Valencia Property Blog

In our last post we told you about all of the things that drive us to distraction working in Valencia Property circles. Today it's time to tell you about the things we adore, love and generally get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside from while doing the same work. I said about the last post when commenting about it on social media "Avoid these and we will get along just fine", this time it's more along the lines of "this is how we want you to make us feel after we have worked or while we are working with you".

Now, just one thing before we start, we realise we can only get these warm, fuzzy feelings because of you, our clients, so thanks for giving us the opportunity to do this work for you. We appreciate it every day.

Hitting The Nail on the Head

There is nothing better than getting something totally right about which property we thought would suit somebody down to the ground and their seeing it and just knowing it's perfect. It's even better when the client hadn't even thought about that particular property before and we have introduced it on the hoof because of what comes out of previous visits.

An example of this happened this week. A client had favourited a lot of properties on idealista and identified what they wanted to see. We went to see seven properties, four which they had chosen and three that we had added because "we just knew". One of them had been rejected by them because the photos were awful. However, can you guess which were the three they liked? We actually knew that the others wouldn't suit and had told them this. However before our first visits we don't know about a particular client's preferences and likes, so we took them to those properties anyway because they would still be in their head if they don't get to see the ones they had chosen.

We get it right a lot of the time. It's not normal that your favourite property online will be your favourite once you visit. The more we know about your requirements the better our aim will be on picking out the right properties to go and see. There are many reasons for your favourite online property not matching up to expectations and these include location, views (or lack of them), light, size and most egregiously, bloody photoshop!! (A plea to agents here, stop using wide angle lenses, colour correction and artificial staging. You are doing yourself no favours as when the client sees the reality they are inevitably disappointed!)

And even better than hitting the nail on the head is finding that hidden jewel or diamond in the rough that ticks every single box for the client and makes them emotional on just walking into it, and yes, that happens at times. That's what Valencia and Valencia Property can do for you.

Negotiating the Best Deal For Our Client

We love negotiating the deals for our clients. We love the little extras we can get such as the furniture, (or rather specific bits of it rather than hearing "It all stays" when we don't want it), the time periods for completions to suit our client, and of course the best price. We always have an idea of what type of offer may be considered or accepted and can advise you on things not to demand so as not to turn away a particular vendor. You must consider the twin concepts of pride and insult when negotiating the price of Spanish property. Finding the balancing point that suits both parties is best.

To give an example, last week we made an offer on a property in the Cabanyal. We offered 9.5% off the asking price because of a lack of access to parts of the property (It was a good deal at asking price) The selling agent came back with a quote from the owner "She already has an offer 30k higher and they can complete immediately": We consulted and told them to "take it then".

Why did we do that?

We knew it was a lie, whether by the agent or the owner. Without access nobody would be offering that and to be able to complete within twenty days when there are two sitting tenants, just no. Two days later they got back to us and let us know that for a little more we had a deal, the other offer was suddenly not being mentioned. Now it's just the lawyers arguing over a few considerations in the time for delivery.

Starting the Search With a New Client

Everyone has their own requirements, their own desires and their own must haves. Working with this information, starting the search for a property that will suit a client is always an exciting and interesting time for us as buyers' agents. Some people will take longer to find their perfect home and some will be easier. They are all a challenge on different levels and that is what we want from life really, to be given challenges to overcome. And overcome them we will (Where possible).

Surprising People With a Bonus Ball

We pick you up as a client and start the property viewings. However, you may notice that we sometimes have to attend to Whatsapp messages or calls. This is because although everything will usually seem smooth on the surface to you, underneath that surface we are the proverbial duck giving it loads in the leg department, paddling furiously to keep up. We want you to have the best selection and sometimes that means places are not able to be arranged until the very, very last minute. When these bonus balls come up it pleases us immensely as they are often surprises that we know will suit the client 100% usually and we have managed to finally persuade the owner to come and show it. (What's that? You think it's easy to arrange visits in Spain??? Think again oh innocent one!)

Signing that Deposit or Final Sale

The end goal of your property search is to get the keys for your new home or investment property. Going to the notary and getting to the end of the process of buying a Valencia Property is a very satisfying moment for you as the buyer and for us as your agents. It's the point at which all of the hard work comes together. That is satisfying!

That Rainy Day

At the time it may not seem like it but we even enjoy the occasional rainy day to show property (As long as the rain is within reason and not the biblical flood scenario that sometimes happens) The reason is simple, if you like the property on the rainy day then you are going to love it on the 300-320 sunny days of the year with more light and warmth and without having to carry around an umbrella and ruin those tiled floors with our wet feet.

That's one thing about living in a sunny country with good weather most of the days of the year, we even enjoy rain and thunderstorms.

Seeing Valencia Through Your Eyes

There is a term in martial arts training which is "Beginner's Mind" Always approach your training as if you were just beginning as your mind is more open. We are the same with Valencia and its surroundings. We forget at times that it's a wonderful place and amazing to look at and live in because we see it every day and become a bit blasé about it. By you saying to us little phrases like "Isn't it lovely around here!", "That's a really nice street", "It's so green", "It surprises me how clean it is compared to ...insert country of choice..." we get to appreciate our own surroundings more.

In many countries, so many people walk through the places that they live with their heads down just going into work or back from work and cannot enjoy it and the truth is many places are not enjoyable places to live either. They exist rather than live. We find ourselves being reminded constantly that we are lucky to live and work in and around Valencia. (We aren't lucky, this is pure Lifestyle Design) This helps us to appreciate our life choices and circumstances more. The good thing is YOU can join us here and have those same constant reminders of how "Lucky you are".

Writing The Blogs and The Property Descriptions

The most fun part is receiving praise for these blogs, for our property descriptions, for the easy way we deal with clients on videocalls prior to visiting, when we take people out and during the supposedly tense process of negotiation. The first contact we get often is prefaced by "We really love your blogs and some of those descriptions are genius. Do you write them yourself or do you have a crack social media team?"

We don't have that.

Our secret is making things that are shareable whether they are these blogs, our tongue in cheek property descriptions, our images of the city and its surrounds or our videos.

We enjoy writing these blogs, making our videos, taking our photos and writing the property descriptions and we enjoy it because we get complements, thanks, praise and laughs. There has to be a reason right? You should always enjoy what you do and by working in the way we do we get that enjoyment. We want to transmit that enjoyment to you too so you can enjoy Valencia in the same way.

The "Craic"

And that's why we like our clients because our clients, like you, are self selecting. Once you have read our blogs, seen our videos and descriptions you get the idea that you might actually like working with us to find your perfect Valencia Property because we are different to other agents. Luckily we tend to not get those clients who play their cards close to their chests and keep their opinions on places quiet. We like communication and chatting. We let you know our thoughts and opinions on places too rather than just trying to sell you just anything. Our clients appreciate that candour. They also appreciate having a good time while visiting places. Sometimes the owners don't but that doesn't generally bother us.

Seeing The Results of Your Modernisation

You buy your place, you work with our team of project managers, architects and builders and then we get a phone call to say, "Come and look at what we have done with the place!" The pride that owners have in what they have done and the surprises that they come up with in conjunction with our teams never fails to amaze and, yes, we love that visit to see the final result of the work done on a flat.

Meeting Up With Clients For a Drink Years After Selling

We've said this before and we'll say it again, we don't just sell you a place and then disappear off into the ether. We want to be able to sit down with our clients long after they have bought and have a good chat about how they are enjoying being in Valencia, about how great their property is and more importantly about how happy they were to have found us and worked with us on their project to come and live in Valencia ;-). We know of a lot of people who never heard from their agent again after signing in the notary and getting paid (if you want to be that person we respect that too) but we do like sitting down for a coffee or something stronger and having a chat well after the notary appointment.

Creating a New Listing on Site

We have already said that we like writing the descriptions which we are renowned for but the process of listing a property for sale is also something we like. The more information we can provide the better and giving a full overview of the property through, virtual tours, features, real photos, location maps and videos allows us to give a much fuller picture of what you are going to find when you get here.

There is an art to a decent listing and it doesn't just involve a great lead picture and a punchy description. Our listings are selected, we don't just list everything, and they need to provide value to the people reading them and be aimed at a certain market segment of buyers. We hope you like reading them as much as we like producing them.

Using Our Tech Toys

We cannot deny it but playing with our tech toys is one of the reasons we like listing properties. It gives us an excuse to get the drone out, unwrap the 360º camera, practice our video recording skills and get creative with the full set of photos. We keep getting asked for more floor plans so are looking into better solutions for that because they take up a lot of time and patience to do. We hope to have a new tech toy for this very soon.

Seeing and Hearing The Excitement of People on First Video Call

We have been here for a long time and although we may not be as excited as we were on our first day of arriving we still look forward to getting up every day and seeing what life brings. We love to see the excitement in people's eyes and hear it in their voices when we have that first chat via Zoom, Whatsapp video chat or Skype. It's a change in your life and changes should excite you. It tells you that you are doing the right thing. We love seeing that.

Conclusion

As you can see it's not all pain, fear and loathing as you may have thought after the last post, even if it was rather tongue in cheek at times. We get so many moments of joy and loads of laughter doing the work that no two days are ever the same and there are always anecdotes to tell at a later date, and we love telling them.

Despite our love of what we do, the fact that we like the work and people we deal with we are still extremely professional. We realise that it's a big commitment on your behalf to put your trust in someone in a different country to help find you your perfect property and we take that responsibility seriously. However, we want to enjoy ourselves while doing it.

Recently one of the lawyers we work with described me (Graham) to another lawyer as "The Messi of agents in Valencia" I'll take that as a complement every day but it's not just me, I might be the blog writer but our team has tons of experience and know just about everything there is to know about Valencia, they are the ones who will make your property buying experience memorable. Give us a try. We won't disappoint.