Image by Jenna Carver

I’ve told you how to research properties abroad, now I’ll tell you how I planned to view properties. Looking back on it now, I realise that it was key to finding what I wanted in a single weekend.

I flew out on Friday night, spent 9am to 7pm on Saturday doing viewings and again on Sunday from 9am to 5pm. Two hours after that I was on a flight home, armed with enough information and contacts to make a purchase decision. It was an aggressive schedule that I had to fit around work commitments but I advise to take it easier, for the sake of your own sanity. However you do it, your time will be limited so you need to be really, really organised and that takes planning.

If you have followed my advice about choosing an overseas property you will have a clear idea of what you want. Now pick out the agents and developers from your research spreadsheet that may be able to meet your needs, get in touch and tell them exactly what you are after. Be as specific as possible and show them that you have done your research by including a list of potential properties from their website.

This is a good idea for a number of reasons. First, you help them help you, the more they know about what you want the better they can serve you. Second, by showing you are knowledgeable they will know that they can’t pull the wool over your eyes (by trying to sell you that cold, damp property that has been on their books for over a year). Third, if they can see you have already invested time by doing research they will know you mean business and they will do their best to convert that business into commission by giving you a better deal than their competition.

It won’t be long before they’ll get back to you with additional information about the properties you selected and probably about properties you haven’t come across. By the way, the best properties are snapped up before they have even been properly advertised so pay good attention to anything that’s not on their website yet. Add new knowledge from their feedback to your research spreadsheet. I found that agents sent me detailed architect drawings which often allowed me to pin point the exact locations of the properties using the techniques I mentioned while researching properties.

Once you have digested all the responses, order your contacts by how reliable/organised they are and from that you can start organising your time. Give preference to your top properties and contacts, you want to get the important viewings out of the way first so that to you have a chance to fit in a second viewing. In my experience you are shown about three properties by agents and one by developers. Allow 1 hour per viewing, this will give you plenty of time for your contact to drive you to the property, look around and ask questions… and don’t forget to schedule time for lunch!

Add your schedule to the research spreadsheet and make sure you have mobile telephone numbers and addresses for each person you intend to meet, the last thing you want is to miss an appointment because you can’t get in touch. Also start shopping around for flights so that you have an idea when you can fly out and how long you will be there. Finally get back in touch with everyone with tentative dates and times, amending your schedule as necessary. I found that actually all my contacts were very accommodating (why wouldn’t they be?) which is why I was able to organise viewings throughout a weekend. Depending on how many appointments you are juggling it will take you some time to finalise the schedule, it took me about 4 days.

At long last you have reached the final and easiest step: book your flights, transfers and accommodation. You are all set for the viewings.

Image by kyz

Once you have chosen where your property abroad will be it’s time to get out there for some viewings. Of course this is much more effort than when you do it in the country you live in. I’ll tell you how I was able to pick my property in a weekend by following a series of simple steps.

Step 1 is do your research. The more the better and keep the all the info you collect in a single place that you can refer back to. The good news is that you can do pretty much all of this on your PC. Make sure you’re connected and then get comfortable because it takes time.

Open a new spreadsheet, this is where you will keep all the important info you come across. You need to start by compiling a list of real estate agencies and developers that deal with your chosen area. The very least you need is websites and contact information. Next you need to find out what the terms for each of these are, summarise them and put them in the spreadsheet as well.

I found that terms vary a lot. Sometimes the buyer is charged a fee, sometimes it’s the seller and sometimes it’s split between the two. Also the kind of service varied, some agencies simply introduced you to the seller, others offered a full hand holding service to help you through the whole sale process. All of this is worth knowing because it will help you set rules for your purchase decision. Consider the scenario where you choose a property that is listed with more than one agency in which case the terms will be all that tells the two deals apart.

Now it’s a case of browsing through the agency websites and making note of potential properties. Remember when you choose an overseas property to use common sense so that you avoid the wrong kind. By the way, have you noticed that quite often agencies don’t give you the exact map location for the properties? That’s when developers sell directly to the public, agencies don’t want you to go direct because they won’t get any commission. You however do want to go direct because you’ll get a better price, so put in extra effort to find out exactly where the properties are. Here are two ways that I did it.

1. I studied the floor plans and found the names of neighbouring streets, then I used google maps to pin point the exact location.
2. Where I was looking the buildings all have names like Sea View. So I searched for the building name in the town I had chosen. Usually I ended up on the developer’s own website where I could find info about direct sales.

Don’t forget to put all the information you come across in your spreadsheet because you will need to refer to it regularly and print it out for when you go for viewings. All that done move on to step 2: plan your property viewing visit.