2-Taking a closer look at the houses for sale

Once you have found an apartment you want to take a closer look at, you need to start calling the real estate agent, or whoever put in the advertise. Forget all about being able to sign up for a showing of the house on a scheduled occasion, like in more civilized countries.

You agree time and place to meet, and do not get surprised if the agent is half an hour late. Hence; do not plan two visits too close in time!

A lot of the apartments are in a terrible estate, so you need to "look through the mess" and see what possibilities there are. Now, that may be a big mistake. Tearing down walls, moving the kitchen, open a window to a patio or any other change you may want to do can be stopped by your neighbors. Your neighbors have a huge power over the apartment you have actually bought, and being reported by the neighbors for practically anything at all is very common. If nothing else this may stop any renovations for months or even years!

Well back to the visits and what you need to be aware of:

1. the square meters are never correct. They say 80.  It will probably be 60. Be aware that in Spain the thickness of the walls count as usable square meters. So does part of the stare case and any other areas "of your property that you have no access to".
2. A building in Spain may be (and more than often, is) subject to enforced renovation. They will never tell you if it is and... and here comes the important part... IT DOES NOT EVEN SHOW UP IN PUBLIC RECORDS. 
3. You should try to talk to the president and administrator of the community of neighbors to know if:
1. If there is some kind of embargo on the apartment you are trying to buy. Hence ; if the bank actually owns your apartment or house, and you will lose it if you buy it.
2. If the previous owner owns money to the community of neighbors
3. if there are any renovations pending

So... once your find an apartment you are basically on your own. You have no guarantees, what so ever, that the apartment or house is actually yours once you have paid for it! And you may find yourself in a situation where you own thousands of Euros to the community of neighbors without even having set foot in the building. And, you may be owning tons of money for a renovation that is pending, and no one told you about before

Next post will be about minimizing the risks if you decide to move forward.
Please keep yourself posted.

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