Otro hermoso dia en el Mediterráneo!

There were blocks of apartments and urbanisation building going on everywhere at what looked to be an unstoppable rate when first we arrived. Even now, especially along the coast, there appears to be cranes dotting the skyline as if part of a permanent landscape. However, things are not what they seem. The British pound, despite all Mr B' states, is very weak at the moment against the Euro, therefore you'll be pushed to get much for your money here in the way of property at the moment.

Most of the new blocks of properties for sale here in my short time in residence, have been so for quite a time and in my opinion will be for some time to come. True, there are still some areas, especially in the southern and eastern inland regions, where the market is still very active, but the slow down is obviously visible and just like in Britain at the moment, if you have the cash for a good offer, bargains can be bought.

In the May, we again went back as part of the now routine cycle of four regular visits a year. This worked out relatively inexpensive as we got to know the best flight and hire car companies, meaning we could keep our travel budget to a manageable level. I mean, after all, these regular visits were seen by friends and family as extravagant foreign holidays, though in the first few years, the holiday only began after we arrived home, usually more tired than when we left. By this time the house purchase had been sorted as had the home improvements bill, so far. This meant any monies accrued now would go purely on making the place more of a home and adding the bits that would make it very comfortable. Mark arrived on our second day and after the obligatory pleasantries, asked if we had given any thought to a property management company. I had to admit that I wasn't exactly sure what it meant, so he enlightened me as to his new business that he and a partner had set up to do just that.

He offered the service of looking after our property during the periods that we were absent: key holding, maintenance, in fact keeping the place shipshape while we were away. I already knew there could be some benefit in this as on past arrivals we had been met by an overgrown honeysuckle resembling something out of the Day of the Triffids', leaves and windswept debris all over the place and dirt and dust inside, blown in through the old rickety wooden windows. (Though this would be rectified later with the installation of double glazing).

Yes, it would be nice to arrive at least once without having to fight our way through the undergrowth and spend the first two days of our break embroiled in the ritual cleaning programme.

Mark said he would draw up a schedule for us and bring it over in the week. He also suggested that if we were serious about letting the property out on a short holiday basis, now would be a good time as the season was upon us and he had a number of clients' in the pipeline who may be interested in renting our property. We were interested but having only just arrived, we really needed to discuss it further and with that Mark left. Again, the first few days went quickly as we again donned working gear and set about painting, filling in, cleaning blah, blah, blah before getting out and about on the familiarisation trail. We took our first drive to the beautiful old Moorish town of Ronda, a town built round a gorge. It's fantastic Puente Nuevo' (new bridge) though built 250 years ago, is used as the main thoroughfare for traffic through the centre of the town even today. Again, I'll expand on the area in a later feature.

We also took a drive back into the centre of Malaga in an attempt to find the best shops and parking places, though this is something we are still trying to aspire to today!

I expected Mark to come back to see us, however, we received a phone call from him inviting us to a barbecue at someone's house not more than a few kilometres away where he would introduce us to some people. After driving up and down a number of dirt tracks, we finally arrived at a lovely property in the campo with an ornate pool and beautiful surrounding gardens. Mark and Sally greeted us before leading us to a meet couple called Bob and Cathy whom he introduced as his new business partner. We met a number of other people that night, mostly ex pats from one country or another and most professional people working out here. Rose and I both had an enjoyable evening, meeting new and like-minded people and as we left, Mark indicated that he would contact us in the morning to discuss our options.

Next day, we made our way to Alhaurin el Grande, a town not unlike Coin a few kilometres away where we again met Mark and Bob at an office they had set up in the centre of the town.

Bob struck me as an amicable person though he appeared straight away to be the brains and main investor in the venture with Mark the front man as was his forte. A contract was produced, including a planned structure of how our property would be looked after and the approximate cost per month. It all appeared pretty reasonable. Bob told us he had a definite client who wanted to rent our property for two weeks that coming August.

Well there were no alarm bells there. In fact I found it most fortuitous that we could actually start recouping some money out of all our hard work so soon. I asked how much they would rent it out for believing that due to the no frills state it was in at present it wouldn't be much, and was told that our villa would make at least £600 per week of which, after all bills and taxes had been paid, should leave us about £250. Okay, it was money for nothing, but it meant Aztec Estates, (the name Mark and Bob called their company) would make around £700 while we made £500 for the fortnight.

It was explained, and had no reason to doubt, that after all, they did all the work and the onus was on them to make sure all was well and that they would guarantee my property would be well looked after, that's why they took the lions share. We struck up a deal and signed a rental contract and two days later we left for home.

Rose and I planned to return in September, a week or so after our villa became vacant again. However, a slight challenge developed when Mark e' mailed us to say that Andy, an associate of theirs who was actually looking after the property, had reported that our reserve water tank pump had broken and that we required another. Mains water comes into a static tank and is circulated via a pump into the home supply line. Lots of homes have them for use in times of drought as a reserve and are good for a couple of months. We knew the pump was old and possibly hadn't been maintained since the house was built, so the news didn't really come as a shock. We communicated back by e' mail as to the cost of fitting a new one with Mark quoting us around 90 euro's to buy and fit a replacement. Not so bad, so we agreed on the price and forgot about it.

I have to say, and anyone who has ever rented their own home out will hopefully agree, those few months when we knew total strangers were going to be using our villa to live in, stressed me out more than actually going through the purchase routine. We had known Mark's family and that hadn't been so bad. By the time our time came to return to Spain, I just couldn't wait to see if the villa was okay, even after receiving reassuring e' mails from someone at Aztec Estates. I believed that our investment was in safe hands, especially after the relationship we had struck up with Mark and Sally, and to a lesser extent Bob and Cathy. But that was all to change as we returned to discover things had not gone according to plan.

Useful tip
If you're going to leave a property unattended and vacant for short or long periods of time, then the sensible thing to do is to get someone to regularly check on it. There are a number of ways you can arrange this. First, you can ask a casual friend or neighbour to look after it for you when they have nothing else better to do and take pot luck' that it'll be okay. The second is to employ someone on the quiet. This can again be a friend or neighbour whom you pay to carry out checks and minor maintenance while you are away. Both of these methods may be deemed acceptable but you have to remember that unless the person you employ or ask to assist is legally registered and insured, you have little or no comeback with the authorities or legally should things go wrong. That's when problems can occur and relationships break down, though as luck would have it we eventually found someone we could trust to do a good job.

And lastly, you can use a tried and trusted registered company with a good track record and a name well known in the area, in fact, someone just like me! (Free advert!)

Remember it's important, especially if your life's investment is tied up in a property, not to leave it to chance. You would not like to experience the challenges we faced which I shall enlighten you about next week.

Useful hint
Security lights, staggered switches, high profile surveillance aids, all these things help to keep the unwanted roaming vacant property blaggers away. When someone with no good intent on his mind sees a well kept garden or hedge, a clean pool and driveway, or a vehicle positioned differently, they may invariably believe the property is being used on a regular basis and in most cases may choose to move on to another unfortunate victim. Vacant property break-ins are more common on an urbanisation than in the Campo. Even though the latter are usually more isolated and quiet, they are less accessible than a close quarters group of easy pickings. I've said this before, don't do it on the cheap. Like us, the holiday property you purchase one day may become your home from home or permanent residence. Take my previous tip, get someone to at least keep an eye on it, it will be relatively inexpensive in the short or long term and save you a few sleepless nights.

Spanish facts
Spain has frontiers with Portugal, Andorra and France. They do not recognise the frontier at Gibraltar believing it to be part of their country anyway! (The border is open to the British colony and you can either walk or drive across but don't forget your passport!).
There are eight different Euro coins- 1-2-5-10-20 and 50 cents.
With 5-10-20-50-100-200-500 Euro notes.
There are eight main Spanish national holidays though here in Andalucia, especially during the summer, it seems like there's a Fiesta celebrating something every other weekend!
There are nineteen self governing regions in Spain with some divided further into provinces. There is even one on the North African mainland, more about that later.

Useful phrase
Puedele me ayuda por favor, estoy buscando para una bancario/bueno de restaurante/la playa.
Pronounced: Pwaydaylay may aayuda poor faboor, esstoy busscando oona bankario/bweno day restorantay/la plaayaa.
Meaning: Can you help me please, I am looking for a bank/good restaurant/the beach

Next week
Who's been sleeping in my bed?' The first sting and how disappointing.