The trouble with not going to an agent and trying to do it yourself is you then have to believe the vendor/have good faith in them as how are you going to check the Tapu (deeds) , the building permission the genel iskan, ferdi iskan etc -have I lost you yet?? The problem you have is that you are between a rock and a hard place. I would suggest that you do some research and wait for a few reccomends on this site and then book some appoinments with agents on that basis. How do you tell wether the recommend is genuine well follow up the recommend by doing a PM and getting the phone Number etc of the person giving the reccomend as then you can check if its genuine or if its an agent posing as a happy punter. By the way I am an agent and I am telling you these things because I want you to be succesful. Also take a look through previous postings and you will get a feel for whos who. When in the area check the prices you are given with other agents, and if an agent tries to tie you down so that you havent got time to look around walk away. Make sure that the agent is showing you what you want to see and it meets your criteria if not walk away. Always remember you are the customer and owe the agents no obligation. I hope you are succesful and wish you luck.

we bought a year last may. we originally went with an agent. after spending an hour looking through books and choosing what we wanted to see we were then taken to completely different properties. we saw some good stuff and some not so good.anyhow we (two couples) went off on our own the day after to re-look at some of the properties. a builder approached us and asked if we wanted to look at is apartments/duplexes.the rest is history as they say. we cut out the agent, saw a solicitor, got a translator and the builder turned out great. when we went back in september he did all the running about in order for us to register our properties etc. two more friends of ours have bought triplexes from builders we know and they are doing it on their own. if you read the discussions which are on this site, you will pick up a lot of info regarding buying in altinkum. i really dont think you need a car. you need a good pair of shoes. most of the property for sale is not far from the front of the resort. they are building roughly on all areas behind the three beaches and up to the town of didim which is a 20min walk away. the most we have walked was a good half hour to have a good look at the whole bay. we were there a week ago and noticed a lot of building in the third beach area, behind the police station, and all the way and beyond didim town. there are local dolmus buses which go to the third beach area,didim and all over really. it hardly costs anything and you can be let off the bus whenever you shout stop.
i read in the didim newspaper (english version) that there are now 420 estate agents in altinkum and to pare them down it now official that they must register for courses. 120 of them have registered so if you do go to any ask if they have been on courses. if you would like to know a good agent i can tell you one and give his number to you. also there is one i would not recommend but i will tell you on your message site as i dont want to ruffle feathers. the reason is because the last of the four properties in our block was a ground floor apartment sold by our builder through this agent. when we turned up three weeks ago on holiday the new owners told us they owned all of the garden. we told them we had quarter shares and it was on our deeds. they were mortified and believed they had bought the whole of the area. make sure you have all the questions you need to ask legally, locally etc. . i wish you luck. by the way, the prices have risen since last year..

Franny if you did all of it yourself and found a good builder well done-there are good ones about as well as bad ones- same as agents really. The estate agents courses you refer to arent just for the Altinkum area but whole country and at the moment the courses are over subsrcibed so we are all waiting to get on them. But the courses will only teach things about title deeds and tax etc they will not give a bad agent integrity or honesty when he gets his certificate - this afterall is not like the end of the Wizard of Oz.

Hiya, We bought a duplex at easter. We did a viewing trip which i would nt recommend. We had some very bad experiences prior to eventually buying and if you want to know the ins and outs then feel free to pm me. We are now happy with our purchase , although it is not finished yet and we have`nt received the tapu and prices go up on average of £7,000 per season. If you put your mind to it and take advice you should still get a real bargain,Tibbs.

Thank you all for the info and advice - have decided probably safer to get an agent. Have been recommended a few so feel a bit better about that now. These forums are fantastic Have finally booked to go on 27th June and am soooo excited

Bryn, you are right about the good and bad side of estate agents.this is the same for britain too. as soon as there is a boom over here, more agents set up shop.i suppose agents take the hassle out of buying and there's no doubt that it is just a bit more worrying when abroad, buying yourself. anyhow, it's cracking the flags here at the moment so i can imagine im back in turkey.the only thing missing is the sea breeze.

Want to contact http://www.Aydinhomes.com

Thanks to all. We have bought a 2 bedroom apartment which we are very happy with. We saw 3 different agents all of whom were good. We are going back to Altinkum in October to furnish. Its amazing how quickly you can get everything done out there Need any advise email me and I will let you know how we did it