I Found Four Possible Farms in Spain. Then I Ran Them Through My Farm Reality Checker

At first glance, that's a strange result.

Four very different properties. Four very different prices. And exactly the same Checker conclusion:

Too many unknowns.

But that's where the Checker became more useful than I expected.

The result wasn't the decision.

It showed me what I knew, what I didn't know and what I needed to investigate. What I did with that information was different for every property.

1. CATRAL, ALICANTE — €50,000

Catral initially looked like the obvious Farm by 50 candidate.

€50,000 for 14,000 m².

The asking price hits my target almost perfectly.

Unfortunately, that's also the problem.

I wasn't asking whether I could buy some land for €50,000. I was asking whether I could create my project for somewhere around €50,000.

With no additional costs entered yet, the Checker calculated a €50,000 project cost.

That left:

€0 remaining.

No allowance yet for purchase costs. No infrastructure. No immediate works.

And I still had seven things needing investigation, including title and boundaries, legal access, water, electricity or solar, wastewater, land classification and whether my intended use would actually be permitted.

The result was:

Too many unknowns.

Importantly, that doesn't mean the Checker found something wrong with Catral.

It means I don't have enough evidence to know.

The report turned those unknowns into specific questions for the seller or agent and practical things to investigate at a viewing.

Because I entered the existing-building question as not applicable, the viewing sheet doesn't tell me to inspect a house that isn't there.

It focuses instead on boundaries, access, water, electricity, wastewater and the practical areas that might potentially serve the project.

What would I do next?

Move on.

And interestingly, it's not really because of the Checker result.

I tried to get more information so I could investigate some of those unknowns properly, including the cadastral details, but I haven't been able to get what I need from the agent.

Of course, I could spend hours trying to identify the plot and investigate everything myself. But there are plenty of rural properties for sale in Spain — and I could still drive there after all that work and decide within five minutes that I don't like it.

I don't want to investigate every possible farm that way.

And I don't particularly want to work with an agency that makes basic due diligence unnecessarily difficult.

So for now, Catral is out of my active search.

That's not a verdict on the land.

It's a decision about where I want to spend my time.

2. TORREMENDO, ALICANTE — €119,995

Torremendo was completely different.

At €119,995 for around 51,000 m², it had already escaped quite spectacularly from my €50,000 challenge.

But five hectares of land, existing buildings and advertised infrastructure made it interesting enough for me to look more closely.

And then I heard the story about the boundary.

I'm showing the complete Torremendo report here so you can see what the Checker actually generated. I ran the same check for all four properties; I've summarised the other results to keep this article readable.

On my €50,000 project budget, Torremendo starts €69,995 above budget before I've added purchase costs, infrastructure or renovation.

All eight evidence categories also remained unresolved:

0 confirmed · 8 need investigation · 0 potential deal breakers.

That includes two questions that turned out to be particularly relevant:

Title and boundaries.

And:

Existing legal building.

An expensive lesson in checking the boundaries

When I spoke to the agent, I was told that the owners had built an additional building without first establishing exactly where the property boundary was.

The problem?

They apparently built it on the neighbour's land.

Essentially, they'd paid to construct a building they didn't own the land underneath.

I remember thinking there was surely an obvious solution:

Buy that piece of land from the neighbour.

So I asked.

Apparently, the owners had already tried.

The neighbour wouldn't sell.

I couldn't help imagining him looking at the situation and thinking:

It's funny as a story when it isn't your money.

As a property lesson, it's brutal.

Someone paid for the materials, labour and construction of a building only to discover that one of the most basic things hadn't been established first:

Where, exactly, does my property end?

And suddenly one of the least glamorous questions in my Farm Reality Checker didn't seem quite so boring.

The report asks for a current title extract, cadastral plan and evidence of the legal boundaries.

The very next question asks for registry, cadastral and planning evidence for every existing building or ruin.

Then the viewing sheet tells me to walk and photograph the boundaries, photograph every existing building, extension and ruin, and compare each visible structure against any available cadastral or registry plan.

And specifically:

Note mismatches.

You couldn't really invent a better property to demonstrate why that check exists.

What would I do next?

Move on.

And again, price isn't the only reason.

Five hectares sounded fantastic when I first saw the property.

But then I looked more closely at the house.

Why would I buy 51,000 m² of land only to have my house sharing a wall with the neighbour?

For me, part of the point of buying a farm is having space and privacy. The size of the land sounds impressive on a listing, but it matters much less if the place where I'd actually live feels attached to somebody else's.

That was probably enough to put me off Torremendo even before the boundary story.

So Torremendo gave me two rather useful lessons without me buying anything:

Know exactly what you own before you build on it.

And:

Don't let the size of the land distract you from whether you actually like the house and its immediate surroundings.

3. AYORA VALLEY, VALENCIA — €75,000

Ayora caught my attention for a completely different reason.

This wasn't simply a piece of cheap rural land.

The listing presented it as a potential tourism project, which immediately made it more relevant to what I'm actually trying to create.

The problem?

€75,000.

That's already €25,000 more than my entire Farm by 50 project budget.

And it's considerably further away than I'd ideally like.

Before purchase costs, infrastructure or construction, Ayora was already €25,000 above budget.

The agent had already provided me with several documents relating to the proposed projects, including planning documentation prepared by an architect. So this wasn't a case of having nothing more than an estate-agent description.

But having documents and having final approval are two different things.

The paperwork I'd seen raised more useful questions: Which document applied to which parcel? What had actually been submitted to the municipality? What had been approved rather than merely proposed? And what still required separate authorisation?

So I kept the relevant Checker answers at Need to verify.

I wasn't looking for evidence that somebody had proposed a tourism project.

I wanted evidence of what I could actually do with this particular piece of land.

So Ayora produced:

0 confirmed · 7 need investigation · 0 potential deal breakers.

And the same overall result:

Too many unknowns.

Same Checker result.

Very different property.

For Ayora, I particularly want to understand what sits behind the tourism proposition.

The report asks for written evidence around land classification, permitted use and what licences or permissions would actually be required for paid guest accommodation, cabins, parking and the associated infrastructure.

At a viewing, I'd then be looking at whether the physical property makes sense: access, water, power, wastewater, parking, privacy and practical areas for guests.

But the report includes an important distinction:

Assess the physical possibilities without assuming permission exists.

A listing can describe land as suitable for a tourism project. That doesn't mean the permissions I would need are automatically in place.

What would I do next?

Investigate.

It's above budget and further away than I'd ideally like.

But the tourism angle is sufficiently relevant to what I'm trying to create that I want to know whether the claims behind it stand up.

That doesn't mean I'm driving there tomorrow.

First, I want the evidence.

If the documentation supports what's being advertised, then the extra distance — and even the higher price — becomes something worth thinking about.

If it doesn't, I've saved myself a long journey.

4. MAHOYA, MURCIA — €119,900

And then there's Mahoya.

At €119,900, this one has also wandered quite a long way from the original concept of finding a €50,000 farm.

But it has something Catral and Ayora don't:

an existing house.

The listing also makes claims around water, electricity, access and the potential of the land.

Physically, it feels much closer to an actual farm project.

Financially, it's nowhere near my original target.

Against my €50,000 project budget, Mahoya starts €69,900 over budget before I've allowed anything for purchase costs, renovation or additional infrastructure.

It also produced:

0 confirmed · 8 need investigation · 0 potential deal breakers.

That eighth unknown matters.

Because there's a house, I also need to establish the legal position of the existing building.

Seeing a house in the listing proves there's a house there. It doesn't prove everything about it is legally in order.

This is probably where the personalised report becomes most obvious.

For Catral and Ayora, there was no existing building to inspect.

For Mahoya, the viewing sheet changes.

It tells me to photograph every existing building, extension and ruin; compare visible structures against the available cadastral or registry plans; and inspect the roof, damp, cracks and visible structural movement.

Then there are the practical questions around boundaries, access, water, electricity and wastewater.

This is much closer to the list I'd actually want in my hand if I went to see the property.

What would I do next?

Investigate.

Not because I've suddenly decided that €119,900 is the new €50,000.

It isn't.

But Mahoya has enough already there — or at least enough claimed to be there — to make me curious about what the documentation actually says.

The existing house is particularly important.

If the building, services and other claims can be properly documented, I want to understand the property better.

If they can't, the price makes it very easy for me to walk away.

Four properties. The same Checker result. Four different decisions.

This was probably the most useful part of the exercise.

All four properties produced:

Too many unknowns.

But that didn't produce the same decision.

The Farm Reality Checker doesn't choose the farm for me.

It helps me see what I know, what I don't know, what the numbers look like and what I need to investigate next.

Then I decide whether the property deserves any more of my time.

For Catral and Torremendo, right now, the answer is no.

For Ayora and Mahoya, it's yes.

So that's where my Farm by 50 search goes next.

Before deciding whether to arrange viewings, I'm going back to the Ayora and Mahoya sellers or agents with the questions generated by the reports.

What they send back may decide which property I investigate next.

Because my original challenge still sounds deceptively simple:

Can I find a farm for around €50,000 that can legally and practically become the farm I actually want?

Finding the €50,000 land is the easy part.

Finding the right farm is considerably harder.

And, unfortunately for me, a much more interesting challenge.