When we said no
We are not here to get every purchase as far as the notary. If something comes up during the search, the negotiation or the due diligence that changes what the purchase means, we tell you. Sometimes we recommend negotiating. Sometimes waiting. And sometimes not buying at all. Four properties, four different reasons not to continue as planned.
Not every good deal is the one that goes through
Four properties, four different reasons not to continue as planned. Nothing was wrong with the first flat, and that is the point of the section rather than an exception to it.
| Property | What changed the decision | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Apartment · Mijas · 495.000 € | A community vote on short-term rentals was on the agenda days after the reservation, and renting was the reason for buying. | Wait, then do not buy. The reservation deposit came back. |
| New development · Estepona · 720.000 € | Nothing was wrong with the unit. At that price there were alternatives that gave the client more of what mattered. | Do not reserve. The client bought elsewhere. |
| Resale properties · Marbella · 1.100.000 € | The neighbouring plot permitted a building of up to three storeys where an older single-storey villa stood. The open view was what the price was for. | Do not buy. |
| Villa · Marbella · 4.000.000 € | What stood on the plot did not correspond without reservation to the documentation, and parts of the house needed their status verified. | Suspend the purchase until the seller side clarified it. |
01 · Apartment, Mijas, 495.000 €
The apartment matched the budget and the way the client intended to use it. Short-term renting was part of the plan. The property was already reserved and the client had paid the reservation deposit.
What we checkedWhat we found
- The agenda of the next community meeting
- Working with the lawyer we established that a meeting of the community of owners was due shortly after the reservation, and that a vote concerning short-term rentals was on the agenda.
- What that vote could do to the purchase
- Whether buying made sense at all was about to be decided by a piece of information that was nowhere in the listing.
What we did: we recommended not continuing automatically just because the property was already reserved. We waited for the result of the vote.The result: the vote did not permit what the client had been counting on, so we recommended not proceeding with the purchase. The reservation deposit was returned and the client withdrew from the deal.The client did not just avoid a bad purchase. They did not lose the reservation deposit either.
02 · New development, Estepona, 720.000 €
The client liked the project and the specific unit met most of the brief. At the same time there was pressure to decide quickly, because not many similar units were left.
What we comparedWhat it came to
- Price, orientation, layout, view and the project terms
- We compared them against the other options available in a similar budget on the market at that moment.
- Whether the apartment itself was the problem
- It was not. A property does not have to be bad to stop making sense at a particular price. At 720.000 € we could see alternatives where the client got more of what genuinely mattered to them.
Our recommendation: not to reserve the unit purely out of fear that it would disappear. Instead we showed the client concrete alternatives and explained where each one came out better for a similar budget.What happened: the client did not reserve the unit at 720.000 €. We carried on with the search and they eventually chose a different property that matched what they actually expected from the purchase. The decision came out of a comparison of what the budget could really buy, not out of pressure about availability."The last available unit" is a reason to decide quickly for the seller. Not necessarily for the buyer.
03 · Resale properties, Marbella, 1.100.000 €
At 1.1 million the property made sense at first glance. Good location, an open view, and a price that looked interesting next to comparable offers. That is why we put it in front of the client as one of the options.What you could see on site: an older single-storey villa stood in front of the property. The view from the terrace was therefore open, and nothing about it suggested that the view was where the problem was.
What we checkedWhat we found
- Not what stands in front of the house today
- Together with the lawyer we checked the neighbouring plot and what could be built on it.
- What could legally stand there tomorrow
- The existing older single-storey villa does not correspond to what the plot permits. A villa of up to three storeys could be built in its place.
That would fundamentally change the open view, which was one of the main features the client was paying for at this property.What it changed: the price of 1.1 million suddenly looked different. The client would not only be buying the current apartment and the current view. They would also be buying the risk that one of the property’s main advantages changes fundamentally once something is built.The result: we recommended the client not buy. What started out looking like a very interesting offer at 1.1 million stopped making sense at that price once the neighbouring plot had been checked.It can be information outside the property itself that completely changes whether its price makes sense.
04 · Villa, Marbella, 4.000.000 €
A finished villa to a high standard. The house came across as a property needing no significant work, and the client was ready to proceed with the purchase.
What we checkedWhat we found
- The actual state of the property against the available documentation
- During the legal and technical due diligence we compared the two. What stood on the plot did not correspond without reservation to what was evidenced in the documentation.
- Parts and alterations of the house
- Some of them needed their legal and administrative status verified. On a property of this value we did not advise the client to take on that uncertainty simply because the house was finished and looked fine.
What we did: with the lawyer and a technical specialist we set out precisely what needed to be evidenced or put right, and passed the requirements to the seller side. We made the next step conditional on the real and documented state of the property being clarified before the purchase completed.The result: the client did not have to choose between buying and not buying blind. Until it was clear what exactly they were taking on legally, we recommended not continuing with the transaction. The risk therefore stayed with the seller instead of transferring to the client at signature.On a high budget we do not check less because the property feels well built. We check more, because a mistake costs more.
Sometimes the most important thing is knowing when not to buy
We check what can be checked. We tell you what we found and what it means for the purchase. If something fundamental does not fit, we recommend not continuing, even when you have already decided to buy.These are our own accounts of real cases. We do not publish client names, dates, addresses or projects, and details that would identify anybody have been left out. Each one names the property type, the town, the price and what changed the decision, so you can judge the reasoning for yourself.They are also not a claim that we catch everything. Three of the four were found by an independent lawyer or a technical specialist doing their job, which is the argument for having them rather than an argument for us. What we did was make sure the check happened before the money moved, and then say out loud what the finding meant for the purchase.And this is not a page about Spain being dangerous. A property can be entirely good and still stop making sense once you know one more thing. Case 01 is the clearest version of that: there was nothing wrong with the flat.None of these four purchases completed, so none of them paid us anything. That is the honest test of the fee model, and it is the reason this page exists rather than a paragraph about our values.
Frequently asked questions
- How often do you actually tell somebody not to buy?
- We do not publish a rate. What we publish is the four cases themselves, with the property type, the town, the price and what changed the decision, and the reasoning is the part worth judging.
- Would I have lost my deposit in the first case?
- In that case the reservation deposit came back, because the reservation contract set out what happened to it if the due diligence turned something up. That is exactly why the return conditions belong in the contract before the deposit is paid, and it is the one payment that sits outside the guarantee system.
- Do you charge for the work when a purchase is stopped?
- No. Nothing is owed for the search, the viewings, the negotiation or the time. If the purchase does not happen, no commission arises anywhere, so there is nothing for us to be paid out of.
- Could a lawyer alone have found all of this?
- A lawyer found the community meeting and, with a technical specialist, the discrepancy in the villa documentation. The plot check in case 03 was a question somebody had to think to ask, and the comparison in case 02 was not a legal question at all. Legal due diligence and buyer-side representation answer different questions, and the second one does not replace the first.
