Set your budget – Do some careful maths and work out your budget. Don’t forget to add between 10 and 12% for taxes and fees.

Pinpoint your chosen area – Decide where you’d like to live in Spain. You may have a good idea already from previous research or visits or maybe need some pointers. Ask your real estate agent for advice on which places offer what you’re looking for.

Prepare a must-have list – Once you have your location and price target, make a list of what you want in the property. Bear in mind that you may not find a home that ticks all your boxes but with the help of our property finder wish list you should be able to source one that gives you almost everything.

Use a property finder – Make life easier for yourself and save time and stress by contracting the services of Red Rose Property Spain as your property finder. Let us source homes that fit into your requirements and budget as well as having the right location.

Survey – Depending on the state and/or age of the property you’re buying you might want to get a survey. The survey findings may affect how much you want to pay – for example, to compensate if the property requires extensive refurbishment.

Make an offer – When you find your ideal home, you might want to make an offer on the price. Most property owners are open to offers, although they’ll expect it to be a serious one reflecting several factors including the current market, state of the property, whether you’re a cash buyer etc. Ask us as Real Estate Agent what can be a sensible or reasonable offer.

Once your offer has been accepted, the purchase process starts. At this stage of the procedure, you should do the following:

Contact a lawyer – Do this before you pay a deposit or sign any legally binding paperwork on the property. Instruct your lawyer to carry out basic legal checks on the property.

Sign the reservation contract – In order to make sure you’re the one and only being able to buy the house. This reservation contract is normally between €3.000 and €5.000 and will be refundable when there are legal issues with the property or any other legal problem. This contract needs to be sirned by buyer and seller.

Sign the Contracto de Arras / purchase contract – This document secures the property for you and outlines the terms and conditions the transaction including the deadline for purchase. The contract is signed by the buyer and the seller (or their representatives) and the buyer usually pays  in total 10% of the purchase price ( minus the reservation amount in the contract ) on signing. If the house is being sold with fixtures and fittings and/or furniture, the contract should have an inventory attached, which is signed by both parties.

Mortgage application – if you need a mortgage to buy the property, now is the time to start the application process. Ask your bank how long the application will take to approve and make sure the pre-purchase contract factors this timeline into the purchase.

Legalities on the house – meanwhile, your lawyer will carry out a comprehensive checklist on the property to make sure it’s 100% legal. These checks include:

• Property register checks – to ensure the property description and legal owner match and to find out if there are any charges or encumbrances.
• Planning checks – to ensure the property was built with the appropriate building licence and planning permissions. Or in the case of an off-plan property, to make sure the developer has all paperwork in order.
• Tax checks – to ensure the current owners are up-to-date on payment of all taxes related to the property.
• Community checks – to ensure the property is up-to-date with payments to the community of owners.