Photograph · at your side of the table
Representation
Every recommendation comes from someone whose only client is you. No listings to place, no seller's commission behind the advice. It sounds basic. On this coast, it is rare.
Homebuyer's Office
Your buyer's agent in Marbella.
We learn how you want to live. We find the homes that fit. You approve five. We inspect. You fly over to choose.
We work only for you, never for the seller.
Confidential, and it carries no obligation.
On most properties, working with us costs you nothing.
Your fee is fixed before we start. The commission the selling side shares is yours; we deduct our fee from it, and on most properties that is the whole fee, or more. How that works
The search you already tried
You have seen how it usually goes.
Eight properties in two days. Four different agents. Photographs that promised more than the rooms delivered. Nobody asked what you were actually looking for. Each agent had you for two hours, racing to get your yes before the next one did. Nobody held the full picture, so you flew home and booked another trip.
The reason is structural, not personal. In Spain, the agent's commission comes, as a rule, from the seller. You were never unrepresented by accident. The agent who looked free was not free. The gap between the price a buyer pays and the price the market would have accepted is where that cost hides.
You don't need more options. You need fewer, better ones, chosen by someone who works only for you and paid by you: a fee fixed in writing before we start, and deducted from the commission the selling side shares. On most properties that commission covers the whole fee, or more, so working with us usually costs you nothing.
Why a buyer's agent
What a buyer's agent changes.
An estate agent works for the seller. A buyer's agent works for you, engaged and paid by you. This profession is long established in other markets. On this coast it barely exists. Buyers simply jump from listing agent to listing agent, shopping their listings. What made sense in your home market is rarely what serves you here, and you cannot know what this coast actually offers until someone who knows all of it is listening. An office on your side of the table changes three things.
Photograph · the first conversation
The call before the search
The conversation comes before any property does: how you live, what you protect, what this house needs to do for your life. It is why you fly in for five houses you have already approved, not eight picked for you.
Photograph · plans & due diligence
Negotiation and due diligence
We negotiate solely for your side, and we run the checks the brochure never mentions: licences, urbanism status, structure, true reform cost. What the town hall knows, you will know before the purchase goes ahead.
The Homebuyer's Office Protocol
Seven steps between you and the keys.
It starts with a conversation, not a contract.
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The first call
Before any property, one call: a conversation about how you live, what you protect, and what this house is actually for. We ask until the brief becomes obvious. It may not be the brief you arrived with. Before the call ends, you have our answer: whether we can deliver it. That hour saves months, and it commits you to nothing.
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The mandate
Only when you are satisfied with what you have heard do we put the engagement in writing: an exclusive mandate with a retainer, agreed before the search begins and deducted in full from the success fee when you buy. From then on, we are paid to find the right property, not to close a sale. Committing to us has a reward: every commission the selling side pays goes to you, our fee first and your purchase costs next.
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The briefing
Before you see a single property, five emails arrive, one at a time. Each covers one layer of this market:
- How the three areas of the Golden Triangle differ, and what each one means for how you live.
- How prices have moved through the cycles, and what that tells you about where we are now.
- What a Spanish purchase actually costs beyond the price, and what it requires from you legally and fiscally before you can sign.
- How to read a property: what the asking price, the photographs and the licence are each telling you, and what they are hiding.
- How the search itself works, what the coming weeks look like, and what the flight is actually for.
By the time we hold our first search session together, you are not starting from zero. You arrive with the market inside you, and you decide like someone who has lived here for thirty years.
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The search, working it together
We search across more than 25,000 properties: the portals you have seen, the listings you have not, and the houses that are for sale but not yet on the market. Most of it we discard before it reaches you. What does reach you comes with our honest reading: price, condition, licence, resale potential, and what the photographs are not showing.
Then we work through it with you, online, session by session: what you approve, what you decline, and above all why. A no tells us more about what you actually want than any brief can. When a property deserves a closer look, we do a virtual visit together, so you are judging on evidence, not on images. Each round the brief is rebuilt from the inside: not the brief you arrived with, but the one your own reactions have written.
This is the work. It takes weeks, sometimes months. It is also the reason that by the time five properties survive it, you are not flying to discover. You are flying to confirm.
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The inspection visit
The five houses that reach this stage have already survived weeks of search, online sessions, and in many cases a virtual visit together. Before you land, we walk every one of them ourselves. Two days, five houses worth your time, not eight that are not.
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Negotiation
Our founder has built villas here since 1996 and, through Andalucía Realty, has sat on the seller's side of this table since 2011. We know how asking prices are built and how much room they leave. You will know the number we believe the house is worth, and we negotiate from evidence, not enthusiasm.
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Closing, and after
Lawyers, due diligence, notary, funds, utilities: coordinated. When you want to change the kitchen or the floor plan, we introduce you to people we trust, and we take nothing from them. Our mandate ends at the notary. Our care does not: we stay beside you until you are settled in the house.
Photograph · the first conversation
A client once came to us for an apartment. We asked how he actually wanted to live. What he described was a villa: a manageable plot, privacy, no maintenance headaches. He bought one four hours after seeing it.
The property was never the problem. The questions were.
Why listening is the first service we sell
The transition
From searching to home.
What we sell is simple to state: the difference between doing this alone and doing it with Homebuyer's Office.
Eight viewings in two days, with four different agents
becomesFive houses you approved before you flew, each one visited by us first.
Photographs that promise more than the rooms deliver
becomesOur own visit before your flight. Then a structural survey, paid for by us, before the purchase goes ahead.
Wondering, at the notary, whether you overpaid
becomesA number you watched us defend, backed by evidence.
Keys to a project, and a list of surprises
becomesA house with everything connected, and an office that still answers the phone.
That is what this office puts in writing.
Every house on your shortlist has been visited by us before you land. The structural survey, commissioned after your reservation and paid for by us, must find no problems before the purchase goes ahead. A home under construction cannot be walked through yet. So we read what will be built, and before the notary an independent surveyor walks the finished home with us. Your fee does not change if the price goes up. And if within six months we have found no available property that meets every must-have in your signed brief, your retainer is returned in full. We accepted the brief; if we could not deliver it, that is our mistake, not your cost.
A listing agent can make none of these four promises at once: no retainer to refund, no mandate to visit every house first, no fixed fee, and a commission that arrives only when a sale closes. The office that looked free was the one that cost you.
Photograph · keys, morning, an open door
The arrival
How this ends.
Every mandate we accept is aimed at the same ending. The papers are signed, and the flight into Málaga carries no worries. You drive to a house with everything connected and nothing to fix that you didn't already know about, bought at a number you watched us defend.
The search you started with (the portals, the four agents, the photographs that promised too much) becomes a story you tell over dinner. And the measure of a mandate done well, as we see it: by the end, you invite us to lunch, not the other way around.
What the retainer buys is the arrival.
About us
How we came to your side of the table.
When you buy a home in Marbella, everyone across the table has done this hundreds of times. You have not. That gap is the problem Homebuyer's Office was built to close.
Photograph · the founder
I have been on this coast since 1984. I built a hotel here and ran it until 1996. When I sold it, I stayed, and started designing and building villas. I learned how this coast works from the inside: the land, the permits, and the decisions a builder makes when nobody is watching. Then in 2011, after the crash, I started Andalucía Realty. Almost everything was for sale at a discount, and buyers needed help making sense of it.
The listing side taught me something I did not expect. Winning a mandate usually means telling an owner what they hope to hear. I would not promise what I could not keep, and it cost me listings. With buyers, the same honesty won.
Andalucía Realty gave me homes to offer and kept me on the seller's side of the table. From 2011 on, thousands of people looking for a home on this coast contacted us. Again and again they asked us what a buyer asks the person on their side: is this the right price, is this the right house? The ones who end up happy here do four things:
- They get clear on how they want to live here: holidays, long stretches, or full-time.
- They look only at homes that truly fit that life.
- They never fly for an unchecked property: everything is inspected and filtered first.
- They know their number, and have it defended at the table.
By 2015 the bank repossessions had mostly sold. The discount was gone. What remained was the question every buyer has to answer: is this house worth it? Most of those who bought through my office bought a home we did not list, and more than half bought a new home from a developer. Most decided on a single viewing trip. What nearly stopped them was rarely the house. It was the paperwork. That is the work Homebuyer's Office does, for the buyer, with nobody else to answer to.
So I crossed the table.
We turned what we saw into the method this office runs on: the Homebuyer's Office Protocol, the seven steps above. This office holds no listings and makes no promises to sellers. One focus: the right home, at the right price, for the way you plan to live in Marbella.
Say what is true. Deliver what was promised. Walk away from anything else.
1996
Building custom villas in Marbella
2011
Representing sellers on this coast
3
Working languages: EN · ES · FR
1
Client per mandate: yours
The commitment
Five things in writing, before we start.
The search is ours to carry. We search the whole market, bring you only what survives our own scrutiny, and work through it with you, round by round, until you have approved five houses worth the flight.
Your fee is fixed the day you sign. It does not change if the price rises. It is deducted from the commission the selling side shares; on most properties that covers the whole fee, or more, so working with us usually costs you nothing.
Every house we recommend has been visited by us first. If a property is not what its photographs promise, you hear it from us while you are still at home.
The structural survey, commissioned after your reservation, is our cost. The purchase goes ahead only if it finds no problems. A home under construction cannot be walked through yet. There we read what will be built, and before the notary an independent surveyor walks the finished home with us.
If within six months we have found no available property that meets every must-have in your signed brief, your retainer is returned in full.
We tell you what a house is worth, not what it takes to close you. Your name stays private. Your time is not wasted. And when the right answer is to walk away, you will hear it from us first.
Never to sell. Always to listen, advise, and act in your interest.
The conversation
Begin with a conversation.
Tell us where you want to be a year from now. We will tell you, honestly, whether this office is the right instrument for getting there. If it is not, we will say so in the first call. The call is confidential and carries no obligation.
Questions we hear first
Before you ask.
How does the first call work?
It is one conversation, half an hour to an hour, before anything is signed. We ask how you want to live here, and we ask the practical things too: budget, timing, what the house must have. We ask until the brief becomes obvious: what you are protecting, what you are escaping, what this house is actually for. We have had this conversation with buyers since 2011, and many find their brief changes in that first hour. Before the call ends, we tell you whether we can deliver it. Everything that follows, the shortlist, the visits, the negotiation, is built on it.
Why should I use a buyer's agent?
Because in Spain the agent's commission comes, as a rule, from the seller, and a seller's agent represents the seller. A buyer's agent restores the balance: the number we believe the house is worth, an honest reading of its condition, and a negotiation run for your side only. You see fewer, better properties, and you buy knowing what you are buying.
You are part of a group that sells and builds property. Whose side are you on?
Yours, and the structure makes sure of it. Our fee comes from you, never from a sale we need to close. If a property on your shortlist is listed by Andalucía Realty or built within our group, we tell you so in writing before you view it, and the valuation evidence we show you is the same we would show against any other house. The group connection is why we know this coast from the inside. The mandate is why that knowledge works for you. And when the selling side pays anything at all, it becomes your credit, not our incentive.
What areas do you serve?
The Golden Triangle (Marbella, Benahavís and Estepona) and its established addresses, from Sierra Blanca to Guadalmina Baja to El Madroñal. All of it close to international schools and the golf valleys, and under an hour from Málaga airport. If your brief points outside it, we will say so rather than stretch.
How do you handle negotiations and due diligence?
We tell you the number we believe the house is worth, and the evidence behind it. Then we negotiate from that evidence: we have been on the seller's side of this coast since 2011, so we know how asking prices are built. Due diligence runs in parallel. Your own lawyer, chosen for you and never one recommended by the seller's side, checks licences and urbanism status. After your reservation deposit, we commission a structural survey from a major Spanish company and pay for it; the purchase goes ahead only if it finds no problems. We coordinate all of it, all the way to the notary's table.
Can you help with a new home from a developer?
Yes, including homes under construction. A home under construction cannot be walked through yet, so we read what will be built: the plans, the specification, and the last project the same developer finished. Our founder has built villas here since 1996, so we know what a brochure leaves out. One thing matters before anything else: talk to us before you walk into a developer's sales office. The first agent to register you is the one the developer pays. If that is us, the commission comes back to you.
How does the fee work?
Our fee is fixed before we start. It depends on one thing only: the price band of the property you are buying. Same band, same fee, for every client. You see the exact figure in writing before you sign anything, and it does not change after that.
You pay a retainer when we start. It is not an extra cost: it comes off the fee in full. The rest is due the day you own the house, or, on a home under construction, the day you sign the purchase contract with the developer.
Then comes your advantage. In this market, the selling side, the agency or the developer, usually pays a commission to whoever brings the buyer. Normally that money never reaches you. Here it does, because you committed to us. When the selling side shares its commission, that money is yours. We deduct our fee from it, and on most properties that is the whole fee, or even more. So working with us usually costs you nothing, and anything left over goes towards your purchase costs: lawyer, notary and registry.
On a new home bought from a developer, the commission the developer pays is usually larger than on a resale home. It is still yours: we deduct our fee, and more is left for your purchase costs.
A commission, big or small, changes nothing for us. Our fee stays what the scale says. The only money we keep is the fee we agreed with you. Nothing more.
The territory
The Golden Triangle, read street by street.
Marbella, Benahavís, Estepona, and the established addresses that sit within them. We work where we can stand behind every recommendation: we have built here for thirty years and sold here since 2011.
Sierra Blanca
Gated hillside above the Golden Mile: La Concha at your back, the sea in front, ten minutes from everything. One of the first addresses international buyers ask for, and the one where asking prices need the closest reading.
La Zagaleta
A private estate in the hills with its own gates, golf and clubhouse. Some of the largest plots on the coast, and strict entry. Very little here ever reaches the open market.
Guadalmina Baja
Flat, mature and beside the sea. Wide plots, old trees, walking distance to the beach. Family territory, quieter than its prices suggest.
Los Monteros
Beachside pines, established communities, and some of the best sand on the coast. For buyers who want Marbella without the Golden Mile's traffic.
Nueva Andalucía
The golf valley: villas and townhouses ringed by fairways, five minutes from the port and silent at night.
El Madroñal
Cork oaks, big views, protected plots. Where buyers who arrived asking for a penthouse sometimes end up, once someone asks the right questions.
Estepona & the New Golden Mile
The garden of the Costa del Sol: a working town that kept its old centre, with the coast's newest building to the east of it. Contemporary villas at prices Marbella stopped offering years ago.
Tell us where you want to be a year from now.