10 years ago Buy a Home Spain, originally called Rent a Home Spain, was started by Angela Taylor from her villa in Torre del Mar. Angela and Austin Taylor had bought a second villa in Spain and therefore decided to rent out their holiday villa for £1,500 a week. The a few friends who wanted to do the same, asked for help. As Angela had run a number of her own businesses in the UK and, ever the entrepreneur, she was happy to help and soon Rent a home Spain was launched with Angela working from home. In 2006, they moved permanently to Spain to retire; however due to the recession, Austin ended up going back and forth to the UK continuing with his previous business whist Angela built up their business in Spain. The business took off immediately and became too much for Angela firstly to run from home and secondly to run on her own. Austin found commuting back and forth from the UK exhausting, so they took the gamble to invest in their business and open up a shop front for their Rent a Home business in Torre Del Mar. The idea was to continue with rentals but also diversify into house sales too. The location was Avenida de Andalucía, a great spot, but the premises soon became too small for them and they moved to a bigger office as the business grew. In fact, it was house sales that were becoming the more dominant part of the business, so not only was there a location change they also changed their name to include Buy a Home Spain. Two more moves followed and now they are in an excellent location opposite the Bus Station on the main road still in Torre del Mar. Austin explained that they put both effort and investment into the business at a time he felt other Estate Agents on the coast became complacent. Traditionally, before the recession, Estate Agents had buyers walking through the door and had almost to fight to buy their home in the sun. Once the amount of clients began to drop in the area, Estate Agents needed to work harder, but many didn’t and so closed during the recession. Austin believes they have always gone that extra mile. Not only do they show their clients houses but also the way of life in Spain. They often take potential buyers to see the sites in the area, out for tapas, out for dinner in order to show them the lifestyle here in Spain and help them with their research. In addition to effort, investment was key too during recession; Buy a Home Spain which the business became called, dropping the rent a home part, invested heavily in “A Place in the Sun” exhibitions in the UK. They flew all their staff to the UK and took part in all of the exhibitions around the UK. Angela was asked to be on the experts’ panel and their stand became one of the most popular to see over the 5 years they participated. It was an expensive gamble but it established their name in the business. They have now decided to stop the exhibitions to invest more in internet advertising and marketing. Over the last two and half years they have enjoyed impressive sales and growth and this summer they achieved a record number of sales. Angel and Austin saw they were selling more and more houses in Puente Don Manuel, Los Romanes, Alcaucín, Periana and the surrounding areas and felt a physical presence would be advantageous to them and give more confidence to buyers and to sellers listing their property. Not only this, but of course customer service is intrinsic to house sales so they would be better provided nearer to the client. Therefore this year they opened up their second office in Puente Don Manuel. Austin and Angela also made the decision to become a member of Top House Spain where over a thousand Estate Agents list properties for each other to access, thus giving sellers more exposure and buyers a bigger choice. This has proved invaluable with some recent sales with clients looking for houses further field such as Mojacar. Austin and Angela built Buy a home Spain from scratch, experienced growth in recession, now have two offices and numerous staff, speaking a variety of different languages; so is it time for retirement I now asked? They replied: ‘Not yet we still have more plans and objectives to achieve!’ If you would like to get in contact with Buy a Home Spain please see their advert on the previous page. Offices: Torre del Mar: 0034 952 54 75 54 Puente de Don Manuel: 951 321 565 Mobile: 0034 664 573 923 Web: www.buyahomespain.com
