Rustic Spanish Properties

That sounds like "The Good Old days" when there were all sorts of rogues working the property market as the house prices went crazy. To be honest I thought that most of them were gone but it sounds as though you managed to find one.

It doesn't wok so well with the majority of the "English" estate agents but, amongst the Spaniards, the API symbol (Agente de la Propiedad Inmobiliaria) next to the door is a good bet. It is a real professional association and if something were to go wrong it means you have someone, other than the agent, to complain to.

Plenty of them still about, especially when it comes to showing rustic properties because most of them are illegal and  unsellable(or at least should be). Still there are enough people obviously walking into it with their eyes closed to keep them in business I guess.

That is too bad, I have been looking in the same area as well but fortunately we are in the Barcelona area so not such a commute.  We also were lucky to work with (2) agents who seemed to have a genuine interest in selling properties and not just making commissions!  We are still looking though as there can be a big difference between the virtual add and the real property - so even though it was a bad experience, you are doing the right thing!

Due to too many of these unfortunate happenings, *** Spain can be treacherous due to different expectations for customer service so we try to bridge that gap by understanding what "non-Spaniard" expectations are and how to reconcile that the actual practice of the industry here. ***  Good luck in your search!