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Abstract

lawyer she said and she gave me her lawyer’s number. I called him and sent him the contract I was about to sign.</p><p id="1026">Don’t do it!!!!</p><p id="61f9">The papers aren’t right. You need to wait until they get the house registration in the correct owners’ names before you sign anything.</p><p id="20b9">You see, the previous owner of the house had died and left half of the house to his 2 children. The other half of the house belonged to his ex, the mother of the 2 children. So, the house had to be registered in their names with the Spanish government.</p><p id="45fb">Anything that has anything to do with the Spanish government takes an eternity so I had to wait.</p><h1 id="2c54">Ecstasy</h1><p id="37d1">Then, 4 months later I get a call from the lawyer saying that the papers had come through for the 2 kids.</p><h1 id="8216">Agony</h1><p id="f96a">But the seller’s lawyer had thought the ex had registered her half of the house in her name. She hadn’t. So, the process starts all over again.</p><h1 id="e0ff">Ecstasy</h1><p id="edd9">6 months later I get another call from the lawyer. The paperwork is all ready to sign, an appointment has been set up for the next month because that is the first time we can all coordinate our schedules. My lawyer has to be there, the seller’s lawyer has to be there and I have to be there.</p><p id="df3d">The signing date approaches, my excitement rises. This is really going to happen and then…</p><h1 id="7cad">Agony</h1><p id="59e6">The seller’s lawyer gets covid so, I have to wait another month.</p><p id="7bc3">Finally the date arrives but by this time, I don’t believe it is actually going to happen so I keep my expectations in check, no ecstasy.</p><p id="f6f8">The signing actually happens, rather anticlimactically the keys are deposited in my hand and I am finally able to open my front door for the first time!!</p><figure id="a807"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*zUiMeO5AICahr81zvFvfHg.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by Author — a double rainbow shortly after moving in</figcaption></figure><h1 id="76b6">Ecstasy</h1><p id="889e">My daughter and I slept there that night and when I woke up the next morning I felt like I was on vacation.</p><p id="101f">My house is so beautiful I can hardly believe it! It is mine.</p><p id="69ac">My rainbow cousin has organized all of my friends to welcome me home the next day and they have all donated money to build a front deck for me. The money didn’t quite go far enough though so, instead of a wooden deck they built a trampoline deck which could not have been more perfect.</p><p id="f58b">I slept out on

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my trampoline all summer and the heat never touched me. It was like sleeping in the sky with the stars all overhead.</p><p id="be9c">So, in the end, I have exactly what I wanted and I am so happy living here every single day. The ecstasy was worth every bit of the agony and it has made me grateful.</p><p id="b173">I have also learned a lot about buying a house in Spain. I am by no means an expert but here are some of the things I have learned.</p><figure id="4be1"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*SlREcFFJHt1__H7awa1-tw.jpeg"><figcaption>Celebrating an international Thanksgiving!</figcaption></figure><h1 id="745d">What you should know before you start!</h1><ul><li>Before you put down any money, make sure the house you want to buy is legal. Many, many houses here were built illegally and this means a few things. First, you can’t get a loan if the house isn’t legal and that means that it will be harder to sell and probably won’t be worth as much as you paid for it. Second, the government might knock it down because it was built illegally.</li><li>Check and make sure the house is registered in the proper name of the seller. In my case, it was just a matter of time but sometimes it might not end so well. It is not unheard of for people to sell houses here that they don’t actually own. One of my friends owns a half-built house outside of the village. One of her neighbors who owned the houseless plot next to hers tried to sell his piece of land to some people but instead of showing them his land, he showed them hers. They thought they were buying a house but actually they were buying just a piece of land.</li><li>Check and make sure there is not any kind of public project that will end up in the demolition of the house you want to buy. I have another friend who wanted to buy a house. She found one she loved and was about to put down the down payment when she discovered that in the next 2 years, there is a highway construction project slated to begin and the house is going to be taken down.</li><li>I recommend you get a lawyer who can help you with all of the ins and outs of Spanish property law. It can get complicated.</li></ul><p id="2c2e">So, the moral of the story is: If your dream is to buy a house in Spain, it is totally possible, but you are going to have to be patient. Things will probably get stressful but keep your cool, everything can be worked out.</p><figure id="9cff"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*CElHLsQABW37JOuc4RYAUA.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by Author — the view from my bathroom window</figcaption></figure></article></body>

Buying a House in Spain: The Agony and the Ecstasy

What you need to know before you get into it

Photo by Author — Finally visiting our house after quarantine

5 years ago I visited my wild, unicorn, rainbow of a cousin, in her tiny village in Southern Spain and I decided that I wanted to live there too. I was living and working in Tokyo at the time and I started saving up because I knew I wanted to buy a house. I figured I would roll in, look at all of the houses available, choose the best one for me, buy it and move in. About a month should be good for all of that, right? Wrong!!!

I did the rolling in part alright, then I set about seeing all of the houses available and that is when things came to a halt.

I wanted a house with at least 3 bedrooms so my little family could be comfortable, a garden so I could plant vegetables and preferably not too far out of town because I wanted to have an active social life.

Agony

It turns out that at that moment, I could have two of the above but not all three. My choices were, a house in the village with lots of rooms but no land, a tiny, depressing box of a house with a bit of land relatively close to town, or a decent sized house with land a 20 minute drive outside of town.

I looked and looked but my choices remained the same. I thought about settling, the houses in town were pretty nice, but no, I really wanted that garden!

So, I halfway gave up, living in an apartment while I continued to view houses once in a while. It took 2 years, my marriage fell apart, (not because of the house hunt, but because it needed to fall apart) but finally the perfect house came up for sale.

Photo by Author — my house, waiting to be bought

Ecstasy!!

Yippee, yippee, yippee!! I talked to the seller and paid the down payment. Then we got locked down for covid and I figured that surely she would let me move in. Letting me move in would have been a very Spanish thing to do I was assured, but the seller was from London so it was a no go. So I stayed in the apartment.

Agony

While walking in the mountains with a friend, we started talking about the house I was buying. Get a lawyer she said and she gave me her lawyer’s number. I called him and sent him the contract I was about to sign.

Don’t do it!!!!

The papers aren’t right. You need to wait until they get the house registration in the correct owners’ names before you sign anything.

You see, the previous owner of the house had died and left half of the house to his 2 children. The other half of the house belonged to his ex, the mother of the 2 children. So, the house had to be registered in their names with the Spanish government.

Anything that has anything to do with the Spanish government takes an eternity so I had to wait.

Ecstasy

Then, 4 months later I get a call from the lawyer saying that the papers had come through for the 2 kids.

Agony

But the seller’s lawyer had thought the ex had registered her half of the house in her name. She hadn’t. So, the process starts all over again.

Ecstasy

6 months later I get another call from the lawyer. The paperwork is all ready to sign, an appointment has been set up for the next month because that is the first time we can all coordinate our schedules. My lawyer has to be there, the seller’s lawyer has to be there and I have to be there.

The signing date approaches, my excitement rises. This is really going to happen and then…

Agony

The seller’s lawyer gets covid so, I have to wait another month.

Finally the date arrives but by this time, I don’t believe it is actually going to happen so I keep my expectations in check, no ecstasy.

The signing actually happens, rather anticlimactically the keys are deposited in my hand and I am finally able to open my front door for the first time!!

Photo by Author — a double rainbow shortly after moving in

Ecstasy

My daughter and I slept there that night and when I woke up the next morning I felt like I was on vacation.

My house is so beautiful I can hardly believe it! It is mine.

My rainbow cousin has organized all of my friends to welcome me home the next day and they have all donated money to build a front deck for me. The money didn’t quite go far enough though so, instead of a wooden deck they built a trampoline deck which could not have been more perfect.

I slept out on my trampoline all summer and the heat never touched me. It was like sleeping in the sky with the stars all overhead.

So, in the end, I have exactly what I wanted and I am so happy living here every single day. The ecstasy was worth every bit of the agony and it has made me grateful.

I have also learned a lot about buying a house in Spain. I am by no means an expert but here are some of the things I have learned.

Celebrating an international Thanksgiving!

What you should know before you start!

Before you put down any money, make sure the house you want to buy is legal. Many, many houses here were built illegally and this means a few things. First, you can’t get a loan if the house isn’t legal and that means that it will be harder to sell and probably won’t be worth as much as you paid for it. Second, the government might knock it down because it was built illegally.
Check and make sure the house is registered in the proper name of the seller. In my case, it was just a matter of time but sometimes it might not end so well. It is not unheard of for people to sell houses here that they don’t actually own. One of my friends owns a half-built house outside of the village. One of her neighbors who owned the houseless plot next to hers tried to sell his piece of land to some people but instead of showing them his land, he showed them hers. They thought they were buying a house but actually they were buying just a piece of land.
Check and make sure there is not any kind of public project that will end up in the demolition of the house you want to buy. I have another friend who wanted to buy a house. She found one she loved and was about to put down the down payment when she discovered that in the next 2 years, there is a highway construction project slated to begin and the house is going to be taken down.
I recommend you get a lawyer who can help you with all of the ins and outs of Spanish property law. It can get complicated.

So, the moral of the story is: If your dream is to buy a house in Spain, it is totally possible, but you are going to have to be patient. Things will probably get stressful but keep your cool, everything can be worked out.

Photo by Author — the view from my bathroom window