“Sometimes the most important questions are the ones you don’t yet know you need to ask”
I’m Sam, the founder of FirstLook. (Or Samantha if you’re my mum!)
Travel has been part of my life since I was a child. I continued travelling with my own children and, more recently, with my grandchildren. I’ve lived and worked in countries including Myanmar, South Korea and Bangladesh, travelled extensively throughout Europe and Asia, and these days I divide my time between the UK and Spain.
I’ve always loved exploring beyond the obvious destinations — finding the small towns, villages and unexpected gems that you might miss if you simply follow the usual route. But living in very different parts of the world has also taught me something else: never assume that what you take for granted in one place will work the same way somewhere else.
Sometimes it can be something you would never think to ask about.
When I moved into an apartment in Myanmar, for example, there was nothing particularly unusual about the apartment itself. What I hadn’t thought to ask was whether it had an uninterrupted electricity supply. Why would I? However, in that particular region, electricity operated on a six-hour rotation and the apartment had no generator.
Suddenly, something I hadn’t even considered when choosing the apartment affected almost every part of everyday life — whether I could work from home, keep food refrigerated, cook a meal or even how often I needed to go shopping.
It taught me a lesson that has stayed with me: sometimes you don’t know what you need to ask because you don’t yet know what you need to know.
I encountered that same challenge when I began navigating property in Spain. Different systems, terminology, property and land classifications, infrastructure and the practicalities of rural living introduced questions I simply hadn’t previously had a reason to ask. And sometimes I found myself discovering information later and thinking, “I really wish I’d known that at the beginning.”
Why FirstLook?
My professional background has given me a set of skills that turned out to be particularly valuable in answering that question.
I’ve spent many years in senior leadership and project management, including establishing organisations and projects from the ground up. Good project management requires you to look beyond what is immediately in front of you. You consider the whole picture, research unfamiliar areas, identify risks and dependencies, spot gaps and establish both what you know and what you still need to find out before making decisions.
I realised that I could bring that same approach to overseas property.
That became the idea behind FirstLook: looking beyond the photographs and property description to consider the wider picture. What can we establish about the property and its surroundings? What might affect you once you actually live there? What isn’t clear? What might you not have thought to ask? And what would be useful to understand before you become committed?
For me, FirstLook is about being the person I would have wanted in my corner — someone independent, curious and thorough, whose focus is on my interests rather than the sale.
I’m not an estate agent and I don’t earn commission from property sales. My role is to help you understand what you’re considering, so you can decide whether it’s right for you.
Look first, understand more, and buy with greater confidence.
