Impartial advice on Buying Abroad

Kaz_NewbieMoneysaver

Hi everyone,
Not sure if this is the correct 'home' for this question but couldn't think of anywhere else to put it.
I'm looking for some impartial advice on how to choose an agent for buying investment property abroad.
Been going through several magazines & books on the subject but the magazines are full of glossy adverts singing the praises of the advertisers and the books only seem to promote the websites of the authors. Ideally I'm looking for an open forum like this one where purchasers of foreign investment property can discuss their experiences - good or bad - of different international agents.
It seems to be a very unregulated field and so far we've only managed to discover 2 industry associations - "Association of International Property Professionals" and the "Federation of Overseas Property Developers, Agents & Consultants". However, these both seem to have 'voluntary' membership and we're unsure as to what protection to the consumer either of these bodies offer in practice.
We've perused lots of different websites and they all look great on the screen but we'd hate to start handing over reservation fees / deposits to a company which didn't live up to it's glossy "internet image".
Any ideas please ?

observer_2

Depends on the country, where you thinking of investing?

missile

There are a lot of sharks. I would not relly on industry associations they do more to protect their members than Joe Public.

Just like the UK really.

lynzpower

the channel;4.com homes forum has a specific forum for people buying abroad and is fairly lively as I remember, definately worth having a look there.

Also any company that you might consider using put in thier name & scam into google and see if there any horror stories, which you probably have done already.