In this first article of my 4-part series on making the leap to buying property in Spain, I’ll share my experience finding an apartment and making an offer.
A little about me
A fateful week in February…
I’ve been living in Madrid for nearly 8 years, time really flies! Of course, my parents have always asked me what I was doing spending all my money on rent since it seems I’ll be in Spain long-term anyway. Buying property in Spain is something that I’ve always wanted to invest in but I had no clue where to start!
I’ve been toying with the idea more seriously for the past year but I never actually started researching seriously. I have a wonderful adopted Spanish family who I love dearly. I’ve been tutoring their daughters English since they were 4 and 7, and now they’re 12 and 15! I’ve seen them grow up and I’ve become part of the family. They live in the Pacífico neighborhood, which was actually my very first neighborhood in Madrid.
An idea takes root
At the end of last year, before Christmas, I told Bea (the mom in my Spanish family, I don’t really call her my Spanish mom though because she’s only 11 years older than me…) that I was looking into buying property in Spain. At that time I just had a vague notion – I was thinking of something that was simple, such as a 1- or 2-bedroom and below 200k in a good area, and I told them to keep an eye out for me.
From January to March, I’ve been traveling constantly for work to Germany – spending more time there than in Madrid as I’ve been organizing a very important conference for work, but trying to come back over the weekends.
Hitting the gas pedal
At the end of January, Bea whatsapped me to say she saw a flyer posted at a local real estate office for a remodeled 1-bedroom apartment for sale in the neighborhood. The week after, when I was back in Madrid, I scheduled a visit for the flat with Bea. I also started calling other apartments in the area to schedule more viewings.
Things started happening fast! I hadn’t really thought or planned to start trying to buy a place, but was excited at the prospect of checking things out.
I saw four apartments in total in the area:
Apartment 1:
The very first one I saw was “embargado por el banco” or a foreclosure, it was a big 3-bedroom apartment but in really horrible condition. As it was the first one I saw I was a bit scared at seeing the state of things, since I wasn’t interested in investing significant time or money in remodeling. The agent was also very unfriendly and didn’t know much about the history of the property since it was a foreclosure.
Apartment 2:
After the first experience seeing a property in very bad condition, the next one we saw was a breath of fresh air. It was an adorable 1-bedroom apartment with a spacious open kitchen and an interior patio. I liked it when I first saw it as it was completely remodeled, although it was a bit small. The owner was selling it as she needed money to buy a house in the outskirts of Madrid where she was working.
Apartment 3:
The next one we saw was a bigger 2-bedroom apartment, ground level exterior, but the vibe of it felt very old, you could tell elderly people had just lived there. The family was selling it because the grandma who was sick for a while had passed away, and the heirs weren’t sure what to do with the apartment so they thought the best thing to do was to sell it and divide the earnings. It needed some work for remodeling and updating it.
Apartment 4:
The last one we saw the next day was a spacious 1-bedroom, however the ad said it was registered as a “local” or a commercial/business property and not as a house. I wasn’t really sure what that meant but we soon found out that the apartment used to be owned by the doorman, and officially it was registered as a type of storage space and not as an apartment. The doorman had sold it to an architect who was using it as his office but occasionally slept there, so it was set up as if it were a regular apartment. I found out that since it’s NOT officially designated for use as a home, the property would NOT be able to be appraised appropriately and a mortgage would not be approved for it.
Taking the leap
I told my parents about everything and they said if there’s a good deal that really checks out, I should act fast because good deals won’t last a long time. Then I started feeling more pressure to act because I also called several other properties with similar or better characteristics in the neighborhood and they were all recently sold.
That same week, on that Friday, I went back with a friend to the second apartment I saw and I took the plunge and made an offer/“dar una señal” to buy it!
The property was listed for 165k, although the agent made it seem like the owner would be willing to budge a bit, so I gambled and put in an offer for 155k.
The property was listed through the Redpiso real estate agency. Note that each Redpiso office is a franchise and each office is independently owned and operated.
Putting in an offer for buying property in Spain / dar una señal
- You must fill out a “Contrato de arras.” This is an earnest money contract, however if the seller accepts the offer, it will be automatically converted into a property sale contract “compraventa”
- Agencies typically ask for a “señal” or an earnest money payment, which could range from 1k to a small % of the price. In this case they asked for 2k.
As I was new to this process and still didn’t know too much about the mortgage process in Spain, Bea wisely advised me to add in a clause for the 2k to be returned to me if the sale doesn’t got through or if I didn’t get approved for a mortgage.
Since I put in an offer that didn’t match the listed selling price, there would be another step involved where the seller would review the offer and decide to accept it or put in a counter-offer.
Do you need to obtain a mortgage in Spain or Portugal? Check Spainguru’s recommended mortgage brokers
Where to find properties for sale
Normally I completely ignore all the flyers posted outside real estate offices, but I was lucky that Bea found this good deal just from seeing a flyer outside one.
If you’re living in Madrid and looking into buying property in Spain or in a certain neighborhood, you can explore the area and visit the local real estate offices and also browse the offerings they have there. You can also keep an eye out for “SE VENDE” signs.
You can also consider buying a property in Spain directly from a private seller, which has the advantage of potentially saving you money from commission fees.
Here are some websites to look for buying property in Spain for sale – where you can browse both agency-listed properties and privately-listed ones:
- https://www.idealista.com/
- https://www.fotocasa.es/
- https://www.yaencontre.com/
- https://www.pisos.com/
- https://www.milanuncios.com/venta-de-pisos-en-madrid/
Do you need to obtain a mortgage in Spain or Portugal? Check Spainguru’s recommended mortgage brokers
Make sure to also read Part 2: payment options and mortgage, Part 3: Sealing the deal & becoming a homeowner and Part 4: Becoming a landlord and finding a tenant
By Christina Samson, co-founder of SpainGuru
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