A guide to selling your home in Marbella
The seven steps, in order, with what each one costs and the real timescales. Including the three mistakes that leave a house unsold for a year.
This is the guide we give to anyone who calls us about selling, before we talk about price and before we ask them for anything. Read it through and you will know as much as we do about how the process works, and you will be able to judge whether what any agency proposes — ours included — makes sense.
1. First of all: the paperwork
What you need to have to hand. Searching for it once there is a buyer is what causes sales to fall through:
- Nota simple from the Land Registry, to confirm there are no charges.
- The title deed.
- Cadastral reference and the latest IBI receipt.
- A valid energy performance certificate. It is required to advertise.
- First occupation licence or habitation certificate.
- A certificate from the community confirming fees are up to date.
- If you have renovated: building licences, and confirmation that what is built matches what is registered.
That last point causes the most trouble on the Costa del Sol. There are lovely houses with an extension that was never legalised, and it surfaces the moment the buyer’s lawyer looks. Better that you find out first.
2. The price: where the sale is won or lost
Pricing high “to test the market” and reducing later does not work. It is the most expensive mistake you can make, and it is worth understanding why.
A house gets its peak attention in the first three or four weeks after it is published. That is when it is seen by the buyers who have been searching that area for months — the ones who actually buy. If the price is 15 % high during those weeks, those buyers rule it out and they do not come back. When you drop the price two months later, nobody is watching any more: you are left with browsers and bargain hunters.
We always start from the data: the cadastral record, the notarial closing prices for your postcode and property type, and everything comparable sold around you in the last twelve months. Note that these are completed sale prices, not asking prices. A neighbour’s asking price is an aspiration; the price they achieved is data.
The result is a price range rather than a single figure, with the reasoning set out in writing.
3. The agency agreement
There are two ways, and it is worth choosing deliberately:
Sole agency. One agency only. In return, that agency genuinely invests: professional photography, video, floor plan, campaigns, and presentation to its own buyer list. And crucially, it can share the property with the rest of the network knowing its work will not be taken by someone else.
Multiple agency. Several at once. It appears to multiply your chances, but in practice it usually reduces them: none of the agencies invests because none has any guarantee, the same house appears on the portals at different prices — which undermines its image — and buyers read it as a seller in a hurry.
Always check the duration and the exit terms. A reasonable sole agency agreement runs for six months, with an exit if what was promised is not delivered.
4. Preparing the house
What pays off best, in order:
- Declutter. Less furniture, fewer personal objects, wardrobes with space in them. It costs nothing and it transforms the photographs.
- Paint anything marked. Inexpensive and noticeable.
- Fix the small things: a blind that sticks, a dripping tap, blackened grouting. They add no value, but they subtract trust.
- Garden and pool, immaculate on photo day and on every viewing.
What rarely pays off: a full kitchen renovation before selling. You seldom get the money back, and the luxury buyer usually wants to do it their own way.
5. The photographs
They are 80 % of the decision to request a viewing. Professional photography, natural light, at the right time of day — in a villa with sea views, almost always at sunset — a floor plan, and video. If the house has views, use a drone.
A listing with phone snapshots tells the buyer the seller is not taking the sale seriously, and it detracts from the property before anyone has set foot inside.
6. Where it is published
National and international portals, the Keller Williams network — the largest in the world by number of agents — and, before any of that, the agency’s own buyer list. A good part of what sells in Marbella sells before it is ever published, to someone who was already looking for exactly that.
Always ask your agency how many registered buyers they have looking for what you are selling. If they cannot answer, they do not have a list.
7. From offer to notary
The offer arrives, it is negotiated, and if there is agreement:
- Reservation to take it off the market, €6,000 to €20,000.
- Private contract, normally 10 %. If the buyer withdraws, they lose it; if you withdraw, you pay back double.
- Deed before a notary, one to three months later. Longer with a mortgage involved.
What you pay as the seller: the municipal capital gains tax, the capital gain on your tax return, the agency fee, and, if you are a non-resident, the 3 % retention the buyer pays to the tax office in your name.
The three mistakes that cost a year
- Launching at a high price “to test the market”. You lose the weeks that matter most.
- Poor photographs. Nobody asks to view a house that presents badly.
- Paperwork nobody checked. The sale falls through at the final stage, when you had already counted on the proceeds.
If you would like the price report for your house — cadastral record, notarial prices for your postcode and comparables from the last twelve months — please ask. It is yours whether you sell with us or not, and it costs nothing.
The tax figures in this guide are those in force as it was written. Confirm them with your adviser before doing your final sums.