Google Maps.

Starting with the most obvious, Google maps is an invaluable tool throughout your property hunt however it is often massively underutilised. It’s packed full of useful features that you may not have thought of using and, assuming you have a smartphone, it is always with you. Let me run through the most useful features.

Satellite View:

View properties from above to understand the layout, surrounding greenery, and proximity to other buildings. This can be especially useful when there are things in the vicinity that are out of sight from the ground that may impact your quality of life. In the past I have used google maps to reveal that just over the brow of a hill behind a country property there was a pig farm. This wasn’t a problem in the winter when the clients were viewing, however in the summer heat the smell would be horrendous and there would likely be swarms of flies to contend with. I have also used it to identify that another country property was directly on the flight path of an airport (explaining why the agent was very specific about the times we could view the property - coincidently only at times when there were no departures or arrivals scheduled). Of course it's not just useful in the countryside, I once viewed an amazing apartment in the centre of Cartagena and would never have realised that the unassuming black double doors on the building straight opposite the master bedroom window were the exit doors of the city's biggest discotheque.

While not exact, google maps gives a general idea of plot sizes and shapes and of the footprint of the building itself. This can be invaluable when comparing the marked boundaries of a property and its registered built area to the land registry details or for large countryside properties where boundaries may not all be visible from one position on the ground. (NB If you want to measure boundaries more precisely, Google Earth is a more accurate option).

Street View

While satellite imagery can reveal a lot of information, street view lets you see even more detail. You can use street view to explore towns and areas at street level walk routes and get an idea of the terrain of an area. You can look at neighbouring properties and the outsides of local businesses (some also have interior 360 imagery). While street view isn’t a substitute for real life viewing it can help discount areas and properties and once you’ve seen a property it can be used to have a good look around the area before returning to check things with your own eyes. Maybe you didn’t spot the communal bins across the road when you were busy focusing on the property? You will probably notice them during the summer when the bin lorry arrives at 2 am every day to empty them. You can check for things like that, that you might have missed when viewing, on street view before making the effort to return for a second viewing.Nearby Amenities:

Google maps is a great tool for exploring everything that an area has to offer. You can quickly establish where a town is in relation to major infrastructure, like airports, motorways and hospitals and attractions such as beaches and golf courses. On a localised level you can assess a properties location in relation to bars, restaurants, supermarkets and clinics etc. One of the really useful features is that for many local businesses you can click straight through the businesses details and reviews. It's all very well having a bar within walking distance, but if the reviews are awful then it may as well not exist (and might not survive much longer!). 

Distance and Time Measurements:

Once you’ve identified all the points of interest around a location or property, using Google maps you can assess the exact distance and travel times between two points for driving, public transport and walking. 

I so often see people asking questions like “is the beach within walking distance” or “is there a restaurant nearby”, but the answers are often very subjective (or even exaggerated depending on who you are asking). “Walking distance” or “nearby” might mean something very different to you than it does to me. Google maps eliminates the risk of confusion.

My Maps

Once you have had a good play with google maps and explored some areas and properties I really recommend pulling everything that you learn together in a custom map. If you haven’t used this tool before you can find it by searching for “google my maps”. My maps allows you to customise your own google map. You can add your own points of interest in different layers, so, for example, you can have a layer for major points of interest, pinpointing major infrastructure that you will use like airports and hospitals. You could have a second layer for towns of interest, pinpointing the locations you want to look at in more detail, a third layer with properties of interest and maybe a fourth layer of shortlisted properties. Every pinpoint you leave on the map can be given a name and notes so, for example if it is a property you can make notes about the property, add a link to the agent’s listing, add photographs or videos and even save routes from one location to another. It’s a great way of keeping all the information you need in one place without it being lost amongst all the other information on google maps and it's a fantastic way to organise viewing trips in an efficient way. 

The problem with Google Maps

There is a bit of a snag with using google maps in this manner and if you think back to what I said in chapter 9 about the way agents work in Spain you may already have spotted it; Agents often won't tell you where a property is. This can make it difficult to pinpoint a property before you have viewed it. While you are at a viewing you can directly pinpoint the property on the map by adding a pin at your current location and I recommend doing this, so that you can research in more detail after the viewing. Of course google maps itself can be the solution to this problem. If you have the time and the patience you can often locate a property from identifying features in the agents listing. Using the Satellite View and Street View to explore the local area until you find the property that is for sale

(Top Tip: if you forget to pinpoint a property while viewing but you took photos, your phone’s photo app normally has a function to show where you took the photos on a map.)  

Area Guides

Forget about the area guides on agent’s websites, they are only ever going to say that everything is fantastic. I prefer to direct people to more impartial information. I’ve already mentioned Google maps but make sure you look at other review sites to get an idea of a location and the businesses in it. Good options are:

Trip advisor -

Trip advisor is famous for restaurant reviews but there are also extensive reviews of local attractions such as beaches and places to go sightseeing.AirBnb - Search for a property in a given location and then look for hosts who have given area guides. Bear in mind that they are also inclined to ‘sell’ the location but they do give a good idea of the highlights of a local area. Wikipedia - Most municipalities have wikipedia pages however bear in mind that the English language wikipedia articles are generally quite sparse. There is far more information available on the www.wikipedia.es site (the spanish language version). The pages can be easily translated using the Google translate extension on the Chrome browser or by copying and pasting the content into any translation software.

Social Media

I am going to discuss social media in more detail later. It can be both a very valuable tool when hunting for property and a very dangerous one, however searching for location is one of the areas where it certainly has benefits. Most areas which are popular with Expats have their own Facebook groups (normally several) and there are larger groups covering the whole of Spain. These groups can be great resources for information about areas. You can join the groups, search the groups for information and ask questions of people who live there.

However you do need to beware. Not everyone in these groups is there just to help, there are plenty of people with ulterior motives who will look to swing you in directions where they can earn a commission and even some of the biggest groups are surreptitiously run by people who have a vested interest in censoring information given in the groups. When you are using social media groups to get insight on areas one tip I will give you is to word your questions carefully to ensure that you get useful answers. As I mentioned above “how many kilometres is it from the beach” will get you much more useful answers than “is it far to the beach” “are there any good restaurants” won’t give you particularly useful insights unless you first describe what you think makes a good restaurant. 

Once you have settled on an area of Spain to hunt for properties then it's finally time to start looking for the property itself.