Buying And Selling in Spain.

So what’s it really like to buying and selling in Spain and just what is the process you have to go through.

As you may know from my posts here I have just sold another property *this makes 5*and in this post i will outline what we went through so as to give you a heads up.

So we sold an apartment we owned here this week and signed at the notary yesterday and this is how it works.

First off we had an offer from the new buyers and after excepting it they needed to pay a deposit of 10%   into our bank that was none refundable. But if we pulled out we would have to pay them double the deposit. Then we set a date to sign at the notary. At the notary you all go into a side room with a clerk who takes all the details of the sale and all the parties personal details and payment details and prints it off ready for the notary.

This takes about 1 hour to prepare so there is a lot of sitting around waiting. And there are many other parties in the offices doing the same thing so its always very busy.

Then you are all called into the main notary’s office where there is a long table that you all sit at with the notary at the head of the table.

At our sale there was the new buyer and his wife, their estate agent, and his solicitor, and on our side was my wife and I, our estate agent and our bank manager. then the notary at the head of the table so in total there was 9 people at the table where the notary then starts to read out all the details printed out earlier about the sale and all those involved. then the checks are read out and checked by all and then we all sign copies of the sale.   This all taks about 45 mins. After that we needed to go to our estate agents to pay them their fees and then to our bank to pay in the check.

We did not need a solicitor as we both speak Spanish and have been through this several times but i would recommend most to get a English speaking solicitor to help as they speak very fast and there is a lot to understand and get right.

Moving to Spain , what to do first

Even after living in Spain for 16 years and going through this process several times, i still find it some what stress full.

So i hope this has given you some idea of what to expect when you buy or sell in Spain.

Please tell us how your sale goes…..  and if this has been interesting please leave a quick comment thanks.