It is a complete waste of our time and of yours if we try and find properties without knowing what your budget is.
There are so many factors influencing the price of property that specifying what type of property you require is not enough for us to help you. Prices for similar properties can vary enormously within the same area and even within the same development. For example, a north-facing two-bedroom apartment in a complex will be cheaper than an identical south-facing apartment in the same complex. Likewise, a two-bedroom penthouse apartment will be more expensive than an identical ground-floor apartment in the same building.
The location of a property will also have a huge influence on the property price. A sea-front property in Marbella will cost an awful lot more than a similar property in an inland town.
Consequently, if we get an enquiry from someone looking for a two-bedroom apartment without knowing how much the buyer has to spend, we could spend hours gathering information and photos of potential properties which the buyer could not possibly afford.
It is also important for us to know whether the expectations of the buyer are realistic or just a pipe-dream. For example, we have had an enquiry from a client who stated he was looking for a three-bedroom detached villa with pool, garden and separate garage within 5 minutes walk of the beach in the Marbella area. His budget was 100,000 euros. We had to politely tell this individual he was living in cloud-cuckoo land.
Imagine how frustrated we would have been if we had spent time gathering information on available properties matching his requirements only to then discover that his budget was at very best only 20% of what was required. Imagine his frustration at receiving these details from us and realising his time was wasted reading them.
Over the past several years there have been many relocation TV programmes such as Escape to the Country and A Place in the Sun. Once these programmes establish where the client wants to relocate to, the first question they ask is what the budget is. Just try and imagine how those programmes would work if this question was not asked. I can imagine the viewers sitting at home talking about how stupid it was that the TV crew went looking for property without knowing how much the client had to spend. Well, its exactly the same for us. It would be stupid of us to search for property if we do not know what your budget is.
So, the bottom line is we cannot help if we do not know your bottom line.
