My experiences with David Suarez

I bought a finca in February 2015 and the request for permission to build a house was done in December 2015. With help of David and his architect Manel. Starting of the building process is to be expected in the course of 2016. Organisation is mainly in hands of David and Manel.

David is very different from the house-agents in the country I come from, Holland. There they tend to be formal and well dressed, while David is quite informal and in casual dress. He is full of stories and humoristic, so a day with David is a funny day. He is offering a wide range of nice plots and is amazingly rapid and capable in selecting the ones just suiting you. I also did a day with another agent and his prices were comparable and in general his fincas were a bit less attractive (with one very cheap exception because of special circumstances).

David is very well informed and has an extended regional network in the world of the officials (municipality, forest service etc.). This is of great help when formal paperwork is needed. David is very supportive in al lot of ways, often spending many hours together.

So far the bright side.

Eloquent David is always struggling with time (though his performance is better when things are really critical), his estimates are too sunny. His words sometimes too. In the beginning this was confusing for me, but now that I know him better, I think that David is such a mega-optimistic person that sometimes a (essential) detail in his information is too sunny coloured. David admits his problems with time management (trying to improve) and comments ‘ …but my intentions are O.K.’  Working with David it helps when you put this sentence in your mind.

My appreciation for David grew enormously when I had a bushfire on my finca.

I still feel ashamed: It was my own fault. This is the story and I think it is important for every new finca-owner from abroad in Matarranya.

It was in December and, after getting a permission for burning from the municipality, I started cleaning my terrain. On an open spot I had a pile of  dry branches of bramble that I wanted to get rid of. One match was enough to set fire to the branches …. and fully unexpectedly also rapidly to the dry grass around the pile!

In my country this bit of old grass doesn’t burn easily, but here in the dry Matarranya the greedy fire spread in all directions! I worked like an idiot to stop it and when I managed to block the fire on one side, it escaped – growing bigger and bigger – on the other side. I saw that the flames could jump, leaving a meter untouched and continuing elsewhere.  The spreading fire reached the first bushes of evergreen oak and it was as if all the leaves were drizzled with gasoline: whoummm! In a flash the whole bush was burning. And the next one…. At that moment it became clear to me that the fire was now unstoppable, the more so because I was exhausted. Help, what could I do? My first thought: “Call David”. After 10 minutes he arrived. Seeing how big the fire was, he immediately phoned the fire department. During the hot summer period they are stationed nearby, but now they had to come from far away. So it took quite a while before we heard the helicopter. With balloons full of water the fire was stopped from the air, while a crew of firemen was working on ground level. They managed to stop the fire before it reached the surrounding forest and the finca of my neighbours. Pffff I had been lucky   …  with substantial damage to my neihhbours it would have been quite a disaster.

So if I am going to make a fire next time, I will do this in the presence of a local expert. On ploughed soil and after taking several precautions. And I will be very motivated to keep clean the 25 meters around my future house!

So in short: as your indispensable local agent skilfull David manages the realization of your plans concerning a finca and a house, while you are doing something on Davids time-management.