# Safely (scam-free) rent an apartment? Remotely?



## ksjazzguitar (Dec 22, 2010)

Yes, I know there are a lot of scammers out there. That is my concern.

We are moving to BCN in January. I am a USC and my wife has an EU passport. We don't have TIE yet and I will be working remotely, but we have plenty of money in the bank.

We plan on buying an apartment, but want to rent for 6-12 months first so we can make sure to get something we like. We'd like to rent a furnished apartment before that. It would be nice to go straight there instead of spending a week in a hotel. We have friends (locals) in BCN that can check the place out for us.

We see a lot of stuff on idealista that we like. I assume that idealista does not guarantee everything on their site. Is there a service that does? Is there a trustworthy broker? Is it a hopeless cause? We're trying to avoid Airbnb, but might be open to that, even if just for a few months.

We're not too picky in terms of the apartment, but we would want a furnished 2 bedroom, preferably reasonably near Casal Mas Guinardó - that is near where our friends live.

Any advice?


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## CltFlyboy (Feb 11, 2020)

You guys are living the life we intend to live in about 3 years (relo to about an hour south of Barca and rent before buying), I'm jealous. Please keep us updated on your progress so we can learn the ins and outs based on your empirical experience... And good luck!!!


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## ksjazzguitar (Dec 22, 2010)

Don't be too jealous - we've been working on this for more than a decade now. I hope you have a more speedy and smooth process than we have.


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## CltFlyboy (Feb 11, 2020)

We've been working our plan for about 3 years, I know the feeling. It'll happen soon enough, but I wish it was happening MUCH sooner.


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## kalohi (May 6, 2012)

Idealista is just a portal where you can access offerings from many real estates agencies and also private parties. Any guarantee (if there is one) would be from the particular agency or person you end up dealing with. You will definitely want your friends to carefully check out anything you may find online.


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## tomwins (Dec 27, 2014)

I hope someone gives you more information or shares some perspective/experience as it will help me too. I'm looking at moving to Spain in Oct 2022. I was in and around Valencia in September of this year to get to know the area outside the city more. I will be going to Green Spain (specifically around Gijon and Santander) in March and April 2022. After many years visiting Spain these are the areas that are on my final list for putting my feet down for (at least) the first year.
I signed up with Idealista and don't get too many junk posts but in general I like the ability to save searches and get listings that match my criteria. Already I've seen listings by some agencies that are more in line with what I would be interested in seeing when I am ready to rent long-term. So I'm thinking I'll look through the listings I've saved and notice if I see the same agency listed frequently and then contact them. 
Like you when I get to Spain I'm thinking I'll rent somewhere for a couple or three months while I look for a long-term location. I have used AirBnb when traveling and they often give discounts on a month or more rental but it is still not a great price. I know in France there are short-term rental sites but haven't seen anything like that in Spain. Since I'll need an address to qualify for my visa, I suspect I'll have to rent from AirBnb unless someone can suggest another alternative.


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## ksjazzguitar (Dec 22, 2010)

Yeah, I can find plenty of sites that list apartments, some of which I would be willing to rent sight unseen. That is, if I could know that I won't get scammed. And there's the rub.

It may be that the answer to my question is "no". That there is no way for me to _safely_ rent an apartment before I arrive. I feared that that might be the case, but I thought I'd check. And the deafening silence on the subject seems to imply that that is indeed the case - that there would be a significant risk of getting scammed. I just thought I'd ask.


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## Tucsonsteve (Mar 26, 2013)

Try going through an agency like Engel & Voelkers or shbarcelona. My recent experience was a bit frustrating because their web site listings were somewhat stale. We ended up going with a company called stayukio, which is pricey but it’s only for a couple of months for us. You might also directly contact the 8 Sides Apartments. There wasn’t anything available when we needed it, but they looked very nice.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## ksjazzguitar (Dec 22, 2010)

Thanks for the suggestions, but some of those are out of our price range or don't have options where we want to live. We could probably afford them but then we couldn't keep saving for an apartment. Plus, we're simple people, we don't want anything too fancy.

But I guess it makes sense that the only way to have a guarantee is with a big, respectable company and they aren't going to waste their time on modestly priced apartments.

But thanks for the info.


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

Look for the offical town hall letting service. I'm sure it exists in Barcelona just as it does in Madrid.

We let a flat in Madrid through this scheme which gave us as landlords 1 year's free insurance on default of payment of rent (they do some basic solvency checks on the tenant). It also makes it difficult for scammer landlords (and tenants) as it obliges the landlords to lodge the deposits in the local authority escrow account (which very few private landlords do as it a rarely enforced rule). They also impose the contract wording to be signed.

Unfortunately this control and forced compliance with the rules means that there are very few landlords prepared to let through the scheme, so offer is limited, but at least it is more secure than any private agreement.

I seem to recall that the Barcelona scheme started by Ada Colau was a bit more succesful than the Madrid scheme so might be worth a look.

When we wanted to rent in Madrid, we even used the existence of the scheme as a "fall back", we asked prospective landlords of places we liked if they would be prepared to let the property through the official town hall scheme, with the intention of filtering out the scammers by identifying those that refused. The problem was they all refused!


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## Amy123123 (Aug 9, 2020)

I can't imagine there'd be an issue if you choose a place being let by a known agency. Idealista shows you how many properties a company currently has on the site, and how long they've been a client, which are pretty big indicators as to their legitimacy. Here's a couple of Barcelona ones I've just checked and they look absolutely fine:



https://www.idealista.com/pro/lcasf/




https://www.idealista.com/pro/veinou/



Just be sure to check out contracts etc carefully before handing over any money.


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## Overandout (Nov 10, 2012)

Be careful with relying on an agency to protect yourself. The agents are simply that, a third party who introduces a tenant to a landlord. They do not take any legal responsibility for agreement entered into by those two parties and are not normally parties to the agreements themselves.
If it goes sour and you take the agent to court you will probably find that they will not be at all liable.


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## conildlf (Jun 13, 2020)

tomwins said:


> I know in France there are short-term rental sites but haven't seen anything like that in Spain.


I apologize since this is off topic, but it would be much appreciated if you could mention the short-term rental sites in France. Thank you.


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