Finding a Good Contractor – The Final Part of your Overseas Property Investment.

Finding a Good Contractor for your Self-Build– The Final Part of your Overseas Property Investment.

With the help of your lawyer and architect, you have bought a plot, finalised your designs and can now move into the final stages of your overseas property investment. Some decide to save money and organise the building work themselves, others choose to use a contractor. Saving money is always a powerful motivator, but you must ask yourself if doing all of the site management is false economy. Unless you have some experience in the building trade, and knowledge of Greek, it can end up costing you much more money.

Some intrepid self-builders, on a very low budget, attempt to do as much work as possible and good luck to them. If there really is no other way, then needs must, but it is often a good idea to scale back on the building and use a professional. If you can afford it, hiring a reputable site manager to organize the contractors will reap dividends. A contractor will take about ten percent of the cost as a fee, but they will make sure that everything works seamlessly.

Finding a good overseer is probably the most difficult part of the entire self-build process, and Greek builders certainly carry a certain reputation. As discussed before, your architect will have some good contacts, and asking around the ex-pat community can be a useful exercise.

If you have a good lawyer, and want an extra layer of security, you can build penalty clauses into the contract. A good practice is to withhold the final payment for six months after completion, ensuring that the inevitable small problems are fixed. There is also no harm in laying out, in writing, exactly which parts of the build are included, to head off any arguments and ensure that the plans are clear in the constructor’s mind. There are some shoddy Greek builders, but there are also irritating clients who keep expecting extra work within the same budget.

The only other things to bear in mind are

1) The amount of time – building in Greece takes a lot longer than in many other countries. Allow 6 – 12 months for a new build, and possibly even longer if you are building in stone or the design is unique.

2) Stick to locally available materials. Apart from saving upon the transportation, Greek builders know exactly what works. For example, you may spend a lot of money importing beautiful hard-wood only to find it eaten by beetles. Greece has an extreme climate, so any house must be able to handle extreme heat in the summer but also extreme cold and damp in the three month long winter.

The most important piece of advice during your Greek property investment is to, above all, apply common sense and keep your wits about you throughout the entire process. In a year’s time, your overseas property investment will be complete, with a minimum of fuss.