How to be a Real Estate Agent in Spain

single.php

Posted and filed under Businesses in Spain, General Articles of Interest, Legal Issues in Spain, Local area, Property in Spain, Property Purchase/Sale Service.

5 Ways Spanish Solutions Can Help Your Real Estate Business in Spain

Dear Soon-to-be-better Spanish Estate Agent,

Selling the benefits of a law firm in Spain is not very sexy, cool or exciting.

Spanish Solutions is not any ordinary firm, We ́re sure about that.

We can offer you five reasons why you will benefit from your clients working with us. 

Superior legal, tax and fiscal advice. We work in that sweet spot between absolute professionalism and friendly, reassuring, accurate legal advice. 

Business set up: your business bulletproofed. We ́ve turned over hundreds of millions of euro in Spain since 1998. We know how to earn money, spend money and keep money. 

Running your business: Will this make it easier for you: website help, xml feeds, special videos for you to promote to your clients, people on the ground in Spain representing you?

Aftersales Club: Help for your clients after the other agent has long abandoned them;  keyholding, maintenance, property rental assistance. 

Doing what other law firms are not prepared to. What other firm will look after your client like Spanish Solutions? None, Absolutely none. 

Are you ready to take your Spanish Real Estate business to the next level, whatever that may be for you? Are you just beginning? 

Do you want to get back into a post Brexit sector that is ready to boom once more?

Are you an experienced Spanish Real Estate agent, who is selling but not earning money? Too many deals falling apart before you get paid, too many upset clients, nobody you can really trust in Spain; We are here to help. 

Get in touch and you ́ll be glad you did,

Ian and the Spanish Solutions team

Spanish Solutions: Like a law firm, only better. 

Spanish Solutions is not for everybody- we know that. Equally we don’t wish to deal with every agent we encounter, at least not with our Real Estate partnership programme. This is not the same service you get from any old lawyer in Spain. This is only available for those who recognise the value we can offer them. 

Many of these great services we offer normal Spanish lawyers could do but… they tend to be a bit above getting their hands dirty. 

How many lawyers can say this? We have taken our clients to church; we drove a client from Alicante to the embassy in Madrid because they lost their passport; during the ash cloud in April 2011 when all IFR European airspace was closed, we ran four busloads of people (a total of 206 clients) home from La Zenia to London, UK; we changed tyres; clipped hedges; translated in schools; played golf and arranged play dates for the children of our clients.  

We think differently.  Like a law firm, only better. 

    • Legal, tax and fiscal advice.
    • Business set up.
    • Running your business.
    • Aftersales Club 
    • Doing what other law firms are not prepared to. 

1. Legal, tax and fiscal help for your clients.

We know many or most law offices can do a lot of  this but…. We think we do it better, they certainly don’t have our positive attitude. 

The Lawyer in Alicante of Spanish Solutions is Pedro Molina. Pedro and his team will provide you and your clients with a professional, knowledgeable service initially surrounding all the various aspects of purchasing a property in spain. 

What will our lawyer Pedro and Spanish Solutions do for your clients?

  • Spanish Solutions have dealt with almost 9,000 cases in Spain since 2005. We are experts and that expertise puts your clients mind at ease. If they trust us, by association they trust you. This is how business gets done and houses get sold in Spain. 
  • We ensure, through our legal searches that both the land and the property your client is buying are free from any debt or encumbrances.
  • We check building licences on new build properties, usually before your client has even viewed it.
  • We ensure that all payments are covered by a bank guarantee. These guarantees could have saveds clients million of euro back in the past ten years.  
  • We negotiate contracts with the builders for your buyer. 
  • Spanish Solutions arrange signing of the contract between the Spanish builder and the buyer.
  • We control all payments from the client to the developer. 
  • Assistance at the Notary during completion and ensure a proper set of title deeds. 
  • Our tax department ensures accurate payment of taxes including yearly non resident tax, property tax, rental income tax etc. 
  • Registration of Deeds in the Land Registry.
  • You client will need an NIE number in Alicante. We assist in getting it, so that they are on the Spanish Revenue system.
  • We provide your client with translations services if and when required. 
  • We draw up your clients Spanish will. 

The legal team will also arrange the set up of the utilities bills, direct debits for community fees, TV, electrical/water contracts etc.  

The team can offer you the option to assign a POA (Power of Attorney). It’s not always easy to return to Spain to sign the deeds on the allocated day, but the team will do it for you in your absence. This is a common practice for our clients in Spain and means that the team members dealing with your file has the legal capacity to sign the title deeds, open a bank account, etc on your behalf.

Like a law firm, only better. 

2. How will Spanish Solutions aid your real estate business set up?

 

As well as protecting your clients, you also want your business to be bulletproof. We don’t want Brexit, a new tax law, a disgruntled client, a non paying Spanish builder to derail your plans to sell Spanish property to happy clients. 

How do we help your business to run?

Making sure your clients are happy, content to proceed and protected legally is one thing. What about your actual business? What about the nuts and bolts of running your estate agency in Spain? We can offer you a service to ensure that your business is safe and protected. 

Structure of your firm;

  • If you are proceeding as a sole trader, we make that work. 
  • We can incorporate your business and set up a SL for trading purposes if your sales volume is high.
  • We can help you deal from your home country without the need to have a company  here. 

The key for us is finding the perfect sweet spot where tax efficiency meets legal protection. 

What about the practicalities of the business in Spain. You will have the same network of agents, bankers, notaries as we do naturally. If you have a client who needs finance before he buys in Spain why wait until he comes here to start looking. We ́ll speak to our bank in advance and get a “preapproval” for your buyer. By the time he comes here to view properties in Spain he has an exact idea of how much he can spend- thus it saves him time, it saves you money and we all win. 

Listings

How do you go about finding listings? We can find developments for you. We know what developments that foreign clients actually want to buy.  The reality is we have been dealing with many of these agents for years so getting them to sign you up as an agent is straight forward. A key part is how much do you earn from the builders? We ́ll meet them, do the relevant negotiation and make sure the builders sign the correct collaboration contract with you. 

Did you know that almost every builder has a sliding scale of commissions they pay to newer agents versus more established ones. Let us help get you on the higher rate sooner than you can do on your own. 

Developers love working with a law office like Spanish Solutions. We do so much of the work for them. We check out the building licences in advance and tell the client so. We ensure the builder is solvent and pass the information to the buyer. We assist them with the signing of the purchase contract, and ensure the buyer is happy with every single aspect. The buyers trusts their law firm so if they know we are happy for them to sign, they are dramatically more likely to do so. Once they do, they are more likely to continue with the purchase, again, knowing they have us on their side. 

Technical help:

What more can we do to assist you to launch/relaunch your Spanish Real Estate business? We work with a host of professional agents. We ́ll introduce you to them and hopefully you two can begin working together. Again, everyone wins. Your client has a wider range of potential properties, you get a commission and Spanish Solutions look after all the fiscal and legal aspects. 

Spanish Solutions work closely with Spanishhomes.online, an online portal with 25,000 new build properties listed. We can arrange for you to have their XML feed sent directly to your existing website or they can build you a white label website. It all means you can have every new build worth listing on your website within a week! Of course, if you get an enquiry about a villa in Barcelona that you know nothing about- that’s fine. Just send the lead to us, we ́ll let your client know what she needs to know and then, the client can make the best decision. Once they buy, you get the commission, the client gets the deal they want and again, Spanish Solutions keep everything moving along. 

Our partners come free 

Spanish Solutions have been dealing with Sabadell bank, Seguro Parking, Media Markt, Ibex Insurance and Moneycorp for the best part of 15 years. We also work with builders, plumbers, electricians, architects, engineers, painters, drivers, babysitters, teachers, doctors, coaches, priests….. Ok, you get it. Our network is extensive and we are happy to share the very top professionals with you and your clients. 

What else makes Spanish Solutions different from all the Spanish-style lawyers? Our values are different. We do not feel superior to anyone, not least your clients. We speak on a level that everyone is comfortable with- no legal jargon, no wasting time, no showing up late for appointments, no broken promises. If we tell the client we will call them back, we do it. 

We are always forward thinking and here are just three of the extra services we offer that traditional large, stogy Spanish law firms will not offer. 

Like a law firm, only better. 

3. Ongoing oxygen for your business

We know of many estate agents who are caught in the trap. They are selling a few Spanish properties per year. They know they could sell more, if only they had boots on the ground in Spain. However, if they open an office in Spain, it takes their attention off what they are supposed to be doing back home

What if there was a halfway house- a way whereby these agents could have a real presence in Spain helping their business to be more successful, helping their clients? This new service means that the agent does not have to travel to Spain every time they have a potential buyer. Spanish Solutions are the bridge. 

Talk to the client before he leaves his home

Often clients make mistakes when it comes to buying their home in Spain. The first mistake generally is not to talk to us first. Before a client gets on a flight to Spain with a view to buying a house they should know the full costs of owning property in Spain; they should know the process (the good and the not-so-good); they should know how the NIE number works, mortgage and power of attorney work and so much more. We talk to your client before they meet estate agents, developers and builders. We put their mind at ease before they travel to a foreign country thinking that they know nobody. Suddenly they know they have us on their side meaning a successful deal is much more likely to happen. 

Meet and greet

Do you know any law office who will meet your clients in Alicante airport and take them to visit the builder, bank and accountant as part of their service? I don’t, apart from Spanish Solutions that is. 

We will meet your client where they want us to. They don’t need to hire a car or wonder about the crazy Spanish driving, let us worry about that so that the clients can relax and concentrate on making the right decision. 

We’ll take your client back to their hotel and stay and chat to them. We really want to know what they thought of the tour the builder organised for them. We want to know their reservations and they want to know they have someone on their side with no pre planned alternative motive. We want the best deal for the client – We’re not estate agents remember.  

We ́ll visit your clients in your office. 

We have met with clients from Glasgow to Gdansk, Belfast to Brussels and from Moscow to Malmo. If you have clients in your town who wish to meet us personally, we ́ll go to you. We can talk to them about conveyancing, taxes, rental returns, the mistakes many people make when buying a property in Spain. Who gets the rewards by introducing your clients to the friendliest law office in Spain who also are in possession of a bank of knowledge. Why, you do! Happy clients mean when it comes to choosing what Spanish estate agent to use, clients will pick you. 

Translation services

Amongst our friends, ex clients and staff members we can converse with your clients in Norwerigan, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Flemish, French, Dutch, Russian, Irish (really), Spanish, Chinese and English! 

We do not automatically provide the translation service for all clients- Many northern Europeans in particular speak perfect English and we are a predominantly English speaking firm.  

Get more deals done. 

33% of buyers in 2018 complained of buyers regret, jeopardising the deal. 

20% of new build buyers pull out within 30 days. 

80% of real estate deals in Spain done privately do not complete. 

Estate agents often think that once the deposit is paid, the hard work is done. Not true. This is a big investment, you want someone to be in constant contact with the buyer assuring them that the inevitable delays or red tape are normal and very fixable. We coordinate with the builders, agents, banks and notaries to ensure that your clients feel secure. Once they are happy, we get the deal signed.

Remember that if we do not complete a deal, you don’t get paid. This is not the time to trust that you can go it alone. We get more deals to the completion stage. Fact.

Like a law firm, only better. 

4. Spanish Solutions Afersales club

It is difficult to know who benefits most from the Spanish Solutions club, you or your client. 

Your clients will get a truly impressive array of extra privileges designed for convenience, peace of mind and security. 

We ́ve been living here for more than 20 years and during that time we have learned the people to know. 

Do you or your client need: 

  • A plumber, 
  • A sworn translator,
  • Driver, 
  • Painter, 
  • Accountant, 
  • Lawyer in a hurry, 
  • Yoga instructor, 
  • Spanish teacher, 
  • Pool guy, 
  • Tennis coach…. You see where the list is going- it goes on and on and on. As a Spanish Solutions Aftersales club member, your client has access to them all. They charge fair rates, show up on time and all are pre-approved by Spanish Solutions. 

Your client has a problem? We answer the phone, all things being equal,from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Monday to Friday and we will deal with whatever is concerning them. 

But who’s really taking advantage of this service; you or the client? If Spanish Solutions are not there who will they call to find out about car hire or currency exchange? The estate agent or Spanish property developer has moved onto the next deal and doesn’t have time for aftersales. The client will instead call you. 

With Spanish Solutions, you have a safety net, a first line of defence, who will not only protect you from the calls about a malfunctioning air con unit but we’ll deal with it in real practical terms. We get things done. 

Property management

We have no intention to become estate agents in Spain but we can offer a range of services that are good for our mutual clients and for you. 

We offer:

  • Property inspection when the client is not here.
  • Help with rental of their property. 
  • Cleaning and maintenance.
  • Services- building, electrical etc. 
  • Previst and post visit preparing of the property.
  • Meeting of builders and those who are doing work but in cases the owner does not want them to have keys. 

Property rentals

Many of your clients will buy property in Spain as an investment. Renting a house here is not free of difficulties. We wish to take these problems away from the buyer and away from you. We can ensure the house is legal to rent and advertise for rent. We get your clients property rental licence, help with insurance, make sure their property rental tax is paid, thus avoiding any fines. 

Want more help? We ́ll assist your clients to get the property listed on the major portals and with the top property rental companies in the immediate area. Does your client need a property manager, key holder and rental coordinator? Do they need someone who can pick up the holiday makers at the airport, clean the house and move the rental along the pipeline? Spanish Solutions can, and will, help. 

Like a law firm, only better. 

5. Doing what others are not prepared to do

We ́re not your normal Spanish law office. We enjoy that fact. Rather than just concentrating on the low hanging fruit and taking the big money for the straight forward work we enjoy doing things differently. 

We offer a wide range of services and your clients will appreciate that you introduced them to such a dynamic firm. For example: 

Bare ownership

Spanish Solutions are helping investors acquire property in Spain with discounts of up to 50%. Bare ownership involves a private investor buying a property with a massive discount, but the original owner retains the right to live their until they pass away. At that time, the investors owns the house and can do with it as they please. It puts cash in the pocket of the original owner while they can still enjoy it and the investor invariably gets a terrific deal. We can put these packages together for your clients. 

NWNF: No Win No Fee

We were the first firm to offer to pay our clients ́legal fees in Spain. We struck deals with a host of expat clients who had legitimate claims against developers, Spanish banks, estate agents who did not exercise their duty of care and more. Rather than the client risking her own money, we put the money up front to cover the initial costs, assessments, court fees etc and when we win, we take a cut of the profit. In most cases clients love the idea, it’s a no risk legal option for them. If we lose (and we did lose a few cases) the client pays nothing and we take the hit. 

What a service for you to be able to offer to your clients. 

Discounts and deals 

Due to the volume of business we take to many furniture stores, car hire companies and others, we get great offers from them. These offers we pass onto our clients. 

  • Ibex Insurance
  • Sabadell bank. 
  • Danish design furniture.
  • Audi
  • Moneycorp Currency exchange
  • Seguro parking
  • Global car hire
  • Las Colinas Golf course
  • Servi Group of Hotels.
  • Media Market

We will show your clients how to take advantage of the generous offers that are available only and exclusively to Spanish Solutions clients. 

Trade show visits 

Spanish Solutions have attended property exhibitions in: 

  • Beijing
  • Belfast
  • Birmingham
  • Brussels
  • Cork
  • Dublin
  • Galway
  • Ghent
  • Glasgow
  • Livingston
  • London
  • Manchester
  • Moscow
  • Stokholm
  • Utrecht

We have spoken to thousands of clients and we feel we know this part of the business better than anyone else working in the sector. Would you or your business benefit from having a member of the Spanish Solutions team on your stand during your next property exhibition? We ́ll do it, of course, if we mutually decide its beneficial for you, your clients and for Spanish Solutions. Has any other law office offered to help generate leads for you at a property exhibition? 

Change is inevitable

Things are going to change in your professional business life. Things rarely stay the same. The question is are you going to go with the changes or create them? 

Our belief is that it is your duty, to do the best for your clients. That is what they pay you for. If you know that a better option exists for them and for you, then it is your business to make sure that you and them are taking advantage of us.

It won’t always be this easy to become part of this young, flexible and modern and growing movement. Maybe you are one of the agents who is not a good fit for us.

Do you put your clients first? 

Do you want what’s best for them? 

Do you think differently? 

If so, it’s time to get in touch with Spanish Solutions, Spain’s leading English speaking law and taxation office. 

Like a law firm, only much, much better.

By Ian Comaskey.

  • Founder and part owner of Spanish Solutions.
  • Previous owner of Comaskey Properties, selling 365 million euro in Spanish property 2002- 2018.
  • Spanish property consultant.
  • Business start up consultant. 
  • Alicante, September 2019

2 Comments

  • Pall Thorbjornsson

    Interest.

    • Nicola Ryan

      Good Afternoon Pall,

      Thank you for your interest. We will contact you directly to discuss this and how we can help you in more detail.

      Kind regards
      Nicola

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

Looking for a solution?

Feel free to get in touch with any enquiries and one of our friendly members of staff will get back to you as soon as possible.

Form loading.