El Capitan and I appear to be looking for the same dream villa. Mine would be no more than 5 Kilometres from the sea, standing in a plot of circa 2000 mt's and having sea views.

Ideally 3 bed, 2 bath with a separate underbuild apartment, pool and landscaped gardens. We have conducted our search through private sale websites as we know the area that we want and have found the local agents to be useless. We have three to view, one sounds perfect, it was built in the 1980's and has been lovingly renovated and upgraded over the years, the vendors are English and so far have been veru helpful.

We wish to buy in the Valencia area and appreciate the difficulties that exist between urban and rustic land but wouldn't be able to spot an illegal against a legal. All the illegals will have been through the hands of lawyers so there must be a lot of tricky lawyers out there.

What should we look for? What should we ask the vendor? What replies from the vendor should we be wary of? I don't even know what questions to ask this forum so I will be well scuppered negotiating a purchase. Any information will be greatly appreciated, as we don't want to be put in the position of those poor folk who have watched their dream homes being demolished and have been charged for the privilege.