# Making offers



## Easyday (Apr 19, 2015)

Hello,
We have been looking in Benalmadena for a holiday home for a couple of years and whilst on holiday at the beginning of this month saw a property that we liked and viewed it with the estate agent. We have since researched on the Internet and found the same house on different web sites at three different prices so if we were to make an offer what would be a good starting point. We have booked to view it again next week and to view a few more on the same day.


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## extranjero (Nov 16, 2012)

I was told it is illegal to do this, all agents must advertise it at the same price.
I would just make what you think is a reasonable offer based on the cheaper price


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

You often see the same property advertised at different prices because either one of the adverts is directly from the seller and they discount the agent's fees, or the asking price has dropped but some agents haven't updated their website. This sometimes happens because agents initially "steal" property adverts from other agents and have no direct contact with the seller. So they don't know about the seller dropping the asking price.

Unfortunately it's difficult to work out what a reasonable price is for a property in Spain since they don't publish transaction prices. You really need to track an area for a long time to see what is selling and at what price. If the property has been on the market for a few years at the same asking price then I wouldn't offer more than 70%.


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## VFR (Dec 23, 2009)

Easyday said:


> Hello,
> We have been looking in Benalmadena for a holiday home for a couple of years and whilst on holiday at the beginning of this month saw a property that we liked and viewed it with the estate agent. We have since researched on the Internet and found the same house on different web sites at three different prices so if we were to make an offer what would be a good starting point. We have booked to view it again next week and to view a few more on the same day.


Simply offer what you are happy/afford to pay, they either say yes or no.


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## extranjero (Nov 16, 2012)

Chopera, surely if you have an agent or agents advertising your house you cannot sell it directly yourself in oder to avoid paying agent's commission
If you say you have sold it, the agent will say the buyer saw his advert, or board, which led to him buying it?
If you want to sell the property yourself, surely you have to get rid of the agent first?


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## Calas felices (Nov 29, 2007)

It all depends whether the seller has signed a contract with the agent. If they haven''t then they have no redress in law.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

extranjero said:


> Chopera, surely if you have an agent or agents advertising your house you cannot sell it directly yourself in oder to avoid paying agent's commission
> If you say you have sold it, the agent will say the buyer saw his advert, or board, which led to him buying it?
> If you want to sell the property yourself, surely you have to get rid of the agent first?


I've seen plenty of properties advertised on idealista and fotocasa both with an agent and directly from the seller, with the seller's asking price being slightly cheaper.

As Calas felices says, it depends on the contract. When you view a property with an agent they usually insist on getting you to sign a document saying you viewed the property with them, and they usually want your NIE or passport number as well. So if you then buy the house directly from the seller they'll have evidence that you found the house through them, and they can sue the seller for breach of contract.


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## extranjero (Nov 16, 2012)

Here, if you put your property with an agent, they automatically demand you sign a contract, or it won't be on sale with them.
I've never heard of a house being for sale with an agent who hasn't demanded a contract


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

extranjero said:


> Here, if you put your property with an agent, they automatically demand you sign a contract, or it won't be on sale with them.
> I've never heard of a house being for sale with an agent who hasn't demanded a contract


In Spain there really is no concept of 'sole agent'. It seems to be assumed that there will be multiple agents (yourselves being one of them).

As stated earlier, it all depends what one puts in the contract or even if there is one!


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## extranjero (Nov 16, 2012)

I was told by one of the most well known estate agents in Spain , who is my sole agent that, If I wanted other agents they would have to draw up a new contract to reflect this.
There's no way I could do a private sale.
The other agents would want me to prove that it was from my advert that the buyer saw the house, and wanted it, not theirs, and surely they would all want the commission!


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

I have my house advertised on several sites, both here and internationally. I also have the house with a couple of local agents that I have signed contracts with. There was an understanding before I signed - as they had approached me from my adverts - that they would only receive commission if they introduced a buyer themselves, and they fully understood and accepted that I was actively trying to sell the house myself.

I have dropped the price of my house in line with falling prices and am willing to negotiate, but only to a certain extent. I am, luckily, not desperate, but realistic. I want to sell and move to a different area within Spain, but will stay put rather than take a huge loss. I imagine every property has a different story behind it and every seller will therefore be different. I get the impression that many Spanish people are affronted by derisory offers and will refuse to negotiate further if so insulted.


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

We made numerous offers of different properties which reflected how we felt the property was worth in comparison to the similar properties in the area.
We had many different responses, none of which were negative, illegal possibly but not negative.
I have often heard it said try starting at 20% below but in all honesty if a house is 200,000 then 160,000 is likely to be laughed off.
And to be fair if you have a price range and the advertised price is in that range then you have to ask why you wouldn't go back up to it.

That said we were thinking of giving up completely when one weekend we noticed a house we were watching had a considerable price cut on one agents site, not wanting to do business with that agent first thing Monday morning I called the ones we liked who also had it advertised with the intention of seeing if they can price match, they had edited the price about 15 minutes earlier so we offered the new asking price and it was accepted.

Thing is if the price is good for you then go for it if you are comfortable with it, by all means if it is advertised cheaper on another listing then choose the agent you like most and ask them to match it.
Normally the cheapest will be the owner direct anyway.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

A couple of years ago my brother in law saw a house he liked with an asking price of €250k, from an owner seller. He phoned them up but they told him they had just accepted an offer, so on the spur of the moment he said he'd offer €175k, thinking that they'd tell him the other offer was higher and that would be the end of the matter. However it turned out the other offer was lower still, so he ended up buying the property. Apparently the sellers were siblings trying to sell an inheritance, and they were fed up of trying to sell an empty property and just wanted to get rid of it. So it goes to show how much depends on the situation of the seller - some are more motivated than others. If you are after a property at a good price, and are pretty easy going as to what type of property you end up with, then you need to play the field in order to hunt down those motivated sellers, making low offers until someone bites. If you are after a unique "dream home" type of property then you can't really do that, so you'll probably end up paying more.


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## extranjero (Nov 16, 2012)

Chopera, is it not illegal to gazump in Spain?


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

Verbal contract is binding, so yes.


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

extranjero said:


> Chopera, is it not illegal to gazump in Spain?


I have no idea. I guess the other buyers who made an offer could have taken it up with the sellers in that case, but they didn't.


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## extranjero (Nov 16, 2012)

Chopera said:


> I have no idea. I guess the other buyers who made an offer could have taken it up with the sellers in that case, but they didn't.


Good job the first buyers hadn't put a deposit down then, as the seller would have to have given them double the amount back!


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

extranjero said:


> Good job the first buyers hadn't put a deposit down then, as the seller would have to have given them double the amount back!


Well in that case the sellers would probably have weighed up the difference between the offers and the penalty for breaking the contract. It might still have been worth their while to break the contract, pay up and accept the higher offer.


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