Here at Valencia Property we have been working with clients for over twenty years now helping people with buying their properties. It's because of this that it pains us to see what can happen to people when they are looking to buy in Valencia so we thought today we would tell you a few things that are happening in the background so that you can avoid the worst problems. Of course we will always tell you to use our services but we cannot advise you not to use others' services. Some agents are really good, some are ok and some are absolute cowboys. Today, we will talk about some of them, the cowboys of course, and also about the scammers that we featured in our latest podcast which you can listen to here.
The Scammers
As mentioned in the Podcast, be careful out there. If a property looks too good to be true then it probably is. We are not currently in a situation where there are desperate sellers looking to offload properties so if you see something at half of the price of everything else in the area then there's a reason and that reason is likely to be that you are being targetted to be ripped off.
The scammers are posting listings that look great, they look like Airbnb type rentals and guess what... that's because they are Airbnb type rentals They are currently being rented out by the scammer, as mentioned in the podcast let's call them Dominik or Sergei, the name they are using and the name they registered their crappy website under. They post a listing on the portals such as idealista and because there are so many people looking for both rentals and purchases they get a lot of phone calls. They show the property to as many people as they can in the week that they are renting it and take deposits for rental and hope to arrange a deposit or two for purchase. Even if the property is well under market value, 10% of that as a deposit is a lot of money for a week's work.
How do they get away with it? Well, they tell the victim that the property is available from the weekend for rental and they need to reserve now or they will send a contract for purchase and a transfer for the deposit can be made on receiving it and returning the signed contract (Which is in laughable Spanish because they are targetting foreign buyers on the whole). In the rental market they target anyone as desperation means that potential tenants are willing to pay a deposit there and then because they receive a "receipt" from the "landlord". See below.
So how do we know about this? Well, we went to see a property that was obviously under market value and strung along the scammer. At first we didn't realise but very quickly it became apparent what was happening so we carried on for a laugh. Also we have been contacted by a couple of people who have been scammed because the scammer is using the name Valencia Propertys and once they have been ghosted by the scammer the victims are trying to find the fictitious company.
*SUNDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE*
I have just had another call from a French guy who has been scammed for 3300 Euros by our mate Dominik. How did he find out about me? The police told him to read my twitter and facebook posts about the scam, so they are aware of the scam. Interestingly, they also talked with the owner of the property where they had tried to rent or sell it and they claimed they didn't know anything about it while also claiming it wasn't available on Airbnb. Interesting! I believe the term is "The Plot Thickens"
The Shark Agents
This one may not affect you directly but you might want to think twice about an agent that is so shady, as whoever they can rip off they will and that may well turn out to be you. I got a message from an agency who had found our site online asking if we could collaborate on a property we have listed on our homepage. We received that property through another agent so I passed the details onto the agency who had enquired telling them that the listing agent would be happy to collaborate. They claimed they had a client to see the property the next day so they immediately got in touch.
Now, the agent with the property told us the rest of the story. The agent who contacted us called them up, let's call this guy Tom. He made an appointment for 1pm the next day and then called it off at 9am the next morning after receiving details of where it was saying "they already had the listing through a colleague and sorry for the confusion".
At 10am an agent arrived at the house (Not Tom but another from their agency) and tried to get the listing. How do we know? It turns out that the owner is a very good friend of the listing agent so she phoned her up to let her know what was happening. (Funnily enough this agent then went down the road to another property from the same agency and tried to do the same. Again, the owner was a good friend of the agent so immediately phoned her to tell her so it seems to be their modus operandi)
The agency that we know got the owner to phone Tom and tell him that he could still see the property at 1pm with his client but they had to go through the original agency. He said "Ok see you at 1pm". And then he stood up the owner and left them hanging with no call, no explanation or nothing.
Now at this point I could tell you which agent but you might find it yourself if you look hard enough. There are a couple of clues in this description. Despicable behaviour and if they will rip off another agency it's a sure thing that they will not hesitate to rip off a buyer if they can.
The Ghosts and Fakes
Connected to the Scam listing above there are other scam listings doing the rounds on the property portals at the moment and they are placed there in order to get your mail address and phone number as a potential buyer of Valencia Property. We have always suspected that they exist but now we have total proof because we found a couple of properties that we had sold being advertised online at different prices so got in touch with our clients who had bought to see if they were really selling their properties without letting us know. Of course we aren't was the answer. So why do it?
Well, most agencies want to target buyers and in order to have a list of potential buyers what better way than to list some honeypot properties that are no longer available. When you contact you get the answer
"Unfortunately we have just sold that (They haven't) but we have these other piles of rubbish to show you and now we have your phone and mail address we are going to spam you to high heaven".
They may not say it exactly like that but it's what the answer means. We have seen properties at what are now ridiculous prices to attract people to contact and leave their details and guess what, we have contacted, just for sh*ts and giggles, to see what they say.
Call them what you like, ghost listings, fake listings, scams or whatever. It's unscrupulous and if I had been fooled by a listing like that I wouldn't be dealing with the agent in future. Nevertheless people don't realise that the listings are scams because they don't know about what listings are, or were, real or what the market is really doing. Of course we do, so we tend to notice these things as soon as they turn up.
Meet The Team
We have been promising for some time now to introduce you to the team at Valencia Property. You might already know me, Graham, writing this article, so we'll start with David who has been a part of the Valencia Property family for a long time now. Graham and David met while playing cricket in Valencia and David was working as a chef in the city and was, let's say, tired of it; tired of the long hours, tired of the working conditions and he felt that a change in career would benefit his family life.
Having lived and worked in Valencia for over a decade at that point he knew a lot about the city and its surroundings and being bilingual and having worked in the construction business originally on arriving in Valencia he was ready to take up a new challenge. A quick learner and really good with people, David fit in immediately and has now been working with us for almost a decade. An expert in using Google Maps and Earth to find out whether properties will suit our clients, Idealista addict and email lover (sic), David takes our clients by the hand from the start of their Valencia Property journey and will no doubt drop a few F-Bombs when applicable if an agent lets us down (Which they may well do).
The VP Podcast Latest Episode
The latest episode of our podcast talked about Scammers, Spammers and Mortgages on Valencia and Spanish Property. You can listen to it below. It includes an interview with Kevin Monger from Mortgage Direct all about getting a mortgage, terms and conditions and what you need to do. If you contact Mortgage Direct and tell them you came through the Valencia Property podcast they will give you a discount of 5% on their fees so all good.
Property Listing of the Week
A hotel? A hostal? A home? All possible with this place in Naquera which has been reduced in price recently and is a huge amount of property for your money
"A great big property nestled in the hills of the Sierra Calderona between Naquera and Serra that screams out RURAL TOURISM, quite ironically given the tranquility and peace all around.
It's 30 minutes from Valencia near the Sierra Calderona National Park. Perfect country for hiking, cycling and some of the best views in the whole province. Would you stay in a hotel that had this to offer? I know I would.
This property is set on 5(!!!) floors with 8 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. There is a big parking garage and tons of balconies, terraces and a big plot of land, it's far too much to be able to do it justice here to be honest.
And the best part is that this is not an expensive place for what you get. Starting a new tourist venture can be risky, given what we've all been through over the last couple of years, so you won't want to get in too deep at the start. But this place offers you a hotel/hostel/haven sized property for the price of a normal family home.
Get in touch for more information and to arrange a visit and a relaxing day out to one of the most beautiful parts of the Valencia region."
Coming Up Soon
We will be looking at the perspectives for the summer in the Valencia Property market in the next few weeks along with making more introductions to the team members here and looking more closely at the current market and what's happening. Also, we will be looking at some new areas we are starting to open up and looking into the cost of living in Valencia in 2022. Just keep an eye on the site, keep an ear out for the podcast and follow us on our socials. You might also want to sign up for our whatsapp alerts just send a whatsapp to 0034657994311 and say "I want in" along with your full name.
And if you liked this...
Just click on the images below to be taken to more we have written about Valencia recently and in the past. And if you want to contact us then get in touch.
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