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Diary of a buyer: First steps - 23 January 2008

Posted by Robert Southwell 1 comment

Well, here we go, my first attempt at blogging and it’s all a bit strange... Having had plenty of time to think over the Christmas period, I've decided that the time has finally come for us to make it happen. By 'it', I mean buy a home overseas, and with plenty of time to talk and do some sums among the family over the festive period, we've managed to work out a scheme to keep everyone happy.

The kids have finally managed to get through university and then have had a couple of years working to get themselves on their feet with careers and things. The mortgage on our house here on the outskirts of Northampton is almost paid off, and neither I nor my wife have too long left until we retire. If nothing else, as a worker in the health service, my wife gets something over 35 days holiday a year, while I'm a partner in an engineering firm so only have to answer to one other person!

There's a long way to go though – the only thing we have managed to establish so far is that no-one can agree where we should buy. For the first few years at least, we won't be spending too much time abroad, so we'll be keeping the house as it is now for the moment. The kids want somewhere hot and sunny, of course, and somewhere they can take their friends and family for cheap holidays. Personally, I'd like to have somewhere that's near enough to a few decent walks in the hills, and hopefully somewhere that has a good local wine!

Mary isn't keen on long car trips, so she says that as long as there's no more than an hour or so to drive on the other end and it doesn't rain as much as it does here, she'll be happy. Somehow though, despite her protestations, I think she'll be the one who has the final say on where we go.

I reckon we'll need to get some kind of mortgage to get us the place we want, and to have space for the grandchildren that are hopefully on the way soon. I'll need to have a chat to the bank here to see what we can get on a decent rate and decent terms.

That's the boring bit though, and we need to get some idea of what we're looking for and where we want to go before anything else. So, before we (that means me) get bogged down in the finances, we're going to have a go at one of these property expos – there seem to loads of them around so I'll see what's in the paper. I'll let you know how it goes...

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Comments

1. Terence Dicks - January 24, 2008

Hi Robert,

You could do a lot worse than to look at Turkey.

Regards

Terence

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