Inspection Trips

[Super Bock]

Hi

Some friends of ours are thinking about buying a property in the Algarve and have been offered an inspection trip with Parador Properties. Has anyone ever done one of these or had any dealing with Parador. Does anyone know anything about Parador, good or bad?

Regards

[MALLYMAL]

Many people who have been on inspection trips (not necessarily with Parador) have reported that the sales reps stick to you like glue, so you don't get time to yourself to check out the area as you would like, or check out other properties.

Also the "free/subsisised" trip is ultimatley paid for in the price the buyers pay to Parador or whover - no such thing as a free lunch.

Would advise your friends to spend HOURS on t'internet looking at similar properties first so they are become very familiar with what areas they like & what typical prioces are. Otherwise, they have no way of relating Parador's prices to other available properties.

Also watch out for sales agents who quote prices in Sterling (then the small print says "based on 1.5 euros to the pound"

[steve]

There are a lot of Parador cars about so they must be fairly successful. I do know that seller helps fund the free visits because when we spoke to Parador they wanted a commission of 15% and sole agency. The typical commission at. local agents is 5%

[biffa]

Information I have gleaned shows that Parador are quite aggressive at selling and don't want to take no for an answer.

[Misty]

What I have heard is that Parador are quite aggressive, they do stick to you like glue, even during meal times etc. and don't like to be told no. I have also been told that they inflate their prices to cover their own costs. I have also heard that the recently cut their sales staff by a half. Make of that what you will.

Oh and they are only likely to show you 3 or 4 houses, which seems like a waste of a trip! I presonally would not buy in the Algarve without being totally sure and I'd want to see quite a few more than that!

[Bruce Wallis]

Our first trip out to look for a villa, we were very firmly guided by the agent who set up the buying trip, who, in spite of what we told them we wanted, insisted on trying to convince us that we needed to buy on one of their developments, and carted us around from Travira to Praia da Luz.
It is frustrating to tell them that you hate homgenous developments like Vale de Lobo, only to be led back to them anyway.
The net result of this is that we were able to eliminate most of the new developments for our 2nd trip which we did totally solo and spent the time driving round, located the area we wanted to target, (Carvoeiro), and then visited local Estate Agents.
Even here we fell in with an agent, (Sunny Homes), who tried to bludgeon us into buying on one of their developments.
We eventually found the International Property Agency, which is literally the first building you some to as you enter the one way system in the way into town. Having made it clear to them what we were looking for, they showed us a few places....without pressure.....

The pricing in Sterling does need to be watched. Depending on the state of the currency market this can cost you well over an extra couple of thousand pounds.

We bought in Euros, and then watched the currency market for about 6 weeks, and bought Euros at 1.46 to the pound. THAT...on a half million euro property makes a significant difference.

There is a great truism in looking for a place, especially if you intend to let....Location, Location, Location.

Another thing to be aware of....If an agent tells you that the lovely villa he wants to charge you a fortune for because it has lovely views over open country will never be built around....dont believe him.
We almost bought a place in Monte CVO on this basis, just before we signed, we noticed surveyors stakes in front of our "view". That villa now sits in the middle of a development.

My final point......

If you find something that you have niggling questions about, or seems too good to be true...listen to those doubts.

Good luck