Your own place on the Costa Brava, bought with your eyes open.
Between falling for this coast and holding the keys lies a whole journey: which village suits the life you want, what the house really needs, what it will cost you to keep. I walk it with you, from the first call to a written report on the house you want to buy.
Twenty minutes, free, no obligation on either side.
- Advice on your side, never paid by an estate agent
- Someone who knows this coast in February too
- Your first call is free
How this usually goes
Most people buy a house here in the order that feels natural: find the house first, ask the questions afterwards. I work the other way around, because I spent my working weeks inside the houses where that order did not go well.
Why this exists
Foreword
When you buy a house in your own country, in a region you already know, you have a fair idea of what to expect. The culture, the way people live, the prices, the rules.
Buying one abroad is a different matter. You can of course pick a house off a website, fly over and buy it. There is no shortage of websites that let you do exactly that.
But let us be honest: buying a house in another country is not quite the same thing, whether it is your second, your third or your fourth.
The culture may be very different, and it may grate on you. You may not have known that the winters drop to minus twenty. Or that everyone plays their music at full volume on a Sunday. Or that dogs are not much loved there, while you are the one with the dog. They are odd examples, but they are the sort of thing worth knowing, and you will not read them on an estate agent's website.
What I try to do
- I try to help on the human side: what actually suits you?
- I try to get the running costs into view, and to keep them as low as they can be.
- I try to give you a picture of the condition of the house and of what you can expect to spend over the next five years. My advice will always aim at the best result for the least money.
Buying and selling a house goes through licensed buying and selling agents, and maintenance through a maintenance company. That is not what I do.
Start here
Where would you like to start?
Three pages: the process, the person, and a way to reach me.
The same coast, twice
You will see it in April. You will own it in February.
Almost everyone decides on the strength of two sunny afternoons. The coast has two other faces, and both of them are the one you live with.
August
Full. The village works, the terraces are open, the water is warm, and your street belongs to everybody. It is why you came, and it is roughly eight weeks long.
February
Half the shutters are closed. The bakery may be a fifteen minute drive away. To one person that is peace and to another it is emptiness, and which one you are is worth knowing before you sign, not after.
Neither picture is a warning. They are the same house in the two seasons you will actually own it in.
The process
The short version
Six steps, in this order. You pay before each one, so you can stop at any point without owing me anything.
- 01
The first call
Twenty minutes, to work out whether I am any use to you.
20 minFree - 02
The intake call
An hour about the Costa Brava itself, not about houses.
60 minPaid - 03
The brief
A questionnaire, filled in by you, which becomes the actual search.
Your turnIncluded - 04
The shortlist
One to three properties, through agents I already trust.
1 to 3Included - 05
The viewings
With me there, looking at the building rather than the view.
On siteIncluded - 06
The report
In writing, on the property you are most serious about.
Written1 included
Who you are dealing with
About Arend
I am Dutch, I live in Calonge on the Costa Brava, and for more than ten years I had a property maintenance company on this coast.
What I am is a technical engineer (ing), a Dutchman who has spent years inside the kind of houses Northern Europeans, Americans, Canadians and Australians buy here. Usually I was the one called in once something had already gone wrong, and the one who then had to work out what putting it right would cost. That turns out to be a useful thing to have in the car with you on a viewing day.
- Dutch, living in Calonge
- Ran a property maintenance company here for more than ten years
- Speaks Dutch, English and Spanish
- No house to sell you, and no estate agent paying him
Scope
What is included, and what is not
I am not an estate agent and I do not hold a property licence. I am not a licensed surveyor, a lawyer, a gestor or a tax adviser.
What is included
- The first call, twenty minutes
- The intake call, sixty minutes
- The brief, plus my review of your answers
- A shortlist of up to three properties through my own network
- My attendance at the viewings for those properties
- One written property report
- A follow-up call to walk through that report
What is not
- Additional written reports
- Viewings beyond the agreed shortlist
- Legal, tax or mortgage advice
- An official survey by a licensed arquitecto técnico
- Negotiating or bidding on your behalf
- Anything after the keys, which is a separate conversation
- Flats and apartment blocks: I work on houses
Where my money comes from
You pay me. Nobody else does.
The estate agents are paid by the seller, as they always are on this coast. They pay me nothing. There is no referral fee, no finder's arrangement, and no part of my income that moves depending on whether you buy, or which of the three houses you choose.
That is the only arrangement under which my opinion is worth anything to you. If I talk you out of all three properties, I earn exactly what I would have earned if you had signed for one of them.
One more thing
Afterwards
Most people who go through this end up owning a house that needs looking after for the large part of the year while they are in Amsterdam, Antwerp or Düsseldorf. That is what my company, callCarlos, does. It is a separate conversation and a separate decision, and nothing in this process depends on it. I mention it only so that you hear it from me rather than wonder about it later.
You are about to make one of the larger decisions of your life in a country whose rhythm you do not fully know yet, on the strength of two sunny afternoons in April. I cannot make that decision for you. I can make sure you are making it with your eyes open.
Get in touch
Book the first call
Twenty minutes, free. You tell me what you are picturing, I ask a few questions, and I give you a straight answer about whether I am the right person to help. Sometimes the answer is no.
Or write directly
- hola@arend.casa
- +34 686 58 91 67
- Twenty minutes, free, no obligation on either side.
What happens next
- 01You send the form, or write to me directly.
- 02I answer personally, usually within a working day.
- 03If I can be useful, we put twenty minutes in the diary. If I cannot, I say so.