Too much choice can make finding the right Costa del Sol property harder, not easier. Understanding your must-haves and, perhaps more importantly, your red flags can help you narrow the search and focus on properties that genuinely work for you.
Where is the red flag? 🤷
How do I narrow down my Costa del Sol property search?
In truth, searching for a property on the Costa del Sol should be so much easier than it used to be. There are thousands of properties online, plenty of photographs and information, and you can spend hours browsing without even having to leave home.
The problem is that having so much more choice doesn't necessarily make choosing any easier. You only have to look on one of the major property portals, and you will quickly find yourself looking at hundreds of properties. Many will appear more than once because the same property is being offered by several different agents. After a while, it can become difficult to remember what you have seen, what you liked and, most importantly, what you didn't like.
Start by working out what really matters to you
At the beginning of a property search, most people have a fairly good idea of what they want. It may be a two- or three-bedroom apartment or a house, perhaps with a terrace, garden, pool and/or parking. You will also probably have a budget in mind.
These are really useful starting points, but they don't necessarily tell you whether the property you are looking at will work for you. As your search develops, your ideas may become clearer. There will be things you originally thought were essential that become less important, while something you hadn't even considered at the outset may suddenly become a priority.
We recommend that you think about your requirements in three groups.
- Must-haves: things without which the property simply wouldn't work for you.
- Would be nice: things you would certainly like to have but which you could compromise on if the property was right.
- Red flags: things that are likely to make you reject a property regardless of how many other boxes it ticks.
Of the three groups, the red flags can sometimes be the most useful.
Tell me what you don't want
During conversations with buyers, one of the phrases that my team and I repeat most frequently is, "Please tell us what you don't like or don't want." Simply put, ruling out the things you don't like or don't want, in other words, the red flags, can actually take out about 90% of the market. All of a sudden, your search is refined.
A portal can allow you to search for three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a swimming pool, parking and a terrace. What it can't easily understand is that you don't want to be overlooked, that you can't stand road noise, that you don't want to be in a large community, or that you don't want a house that's going to require too much maintenance.
Privacy is a good example. Two properties may both have lovely terraces, but one might look directly onto the community garden and be visible to people around the pool, while the other has a private walled patio with no particular view. For somebody who values privacy, the second could be considerably more attractive than the first.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the first property, and it may be what many buyers are particularly looking for, but for the person who wants privacy, it has a red flag that will make it unsuitable for them. This is why knowing what you don't want can be every bit as important as knowing what you do.
Property portals can only filter so much
Online property searches are extremely useful, particularly during the early stages when you're learning about areas, prices and the type of property available. Having said that, portal filters are largely based on things that can be put into boxes, such as the price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, type of property, swimming pool, parking and so on. They don't readily have a filter for how you want to live.
The portals can't know that you would rather have a smaller private terrace than a large one where you feel overlooked. They don't know that you would happily compromise on the kitchen if the outside space was right, or that four bedrooms might actually be less attractive to you than three because you simply don't want a large property.
These are the things that gradually become more apparent to you as you look at properties and understand your own priorities better.
This is where a good relationship with an agent helps
Once you have reached the point where you have a reasonably clear idea of what you are looking for, there is a lot to be said for working closely with one or perhaps two estate agents rather than continually making enquiries through different portals.
It's useful at this stage to understand how the Costa del Sol property market works. Most properties are offered for sale by agents. The agents on the Costa del Sol generally have a working relationship whereby they are prepared to share the commission on a sale with the agent who is working for a buyer. This means that if you create a relationship with an agent, they will be able to access the full choice of properties for you.
I think one of the most important things you need in an agent is somebody who listens and can gradually learn to understand not only what you like but also, most importantly, what you don't like, why you rejected certain properties, and how to avoid offering you the same property again.
After a few conversations and viewings, they will get to know that a particular terrace won't give you enough privacy, that a certain style of community isn't for you, or that a property is simply larger than you want. From then on, they will be doing more than matching the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and the price. They will be filtering the properties based on what they have learned about you, and they will be ruling out the ones that you won't like.
Working this way can save everybody a great deal of time and certainly make the buyer feel less overwhelmed by the whole process.
You may want to take it a stage further
For most buyers, having a good relationship with one or two agents will be all the help that they need.
Occasionally, however, a particularly strong relationship develops between the buyer and the agent, and the buyer may decide that they would prefer one person to take responsibility for the whole search and work specifically on their behalf. This can be a natural progression into a dedicated Property Finding Service.
It isn't something that everybody needs, and it certainly doesn't have to be where the relationship is heading. The most important starting point is having somebody who understands what you are trying to find.
Ultimately, finding the right property isn't just about seeing more and more options. It is about becoming increasingly good at ruling out the ones that are not right for you.
"Tell me what you don't want," and it will probably rule out 90% of the market.
If you would like to talk further or would like help with your property search, please call us on (0034) 952 90 52 00, WhatsApp us, or email info@michael-moon.com. There is no obligation, and we would be pleased to hear from you.
