Why regular bar visits are a vital part of searching for your perfect home in the sun

In another article I’ve said how important it is to get to know the area before you finally buy a home abroad. Apart from exploring and generally having a good time what should you do? Ask around. You might find the house of your dreams without looking in an estate agent’s window. Let me explain.

People will generally talk to their friends and in local bars about selling their home long before they actually get round to actually putting their property on the market. Indeed, they may welcome a reasonable offer for their apartment, house or villa if it avoids the hassle of going through the commercial selling process.

Another reason why word of mouth is attractive, in this corner of Spain at least, is if you find a property without going through an estate agent there’s no commission to be paid. Theoretically it’s the seller who pays, but as I said earlier in practice the commission is often added to the price. Then the cost is borne by the buyer. Either way, saving 5% on the transaction has got to help the bargaining process.

It’s worth remembering also that buying and selling property in many rural areas of the world is a fairly recent innovation. Farmhouses, “fincas” as they’re called in Spain, have often been handed down for generations. Nobody ever bought a home, they simply built a new house on the family land or added rooms to an existing building.

There are expats who have found the house of their dreams because the nephew of the old man who drinks in their local bar has inherited a house which he no longer wants because he’s moved to the city. I’ll admit this is a rare occurrence because this is exactly the sort of thing local estate agents are looking for and they’ve usually been in the property business longer than you.

And don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you do find a local with a place to sell that you’re automatically going to get a bargain country house in the sun. Far from it. Everybody who lives in the country seems to have a relative who has sold a dilapidated “doer-up” or house “with potential” for a ridiculously large sum. They’ll expect the same from you.

Sometimes the myth of the British expat who’ll pay a vastly inflated price for a property has a basis in truth. Particularly in countries outside the EU and USA house prices can seem very low in comparison with the UK. Then there will be buyers who pay well beyond the local property valuation. These prices live on and grow in the native imagination.

At the same time there are misunderstandings about what people are looking for when they come to look for a new home in a new country. Traditionally, the locals wanted houses surrounded by good agricultural soil. They pitied the youngest son or daughter who’d inherited a worthless parcel of land by a beach or on a cliff overlooking the sea. Imagine how the locals must have felt when these places suddenly became the most valuable real estate in the area.

In a future article I’ll tell you a little about how we found our perfect home in the sun without using an estate agents. Meanwhile I welcome your contributions whether you're looking for a home overeas or if you've already got one.