Pusher Posted July 9, 2015 Share A bit of work he said!And he has a touch of OCD so I can imagine how pedantic he's going to be with the alterations! Wendy and Bonus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slowbee Posted July 9, 2015 Share And he has a touch of OCD so I can imagine how pedantic he's going to be with the alterations!Do you think he will be able to get those stones in straight lines ? Bonus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pusher Posted July 9, 2015 Share Do you think he will be able to get those stones in straight lines ? He will want to but the lady of the house will keep a beady eye on him! Bonus and Slowbee 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Knoetze (sk27) Posted July 9, 2015 Share Awesome spot, so much character.I wish you luck Bonus.Many people have big dreams but not many actually chase them. I take my hat off to you and Wendy. Bonus and Wendy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skylark Posted July 9, 2015 Share I hate to say it but you must be a sucker for punishment. A question to seriously ask yourselves: Is your main motivation to move there to fix up old decrepit buildings or enjoy the surroundings and open a BnB? You will be paying euro labour rates and building material costs, that building will be a real challenge to get into fine order and you may need bottomless financial resources, not including the possible disasterous hiccups you may encounter in the structure or foundations. Never mind you've just moved there and can not speak the language fluently, how much stress do you really want in your life? If you want to go there to enjoy the surroundings, open a BnB and keep your marriage intact I wouldn't touch that with a barge pole. Find something that just needs a few walls put in/bathroom to make the BnB unit self contained etc, perhaps superficial renovating, not a building that alone could perhaps be a lifes work just to fix it up. Granted I don't know your financial resources or tolerance for pain so take what I say with a pinch of salt. [emoji5] Edited July 9, 2015 by Skylark Bonus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonus Posted July 11, 2015 Share And he has a touch of OCD so I can imagine how pedantic he's going to be with the alterations! Do you think he will be able to get those stones in straight lines ? He will want to but the lady of the house will keep a beady eye on him! I see the comedians have landed . . . . lol Pusher - I may have "tidiness OCD" but you have "Breakfast OCD" :-)Hope Swazi was good! Slowbee - I hadn't noticed to stones! Damn you . . . . :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted July 11, 2015 Share Beautiful building and setting!!! I dream of taking on a project like that. Bonus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonus Posted July 11, 2015 Share A couple of updates from the FB page . . . . Part 1: When we put an offer in to buy the property we liked, we had to wait a week for a reply back from owner, via the estate agent. By then we'd driven 1300km back to the UK from Spain, via Paris and spent a few days at home with my son Ross. That was a long week. When we turned down the counter-offer we got back from the owner and stuck to our guns with our original offer, it took a week for the estate agent to come back and tell that the owner, after some persuasion, finally agreed. That was a long week. On Tuesday we had an "urgent" email warning us that until we put down the 10% deposit on the property, as required by Spanish law when an offer is accepted, the acceptance of the offer is considered to be "retractable by the owner in the event of a better offer being made". So, until the 10% is handed over to the estate agent the owner could change his/her mind. We have the money and we have instructed the bank to make the payment but it will be next Tuesday before the money clears in Spain. We're in the middle of another "long week" - and I'm sure I have a few more grey hairs! Part 2 Some great news . . . . Quite late last night (Friday) I received an email from the architect who is helping the estate agent with the property we are buying and who will help us renovate when we are ready. He speaks better English than her and they share offices. In Spain office hours are 9:30 to 2pm and 5pm to 8pm. . . In his mail he ask us if we now have all the information we need in order to transfer the 10% deposit on the property. He is worried because the owner, who accepted our "below asking price" offer, has been showing other people the property privately (all quite legitimate) before and after we visited it. If anyone of them makes a better offer than us, the owner can accept it and we will lose it. The agency will lose any commission they would be getting from our transaction and the architect (might) lose the chance of being involved in the renovation project. I told the architect that our bank has everything necessary now and that the money has left our account already and is on it's way (via a forex company). This is good enough for him to send the owner a confirmation note which will prevent him from accepting other offers. This means that assuming the SA banking system doesn't go into meltdown over the weekend, the place is ours!! Phew . . . . Edited July 11, 2015 by Bonus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted July 11, 2015 Share Good luck! For what it's worth, a SWIFT transaction happens relatively quickly... certainly should have it by Tuesday... Bonus and UpShift_Cycles 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonus Posted July 11, 2015 Share Good luck! For what it's worth, a SWIFT transaction happens relatively quickly... certainly should have it by Tuesday... Yeah - it is a SWIFT transaction and I believe its quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted July 11, 2015 Share Yeah - it is a SWIFT transaction and I believe its quick.Yep. I used to do them for a private bank back in the day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matchstix Posted July 11, 2015 Share With those pics. . . . Do you need a bike mechanic on site?? Am also a bit of a handyman, can do woodwork, can't cook, trying to selll myself but falling short. Bonus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonus Posted July 11, 2015 Share I hate to say it but you must be a sucker for punishment. A question to seriously ask yourselves: Is your main motivation to move there to fix up old decrepit buildings or enjoy the surroundings and open a BnB?You will be paying euro labour rates and building material costs, that building will be a real challenge to get into fine order and you may need bottomless financial resources, not including the possible disasterous hiccups you may encounter in the structure or foundations. Never mind you've just moved there and can not speak the language fluently, how much stress do you really want in your life?If you want to go there to enjoy the surroundings, open a BnB and keep your marriage intact I wouldn't touch that with a barge pole. Find something that just needs a few walls put in/bathroom to make the BnB unit self contained etc, perhaps superficial renovating, not a building that alone could perhaps be a lifes work just to fix it up. Granted I don't know your financial resources or tolerance for pain so take what I say with a pinch of salt. [emoji5]You raise some good points Skylark. What exactly do we want to do? A question we've asked ourselves more than a few times over recent months. In short - I want to ride my bikes, MTB & Road, in the Pyrenees mountains as many days as is possible. I want to be within a couple of hours driving of some of the most famous Cols and climbs in the world. A couple of hours driving from the Mediteranean sea and I want to be a 2 hr flight, not an 11hr flight, away from my son. I also want le Tour and la Vuelta to pass by my door, failing that a couple of hours drive to see them is acceptable. Wendy wants to meet / host / socialise with and feed interesting people. Failing that, fellow cyclists will do. She is a people person. she wants to be surrounded by good food and culture. She loves SA dearly but she has fallen in love with Spain. Regarding our choice of "project" - it's a bit of everything I guess. I've renovated before (though not to this scale) and I want to do one last project, not to make a profit this time, but to create a home designed around what I actually want - as opposed to making do with the next best available. Wendy wants the same - a home built around exactly what she wants. As to cost, we have the figures and we've done the maths. It will be tight, but we have a stage by stage plan. It may take a while to get to the end but that's fine. I have to say there's a hell of a buzz doing this too! Some days you just think to yourself "this is insane" and then you remember months and years of sitting in traffic trying to get to a job you really aren't too fussed about and you remember "no, THAT was insane!" UpShift_Cycles, popcorn_skollie, Pants Boy and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skylark Posted July 12, 2015 Share Just be careful with the estate agent, architect etc, a fair bit of money will go their way if the sale goes through, they "want" you to buy. You have not had time to establish a solid relationship with them, at this stage they will only see you as dollar signs, that's normal but keep that in mind when considering their motivations. Do not believe a word of the reports of the present owner not accepting your first offer, wanting more etc and then finally accepting your offer just one week later, now there's other people interested etc, that's all part of the negotiating charade. Any seller with his head screwed on will do that, "refuse" your first offer to test the waters only to accept when they realise you are not budging and finally make out its hot property once they have accepted to force your hand. I have dealt with many transactions of this nature and unless the price is a no brainer no can lose thing, then step extremely gingerly, that property is not hot stuff, it is not an estate agents dream! I've seen it happen time and time again, buy something like this then wish with all you heart you'd never even considered moving over there never mind buying the property. And what always happens is 2 weeks later the ideal thing that needs minimal work, at the right price, perfect position etc comes on the market but now you are saddled with a monster. I'd rather spend 6 months waiting for the right property than diving head first into a pool that you don't accurately know the depth of. Surely there are many things to consider other than just the building, zoning rights, hertitage laws, building codes etc. Again I don't know the full picture(maybe you bought Capitec shares right at the beginning and money is just not that much of an issue [emoji10]) so take what I say with a pinch of salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonus Posted July 13, 2015 Share Just be careful with the estate agent, architect etc, Yeah We're familiar with how they work. It's their livelihood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Ruinaard Posted July 13, 2015 Share I must admit that in the idle hours I have dreamed of a project like this - clearly you have big kahunas or a big stash of Euros. I think that my scope has been limited to Randelas rather than Euros or US$ cause the size of the risk is just too great. I agree with some of Skylark's posts and would err on the side of caution however I would think that you have done a lot of homework. As I messaged you, if some of my little plans come off then i hope to see Europe for 6 months with my wife and spend time in exactly the sort of establishment you guys are building - hopefully sooner rather than later. So there is a market, even amongst us Saffers, for such a destination. And there musty be a huge market in Europe. I even looked at (and haven't given up on) doing inbound MTB and road cycling tourism in to South Africa. I always remember that program on BBC where they followed people like you who were chewing off renovation projects in the places of their dreams (Spain., France etc). There were some pretty scary stories of how these people got in to hot water and under estimated the local context of what they were doing. The drain on their resources and the lack of understanding of what sort of roadblocks they could run in to was scary. Many gave up halfway or returned home to earn more GBP and then completed their projects. It wasn't a Grand Designs thing - it was something else - cant remember it now, but likely worth watching. I would say a wealth of experience in property and renovations, understanding the locals and language and a set of deep pockets (like budgeting a third more than your plan) would be my launch points. But that is me. Keep us informed. As you say - if it was easy all of us would be doing it. Bonus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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