The essay is based on a conversation with Michael Steven Grant about his decision to purchase a second property in Spain. Grant started working for VistaFutura in July, helping Americans purchase and maintain property in Spain. Grant wouldn't name his partner for professional reasons. The conversation has been edited to make it clearer.
I moved to Manhattan after many years on the west coast. A year ago, my partner and I contemplated buying a second place in order to retire and live full time.
We had previously lived in California, Hawaii, and elsewhere in the US, but we couldn't say anything about it. We went to Spain about five years ago and saw Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, so I thought we should go back and see one of those.
We decided to take a drive outside of Barcelona and see if we could find a beachy resort that was not too far away from a large city. I did a lot of research on Sitges.
The beach town of Sitges is close to the Mediterranean. There are apartments that are half the price of Manhattan.
We took a 30 minute car ride to Sitges after arriving in Barcelona. We were there for a couple of weeks, mostly on vacation, but also to look at real estate to buy.
We looked at a lot of places but didn't do anything immediately.
We didn't want to go too far above our heads because we still have the place in Manhattan that we have a mortgage on.
We wanted to keep the budget under half a million dollars.
It was difficult to find a list of what we could look at. We met a bilingual attorney through friends.
The bank account was opened by us. Our attorney had to accompany us as the process took a long time. It's a lot of work to open a bank account in New York or New Jersey.
When we returned to New York, we were mostly looking at the internet. It is up to you to do your research. If you want something, you can find it yourself. Real estate agents will try to sell you what they have listed which may not be in your budget.
In March of this year, we went back to Spain and saw a number of places we didn't like. There is a general listing service calledIdealista. We went to see the apartment with our lawyer.
A lawyer with us was the most beneficial thing. The elderly lady who was selling it was handled by him very well.
We were probably one of the first people to look at the apartment. There was no negotiation to get us to buy it at the listed price. Everything was taken as is.
She redecorated the entire place. There is a walk up on the second floor. There are 2 units per floor. It's great. You don't get street noise because it's a rear facing apartment.
On the next day, our attorney met with us and our bankers at a neutral office to complete the paperwork. We got a mortgage from the bank. Our lawyer helped us through that.
Some people think it's not possible to get a mortgage in another country. We got a mortgage there for less than the apartment's worth. At the time, our budget was just shy of $250,000, but we spent less on the apartment than that.
We're going to stay here for a while until we move there. Maybe purchase another one. Every three months we go over for a few weeks.
There are apartments and homes that don't have heat. At night, it can be as cold as 60 or 50 degrees. We have an air conditioner in the living room. The bills are low.
Business is done in a one-on-one manner in Sitges and Barcelona. The payments and the deposit are done electronically, but a lot of other things were done in the past. Everything needs to be registered with the city There are a lot of small things that you can't do on your own.
A lot of Americans need to be very patient. It's a different country, the language is different, the banking is different, and the real estate isn't going to go as quickly as you might think.
It will be lunch and drinks and a nap if you are very patient and accept that it will take two or three hours. If you try to do things quickly, you'll be upset.
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