While it is not very difficult to find overseas property for sale, you need to make sure you make the right decision before investing. This is true of any investment, but when it comes to buying property abroad, unless you’re very familiar with all the angles, it’s easy to miss something. For one thing, it’s much easier to double check something in your own neighborhood than something in another country. This shouldn’t discourage you from investing abroad, just to make sure you’ve done the necessary research and planning.

1. Visit the location multiple times

Some investors decide to buy a property abroad after seeing it only once. Worse still, some buy it without seeing it! Ideally, you should see it several times, a few months apart, so you can see how it looks during the different seasons. In many popular overseas vacation spots, for example, the area can be very lively and populated in the summer and virtually deserted in the winter. This doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t want it, but it is something you should be prepared for. It is not always enough to know something in writing; actually being somewhere allows you to absorb the place so you know how you feel about it.

2. Search creatively

While you can find listings online or in major newspapers, you can often find deals by looking in less obvious places. Easily found ads are usually placed by brokers who take a cut of the price. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it does mean that it’s in their interest to keep the price as high as possible. If you look in smaller local newspapers where you want to buy, you are more likely to find something sold directly by the owner.

Better still would be to walk around the area, on foot or by car, and look for “for sale” signs. If you have any contacts who live or are familiar with the location, you can ask them if they know of anything for sale. Word of mouth, also known as networking, often produces the best results of all.

3. Research your financing options

There are several ways to finance a property abroad. You can simply go to your local bank to get a loan. You can also search for a mortgage from the country where you are buying the property. Or you can use the services of an international mortgage provider, who can probably tell you about properties for sale in the area if you haven’t found one yet. Which is the best option for you will depend on your circumstances and where you are looking to buy.

4. If you are not sure, seek legal advice

You may feel that it is an unnecessary expense to hire a lawyer to help you buy property abroad. In some cases this may be so. However, if you are unsure about any aspect of the deal, whether it is the trustworthiness of the seller or the contract, the taxes or other fees, or the legal status of the property, you may end up saving money by hiring an attorney who is familiar with it. with the real estate laws of the country.

Here are some tips to help you find good overseas property to invest in for sale. There are still good opportunities for UK investors in this market if you do your planning and search for the right property.