I am currently doing a lot of promotion for TheTravelBug website and have taken on someone to try and get the website better positions in the main search engines. He is doing a lot of directory submissions, article submissions, social website marketing and so on. And as part of this promotional campaign I was checking my links page to make sure that all those listed had reciprocal links back to TheTravelBug and found that many of the real estate agents that I had exchanged links with in the past, no longer existed. Their domain name did not work or just redirected to a holding page or the registrar for the domain

'A Place In The Sun' has published its annual best top ten places in the world to buy property based on property prices, climate and weather, infrastructure, rentals and how popular the destination is. The top spot this year surprising went to Spain and the Canary Islands, mainly due to the massive discounts currently available on holiday home due to the recession. Whilst you might be able to pick up an apartment in Marbella for under hundred thousand Euros nowadays, Spain has suffered some of the worst problems ever reported with builders, developers going bust and problems with planning permissions. Many hav

Luckily the snow line was quite high when I arrived at my new temporary home in the dark as otherwise I may have struggled to make it up the steep, windy road to the small hamlet above Aigueblanche, on the road up to the Valmorel ski resort. However, two days later it was a different story with a foot of snow falling overnight. I had already made contact with a couple of agents while I was down in the Pyrenees area and so once settled into the new apartment, I arranged viewings. Over a period of a couple of weeks I saw around ten to twelve properties, ranging from chalets you could move straight into, mountain

After a flying visit to friends in the French Alps and doing a little research via the internet into property for sale around that region, I decided to concentrate my property search on that area. The area offers a massive choice of ski resorts, including The Three Valleys, Paradiski area and Portes du Soleil - two of which compete for the title of largest ski domain in the world. And while chalets in the prestigious resorts of Courchevel 1850 and Chamonix will give you little return from a million Euros, properties just a stone's throw a way are still fairly reasonably priced. None of the properties I had vie

I began my search for property in the Pyrenees area almost as soon as I arrived. I made appointments with a number of agents to see property in different areas. I was looking for a 2 or 3 bedroom property with some outside space for the dogs, not too remote, easy access and within around 30 minutes of skiing. The first area I visited was around Bagneres De Bigorre, south of Lannemezan. The main ski area in the region is La Mongie. After meeting with an agent in the town and discussion requirements I set off to explore the area and view a few of the properties mentioned from the outside. I decided first to driv

Nearly a week after my anticipated arrival in the South of France, I found the house I had rented from a friend for a few months, in order that I could explore the Pyrenees region and view property in the area, with a view to buying a winter home close to the ski slopes.  The house I had rented was lovely. A traditional Gascony style house with pale blue shutters, massive old open fire in the kitchen area and beams and wooden floors. It also had the benefit for a fairly large garden so the dogs could have their first good run around in a week. On around the second night there I discovered that the fence a

On my third day of travelling across South Europe from Bulgaria to France, I experienced serious car troubles. On an earlier trip to Greece the car had overheated badly and had to have the water pump replaced and prior to setting off from Bulgaria, I had had the vehicle serviced, not once, but twice to ensure it was in tip top condition for the 3000 km drive through Greece, Italy and into Southern France. However, after only a few hours on the road the radiator warning light had kept flashing on and I kept having to stop to replace the coolant. However, on the second day I drove right across Greece to Igoumenista

Large, completely renovated property split into two separate apartments. Each apartment has a large bedroom, hallway, shower room and then large living area and kitchen. The downstairs apartment has a sun room at the front as well and use of a large basement. The upper apartment has a terrace and a large loft for storage. The apartments have separate entrances. New kitchen fitted in each apartment but no appliances. The plot is around 1200sqm and is mainly grass but has been landscaped to include a rockery area at the back. There are a couple of fruit trees - apple and pear. There is a massive barn with

A 20 year old villa in a large village close to Balkans and Stara Zagora and Kazanlak. It has recently had some work done on it to put in new electric boiler and taps in wet room and kitchen has been retiled and plastered. Small roof repairs were also done. The ground floor has large bedroom, wet room and kitchen/living area. Upstairs, accessed by external metal stairs there are two rooms and a terrace. There is also a lovely, wooden paneled tavern and storage room in the basement. Full planning permission was gained for a large two storey extension to put in internal stair case, summer room to side, large

The villa was bought in 2006 and fully renovated and refurbished to a high standard with new PVC windows through out, new bathrooms, new internal doors, new kitchens and tiling. I lived in the ground floor apartment for a year while my new home was being built and I successfully rented out the upper apartment as a holiday let. Since moving to my new house in September 2007 the villa has been mainly let out on long term lets with a few holiday lets in between. The ground floor apartment has a large double bedroom, separate shower room and kitchen/living area. The kitchen has a 4 ring hob, toaster, kettle, frid