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About the author: My husband and I have our own Mortgage Company and Overseas Property Company in the UK, and are both fully qualifed mortgage advisors, with over twenty years combined experience in this field. We have continued to advise on Mortgages both in Spain and the UK while setting up several new threads of our Companies. In Spain we have now expanded our services to include Golfing Holidays and Property Management, having previously owned our own chain of Estate Agents in the UK.
Our website addresses for further information are:
www.homesinthesun.uk.com
www.mortgagewarehouseltd.com
www.calidagolfspain.com
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We had both dreamnt of buying a house and moving to Spain for several years, so in December 2004 we decided to take the plunge and came out to look at properties.
We decided to limit our search to Murcia and Alicante as we had previously fallen in love with Santiago de la Ribera, whilst visiting friends. Our agent took us to Senorio De Roda on our first day and were really impressed with the ideas and beliefs on which this project had been based. For those of you who do not know, this development is built to replicate traditional spanish houses as this was a conditon of sale for the land. Undecided we then spent the next couple of days visiting various areas and viewing properties up and down the coast with no joy so on our last morning we went back to where we started! I know, it is like women and shopping! Before we went home we had put down our deposit on a house which was due to be ready in November 2005.
Well you know how the story goes November came and went, as did Christmas and Easter! Finally though in July 2006 we received our keys and started planning our move to Spain, which we, as a family had agreed and planned to do, so that our children could start their new school in Spain in the September. Our original plan had been to have the house for a few months and visit often to give us a feel for the area before taking the big plunge, but as time moved on, we felt that the time was right for us and our children to move to Spain and see if we could settle. So we rented out our home in England out, packed up our belongings and set off! My husband's journey with his friend on the ferry from Plymouth to Santander is another story entirely ......
So here we were in Spain, it took a few weeks of pretending we were on holiday, which we spent making friends and testing the local food and drink, and then we woke up one day and decided to deal with the daunting task of getting our children into school, something we could not do until we had moved here and had an official residence, oh and what a task it was! We had decided early on that the children were to go to Spanish School, as we felt as they were only eight and ten they would be able to cope and integrate, but after several trips to the Town Hall, and feeling like I was getting nowhere, I gave up and employed someone to help us (I know what a cop out!) We were recommended by some Spanish friends, Senora De Loreto in Santiago de la Ribera and were fortunate enough to obtain places there, which was great, as before us there were only four other English children. It is superb, the children have really settled and although they are worked very hard, appear very keen to get to School everyday. Their spoken spanish is very good and having learnt the language for two years myself I found myself quickly beaten when the children spoke to me in Spanish and I did not fully understand them!
September the 14th came upon us really quickly and the children were sorted but what about us? We had kept two of our UK companies, having sold our Estate Agents before we relocated. As our companies are very well established we still had plenty of clients to work with, but decided that as we had now decided to live in Spain that we should expand our Companies to incorporate life here. We are therefore now introducing to Spanish Banks on behalf of clients and are able to offer people an excellent management service for their property. We are able to draw on our experience of property management in the UK which prior to moving we had been doing for a combined total of sixteen years. We have also started golfing holidays which I am sure my husband started so he could go and look and play all the courses!
So all in all life here is great, we got what we came for. We work from home and spend more time with our children and each other in a Country which offers you Sun, Sand and Sangria. Having learnt several things along the way we now feel we can offer our clients advice on all aspects of our business, whether they are looking to move here or to any other Country in which we sell property, by either offering a finance or sales service. For those people who are still just looking for a little piece of heaven and not the whole package we can help by managing their property while they are away, helping them with costs by securing tenants for them or just arranging a holiday for the golfers amongst them.