Spanish Disaster
As I have said previously our apartment in Spain was excellent, even to the point of having an electric blanket. Goodness, we realised that we would need it, as it was very cold on the Thursday morning when we woke. The views were wonderful we did not realise we were so high up.
We had two appointments on that day to view properties that looked great on the internet. Our first one was just after lunch in a small village, this was my favourite it was described as having a lovely rose garden and the outside looked a dream.
We met the agent who had a “runner” with her, and we followed her in our car for miles up in the mountains, we seem to leave the lovely quaint village well below us, and climbed and twisted through a dirt track up the side of this mountain. Quite a difficult time for our hired car, one really needed a 4x4 to tackle such a route. The look on my face I believe said it all when we finally stopped in this mountain village, and started walking to the house. One could not even park near, as the street was so narrow. I wished now that I had taken pictures of this tumble down dump, which required total reform so you could see what condition this property was in. We think it had been on the market for many years and just left to rot. The photographs we saw must have been taken many years prior when the house was looked after. There was a 3ft breeze block wall to the rear of the property that was all cracked and broken and then a sheer drop of over 250ft down the mountain. I myself could not get near enough to look down, it didn’t feel safe. The house itself had no windows to the sides or the back due to having this drop obviously with no access around the house. Just one door and two front windows. The house needed gutting, a total reform. No kitchen, no bathroom, nothing. The “rose garden” was several roses that had been left to go very wild. 85,000 Euros was the asking price !
We were disappointed but not deterred at this stage and looked forward to our next viewing which was late afternoon, this was Iain’s favourite, a village house with 4 bedrooms, again the photos looked lovely. Although we had noticed that the photo of the front of the house had been taken quite close and one could not see the adjoining houses.
For this viewing we attended the immobilier (estate agency) and she drove us to this viewing. Iain looked around as he could not spot the house we were viewing, I had seen it and my mouth dropped. Next door’s side of the house was made of corrugated iron – the whole side, all rusty and dented, and took up the whole side wall of the front garden of the house for sale. Next door on the other side, well, it had burnt out, had a fire, and had been left for many years in this condition, it was a wreck. This house inside again needed total reform, although the details did not convey this message at all. Perhaps at this stage I should say we were looking at properties up 100,000 Euros. Although this was slightly cheaper, certainly not worth the money they were asking.
OK, we were disappointed again, and we learnt from that moment on that one should not take any notice of photographs, they can be too deceiving. We looked forward to Friday afternoon, as another agent who had half a dozen properties for us to see was taking us out.
We woke Friday morning to minus 1c… a very cold morning, and very misty. So jumpers were donned and we drove to a very busy Jaen to investigate the NIE documents and have a look round and then onto our meeting with the agent who took us in her car to a number of houses. The first two houses were reasonable although did need new bathroom, new kitchen, new electrics,etc. but we did see the potential there, with lots of work they would have been wonderful, unfortunately close to our budget, we could not have entertained all the expense to make these a viable proposition. The third house was better, top of the budget with no money to spare really, and just needed a bathroom, new kitchen and the electrics looking at, and obviously decorating from top to bottom. Lots of potential for this property, it could be very nice and I could imagine it completed. But none of these houses had any form of garden just a patio, which we felt was not good for our animals. The village was tidy and the people very pleasant.
Our next stop was a cortijo, we were told this did need some work but had a garden, OK. I agree it had a garden, and was cheaper, unfortunately not cheap enough. It needed total reform, including a roof (it was corrugated) – well it required absolutely everything. Having had one house back to its shell, we could not tackle anything like that again and be alive at the end of it to tell you about it. However, I did get the camera out at this one and took a picture of the bathroom – see picture titled Spanish Cortijo Bathroom.
Last house on the list was miles away and we sat in the car for quite a time whilst this patient lady drove us to our destination, we should point out that now the sun had come out and it was 28c…so we wilted in the car for quite some time. Felt quite ill. Whatever made me put a jumper on !
She parked the car and we started walking again through narrow streets, well all we could say about this one was more than total reform was required. We think it needed to be pulled down and started again. High price for such a property, but it did have a small section of garden – but one had to climb up the side of the hill to get to it – so that one was at the same height as the adjoining properties roof.
We returned to our apartment, tired and confused and feeling unwell……..
We had two appointments on that day to view properties that looked great on the internet. Our first one was just after lunch in a small village, this was my favourite it was described as having a lovely rose garden and the outside looked a dream.
We met the agent who had a “runner” with her, and we followed her in our car for miles up in the mountains, we seem to leave the lovely quaint village well below us, and climbed and twisted through a dirt track up the side of this mountain. Quite a difficult time for our hired car, one really needed a 4x4 to tackle such a route. The look on my face I believe said it all when we finally stopped in this mountain village, and started walking to the house. One could not even park near, as the street was so narrow. I wished now that I had taken pictures of this tumble down dump, which required total reform so you could see what condition this property was in. We think it had been on the market for many years and just left to rot. The photographs we saw must have been taken many years prior when the house was looked after. There was a 3ft breeze block wall to the rear of the property that was all cracked and broken and then a sheer drop of over 250ft down the mountain. I myself could not get near enough to look down, it didn’t feel safe. The house itself had no windows to the sides or the back due to having this drop obviously with no access around the house. Just one door and two front windows. The house needed gutting, a total reform. No kitchen, no bathroom, nothing. The “rose garden” was several roses that had been left to go very wild. 85,000 Euros was the asking price !
We were disappointed but not deterred at this stage and looked forward to our next viewing which was late afternoon, this was Iain’s favourite, a village house with 4 bedrooms, again the photos looked lovely. Although we had noticed that the photo of the front of the house had been taken quite close and one could not see the adjoining houses.
For this viewing we attended the immobilier (estate agency) and she drove us to this viewing. Iain looked around as he could not spot the house we were viewing, I had seen it and my mouth dropped. Next door’s side of the house was made of corrugated iron – the whole side, all rusty and dented, and took up the whole side wall of the front garden of the house for sale. Next door on the other side, well, it had burnt out, had a fire, and had been left for many years in this condition, it was a wreck. This house inside again needed total reform, although the details did not convey this message at all. Perhaps at this stage I should say we were looking at properties up 100,000 Euros. Although this was slightly cheaper, certainly not worth the money they were asking.
OK, we were disappointed again, and we learnt from that moment on that one should not take any notice of photographs, they can be too deceiving. We looked forward to Friday afternoon, as another agent who had half a dozen properties for us to see was taking us out.
We woke Friday morning to minus 1c… a very cold morning, and very misty. So jumpers were donned and we drove to a very busy Jaen to investigate the NIE documents and have a look round and then onto our meeting with the agent who took us in her car to a number of houses. The first two houses were reasonable although did need new bathroom, new kitchen, new electrics,etc. but we did see the potential there, with lots of work they would have been wonderful, unfortunately close to our budget, we could not have entertained all the expense to make these a viable proposition. The third house was better, top of the budget with no money to spare really, and just needed a bathroom, new kitchen and the electrics looking at, and obviously decorating from top to bottom. Lots of potential for this property, it could be very nice and I could imagine it completed. But none of these houses had any form of garden just a patio, which we felt was not good for our animals. The village was tidy and the people very pleasant.
Our next stop was a cortijo, we were told this did need some work but had a garden, OK. I agree it had a garden, and was cheaper, unfortunately not cheap enough. It needed total reform, including a roof (it was corrugated) – well it required absolutely everything. Having had one house back to its shell, we could not tackle anything like that again and be alive at the end of it to tell you about it. However, I did get the camera out at this one and took a picture of the bathroom – see picture titled Spanish Cortijo Bathroom.
Last house on the list was miles away and we sat in the car for quite a time whilst this patient lady drove us to our destination, we should point out that now the sun had come out and it was 28c…so we wilted in the car for quite some time. Felt quite ill. Whatever made me put a jumper on !
She parked the car and we started walking again through narrow streets, well all we could say about this one was more than total reform was required. We think it needed to be pulled down and started again. High price for such a property, but it did have a small section of garden – but one had to climb up the side of the hill to get to it – so that one was at the same height as the adjoining properties roof.
We returned to our apartment, tired and confused and feeling unwell……..
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