I was thinking of calling this post "Pay Peanuts, Get Monkeys" but thought it might be too insulting to those referred to. Sometimes just because you aren't the best at something it doesn't necessarily mean that you don't know what you are doing it just means you might make little mistakes that cost your client a lot of money, a load of time and a large slice of their sanity. Today we are looking at trying to get something done by cutting corners, not taking recommendations of trusted providers or simply making mistakes and what then needs to be done to remedy the situation.
(In this post we will also be looking at the effect of the Trump Tariffs (Taxes) on any property purchase in Spain for Americans (As this article talks about really bad decisions with bad outcomes) and how the landscape is changing for our transatlantic cousins. I'm sure you are looking forward to this bit (Warning: May get a bit sweary)
What is a False Economy
There are many ways to describe a false economy and you probably know exactly what it is but it's best if we present it in real world terms to give you a background.
You have a choice of two pairs of shoes this April. One pair costs €30 and is known for lasting a few months and then very quickly falling to bits, think stuff you buy from Temu or Shein for example. The other pair is €60 but are known to be long lasting and very "whims of the fashion market" resistant, eg Doc Martens. September comes around and the Docs are like new but in a parallel universe you are searching through Shein for something to replace the pair where the insoles are falling to bits and the laces have broken various times (blame fast fashion). Five years later your Docs are still going strong but you are onto your tenth €30 euro pair shoes from Temu and they now cost €40 too because some idiot started a trade war. The original saving is overwhelmed by the ongoing costs.
But how do we apply this to the process of buying property. Let's take some examples.
Choosing the Wrong Lawyer
Some people are wary of taking recommendations for lawyers especially from estate agents and I get that, but it is important to know what a lawyer is good at. We have been working for years with a limited number of lawyers on Golden Visas (RIP 3rd April) With the deadline coming up we explained in one of our blog posts that if your lawyer doesn't know what they are doing then you risk not being able to get the Golden Visa before last week's cut off date. Most people listened to us and all of those who did got their Golden Visa. We know of a couple who didn't and know for certain that one failed in their bid to get the coveted GV before the date and the other was scrabbling around the week before without everything being in place and presented. Now the first person may make an appeal but good luck with that. It may work, it may not. The second one I will find out more about soon I suspect but when they asked us whether it's possible to sue a lawyer last week I knew things weren't going well.
But it's not just visa processes, the purchase process of the property you want to buy can be seriously impacted by the efficiency or otherwise of the lawyer involved. One of the sales we have going through currently is in danger of non-completion because the lawyer the sellers have chosen to use moves at a glacial pace. Sellers don't really require lawyers to sell so I think we are looking at a "justifying my fee by taking ages" mindset. So far the lawyer has taken over a month to produce an initial deposit contract, we would have done it in twenty minutes more or less. We are lucky we have patient clients because by now most people would have walked.
The same lawyer is also holding up another purchase, this time representing our buyer (We warned them) because of the time they are taking to do the due diligence required. Our job over the last couple of weeks has been to calm the ever more angry and twitchy seller (The person we are not even representing). I would again say here "pay peanuts get monkeys" but this particular lawyer isn't even cheap.
Choosing the Wrong Builders
We have a sister company, Valencia Remodels, that are doing a lot of modernisations for our clients (And others). They don't get every job they quote for but that's not a problem as they cannot do every job of course. However they have now been called in to rescue a project after a builder got paid and walked off the job leaving, frankly, a mess. One company even came in to quote on finishing the job and said they would have to start again due to the mess and then quoted a price well above what has already been taken by the errant first building company. But of course they did, the first builder's quote was cheap for a reason, they knew what they were going to do. (Oh you should also know the first builder not only took the money, up front as opposed to in stages but that they then closed the company down and started trading under another name, therefore it will be difficult to sue them!! And yes... they CAN do that!) Pay peanuts, get headaches it seems.
Licences
A few years ago we had a client looking for a property in the Cabañal. They eventually bought through another agent a property that we had considered and rejected because it was in our opinion not only overpriced but also very difficult to remodel to a good standard, think thin and long, a bit like a glorified tunnel. There were also a lot of traditional elements to the property that would have to be respected and fixed up as opposed to replaced, taking any potential cost a lot higher as specialist restorers would be required. However, that is not an issue three years after because they still haven't started any modernisation and obviously are still not living there as a result.
The issue is getting the licence. They hired a company to do the modernisation linked to the agency they bought through with an in-house architect "used to working with the council to get licences" apparently. They took them at their word with no portfolio of work in place and no recommendations from other clients and that didn't seem to be the case in the end. We suspect that the plans have been rejected and then placed at the bottom of the inbox when returned for consideration. As far as we are aware, and this comes through someone who knows the buyers, the process has been a nightmare and they are getting nowhere fast.
The truth is that getting licences quickly is an issue in the Cabanyal due to the sheer numbers of requests for modernising. Also, a full remodel of a property there requires an Obra Mayor licence and architect's plan which needs to be redone if rejected initially so the architect needs to have experience in order to make the application conform to the expectations of the council and the rules. Pay peanuts, get nothing done.
What You Need to Do
Obviously it is at this point that I say you need to use companies and tradespeople with experience, knowledge and a good portfolio of work that they can show you to be able to almost guarantee a good experience. You cut corners and you are likely to have a bad experience, "Measure Twice and Cut Once".
And of course it is at this point that I say consult with us here at Valencia Property on your purchase, your remodel, your licences and your lawyers. We regularly get people contacting us with problems after the fact; their purchase, their reforms or their struggles with officialdom when they try to do something themselves. It's hard. We know it's hard. We have driven this road so often that we know what we are doing. It's better to contact us before you have any of these issues. The reason is simple, any contact after the issue comes up is often too late.
Trump's Tariffs and Property in Spain
Now anyone who has been paying attention will know that we are not the greatest fans of the Mango Mussolini as he is known in these parts among a plethora of other names. Donny the Dictator is in the process of dismantling the US state and economy all in the name of disaster capitalism (Destroy things and pick up the assets at knockdown prices) and in order to do this the Naranjito Nazi has taxed the American people via arbitrary tariffs on imports.
(A quick message for those thinking they are not arbitrary, you are right they are just dumb, they were made up on the hoof. The White House says it calculated the size of each country's trade imbalance on goods with the United States and divided that by how much America imports from that nation. It then took half that percentage and made it the new tariff rate. They even put a tariff on an island populated by penguins, that's how dumb they are)
For those of you thinking they are not taxes, you're wrong, they are, as they will be added to the ticket price on every single item imported into the States that people buy and the United States is the largest goods importer in the world. U.S. goods imports from the world totalled $3.2 trillion in 2022 and has gone over $4 Trillion last year. Those imports now attract tariffs at a minimum rate of 10% and an average over 20%. Expect inflation, lots of inflation.
However let's get to the point here, Trumplethinskin has also made property in Spain for our American buyers more expensive and he has done this in two ways. One, the value of the dollar has dropped meaning it costs you more to buy Euros (Down from 97c to 91c per dollar since January) and two, the carnage on the stock markets means the value of your 401K and your investments has dropped too and the prices of things you buy here have gone up in terms of your perception of cost if your money is valued in dollars. I won't go into the amounts that one client told me this week that their portfolio had dropped but it was a good chunk of change. Nevertheless, this may just be the tip of the iceberg. As the US isolates itself from the outside world, the dollar as the reserve currency loses power and therefore could easily fall a lot further. You need to protect the value of your net worth in dollars if you are going to move to Spain.
As a buyer of property here in Valencia it may still be a good time to move your money into Euros so you can at least guarantee the rate today. Nobody knows what mad sh*t the Narcissist in Chief may pull next but it's almost guaranteed that it won't be good and when that happens the likely scenario is that the Dollar drifts lower.
Forward Ordering
One of our American clients had to pay $15k more on their purchase last week thanks to the Cheeto Caeser as the dollar plummeted. The reason was because they didn't forward order with their currency provider Currencies Direct. And it's such an easy thing to do. On making the deposit contract the dollar was around €0.96c. The client made an order for the dollar at 0.97 if it hit that point. The point is, it didn't. In the intervening month and a bit it went down to €0.92. If they had made a forward order at the original price when placing their deposit they would have been guaranteed that rate, €0.96, despite fluctuations in the market.
To do this you need to deposit 10% of the total amount you will be eventually transferring with Currencies Direct. Then you have a fixed time period to send all of the funds, usually a few months which more than covers the time period of the deposit contract. This means you can plan and you know how much your purchase is going to cost. Now this is important not just for countries where a Marmalade Maniac is golfing while the country burns but also for other countries with depreciating currencies against the Euro. Countries with high inflation rates tend to have depreciating currencies, looking at you Argentina! Oh, and once inflation takes hold in the States due to the tariffs then the dollar is likely to depreciate more.
Now it's not up to me to tell you that Captain Combover (who managed to put casinos into bankruptcy) isn't the greatest economic mind of our generation, I'm sure you can work that out for yourself, unless you watch Fox News on loop. However, forewarned is forearmed so maybe consider the possibility that the Tweetfuhrer isn't the most lucid on these issues. Talk with our currency provider and find out more about forward ordering. It could save you a lot of money!
Villa of the Week in Pedralba 235K
Beautifully situated near the village of Pedralba, which is a 40-minute drive from Valencia. The house is situated on a large plot of almost 1300m2 and has a beautiful view.
A large house that requires some love and attention, but the price reflects that. The ground floor has two bedrooms, a large kitchen and a small bathroom/toilet. This part of the house is mainly used for large group meals, as so many Spaniards do with their summer and weekend homes. Look at the photos and you'll see a Putin length table down there (almost as if somebody wanted to avoid Uncle Jimmy and his rather toxic views so could place him at the other end of the table)
This floor is not connected to the upper floor from the inside at the moment. You could probably connect it up if you wanted but it works as a separate apartment as is so maybe just leave it as there is plenty of space above.
The upper floor has a kitchen (which is not currently installed which is a bit mad but it just shows you how important the downstairs and outside kitchens are here), a fairly spacious living room with a fireplace, four bedrooms and two bathrooms.
The most important thing though is the lovely large terrace and the views, that's what matters.
The house needs love and attention, in other words, it needs a lot of renovation but that's reflected in the price for a house this size. Thanks in part to its beautiful location with endless orange groves all around, you could turn it into a dream home.
We would love to show it to you.
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— Graham Hunt (@grahunt.bsky.social) April 5, 2025 at 10:01 AM
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Lovely home in L’Eliana, a short walk from the town centre, and easy access to the motorway, so you won’t get caught in traffic as the world and it mother tries to leave the urbanisation at the same time every morning. buff.ly/ucog1ie #Valencia #ValenciaProperty
— Graham Hunt (@grahunt.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 10:26 AM
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Cozy in Winter Cool in Summer 380k
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