To Buy Or Not To Buy

[Valiant]

A friend of mine is looking to buy a property in Portugal. Believe it or not the property is going for £8,000. Ok, so there's alot of work that needs to be done but he would be moving over there and would have alot of spare time to renovate the house. The house itself is within 30 minutes of the beach. Can this really be the bargain of the year or is there bound to be catches along the way? If so what are they?

[vicki2]

There has to be a catch somewhere because it sounds too good. What would the taxes be for the house or are there other hidden costs somewhere? Let me know if you find out. I'd love to know!

[brian]

It's not so much that it's a bargain - it could be that it requires £15k of work doing to it, and then saleable value after as £40k - so, yes, profit available, but not so huge relatively to UK property prices.

[mamab]

Does your friend already live in Portugal? If not, does he WANT to move to Portugal, or is it just that this seems like something he can't turn down? I guess if he doesn't mind moving his life to another place, it wouldn't be too bad. It sounds like it could be interesting.

[vicki2]

I run across a lot of people these days who are just up for chucking life as they know it and heading off to places they don't know a lot about. I love an adventure as much as the next person, but not with real estate. For that, I want some indepth research.

[bukowski12]

Caution advised! Or your friend will end up of Selling Houses with the rudess man on TV Andrew Winter.

[tater03]

I would agree it would have to depend on what houses are selling for in the area and how much money he would have to spend to fix the place up? I am with the above poster I am leery when it comes to real estate especially in another country I am not familiar with.