partner has been thoroughly briefed on what to say.  The reps manager and partner will also be present, so the sales process continues until 10pm. You will be dropped off at the hotel at 10:30pm with another 13 hour day under your belt.

THURSDAY.

By this point in the tour, if you have not purchased the chances of you doing so are minimal. Not only will you be feeling the effects of the long days, but so will the rep as their working day is on average 15 hours a day. Be prepared for a battle of wills.

Yours reps phone will be a lot busier today as they are pressured from above to get a sale. You will almost certainly call into the office to have a look around, with the real intention of putting some pressure on from the manager, finance person, company owner etc. This pressure will never be too excessive as this could be off-putting, but it will be pressure none the less. “We have found you the property within your budget in an area that you loved that meet all your criteria…… its what you asked us to find and we have, so lets do the paperwork!” The rep will pull out the property scoring sheets with you favourable comments and score on the top property. You will be told that if you do not buy now then you never will. Your “bottle” will be questioned and you will be asked why you bothered coming out if you had no intention of purchasing I the first place.

This is the make or break part of the tour. The pressure to purchase will be considerable but not overbearing, more subtle than high pressure.

You will find yourself looking at properties that had previously been rules out because of comments made in other properties. If you comment in one property that the kitchen is too small, the rep will then rule out taking you to dozens of properties that have small kitchen and will only take you to properties that have bigger kitchens.

The rep will keep going because they are paid on a commission only basis and have nothing to lose. As a self employed, commission only sales person, if you do not buy, they will not be getting paid for working some 60 hours and they could be one step closer to getting fired, especially if the sales manager thought you were a good purchasing prospect. In Spain if you are not on a contract you have to pay approximately €250 per month to the tax office to cover social security as well as €50 towards your accountant. Even if they do not work or earn no money one month they still have to pay out €300. Their company will say that this keeps them lean and eager. The reps will say that it leads to unnecessary pressure and often hardship.

With the realisation that there is no prospect of a sale, most reps will give up come the end of the day. You will find that you will be dropped off at the hotel at 4pm, the rep will offer you the chance of going for a meal on your own (at your own expense) and you will be given the opportunity of a later collection on the final day.

The meal on this last evening if taken will be a more casual affair as the rep is resigned to a “no sale” tour. The meal will be taken earlier and finished quickly. The rep out of spite will often take you to a restaurant that you have expressed that you do not like. If you don’t like Chinese food guess were you will be eating come the last evening if you have not purchased.

FRIDAY.

If you have purchased you will have spent Thursday completing paperwork and contracts in the office. On the Friday the rep will have you out of bed at 5am and standing outside the local town hall in a queue to get your NIE number (needed for purchase). You will be taken to a bank to open a bank account and introduced to a solicitor. If you want the solicitor to have power of attorney you will need to go to the notaries office as well.

As a word of caution I would always advise you to seek out your own solicitor rather than one suggested by your agent. Your solicitor should be working exclusively for you and some agents have far to a cosy relationship with their solicitors. Just check out some of the internet forums for details.

If you have not purchased, this will be a more relaxed day. You will have to check out of the hotel by 11am but the hotel or rep will take your cases. You will need to fill in an end of tour report where you can comment on the rep, company and tour. You will have a little time to sunbathe , go shopping, go for a walk. The chances are that you will be dropped off at the airport a good 3 hours before your flight and your reps car will disappear in a cloud of dust ready for the next clients.

IN SUMMARY.

Taking everything into account would I recommend partaking in an inspection tour?

The case for yes:

If you are looking for a new or off plan or key ready property, the prices are set by the builder not the agent, so you will be paying the best price for the property. Despite the sales tactics, the reps in general have a fantastic knowledge of the area, builders and developments and despite what you may think, they are chosen for their personality more than sales skills. The agents can use their size and power in your favour and you do get free flights, accommodation and use of car and tour guide. You will cover more area and see more in one day with a good rep than you would do in a week on your own. If you do purchase you are actually paying for your free tour out of the agents commission. It’s a great way to learn the area and see property at their expense, however please remember that your rep will not earn a penny if you do not buy.

The case for no:

You only get to see the side of Spain that the rep wants to show you. You are never on your own and are always being questioned as to your opinions. If you are considering a resale property then you will have to pay the agents fees not the seller. Agents can charge up to 20% commission. One a villa valued at €200,000 the agent will put it on the market for €240,000 . An agent can make €20,000 on a small apartment. If you have an idea of the area or what you want and the sort of property you are after you can save a fortune doing it your self.

There is an alternative. There are now companies who offer the best of both worlds. They are independent of any builder, promoter or agents. You pay for your flights and accommodation and meals. They pick you up and take you out looking at areas and properties and charge you a day rate. The late afternoons and evenings are yours. People come out for 7 days, spend 3 looking at properties and the rest of the time on the beach. Because they are independent they have no loyalty other than to you and could save you thousands. In these times of hardship it really is the best solution to a problem you never even knew existed…. Until now.