I've been searching for a place to live in Madrid for the end of next year. I've been using idealista to find places which I think is an excellent site BTW. One problem I run into is I don't know *all* the areas of Madrid having only been there once before. I can find decent looking places at what I assume are reasonable prices on idealista.com but without knowing the neighborhood they are in how can I really be sure how good the deal is?

I am going to be in Madrid next week (staying for 2 weeks) and figured it would be a good opportunity to check out a few of the areas. Does anyone have any suggestions of where to look and where to stay away from? I'm looking for something along the lines of 3 bedrooms and my price range could go up to maybe 1200€ (possibly a bit more for something really nice). What areas would have something along those lines and still be a very nice area?

Also would a real estate agency in Madrid have some good information for me or possibly be able to show a couple? I guess I just don't know if the process is the same there.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Loc