I found a farm and bought it :)

Finca update #2

That feeling that it’s probably all too good to be true, stayed with me for over a month. Six weeks or so. Exhausting. From the moment I first saw the finca, it was as if I was waiting for something unfortunate to happen. Issues coming up, a big no-go or just bad news. I was prepared for bad news, I was prepared for disappointments. But what I didn’t realize is that the whole process of buying property would be extremely stressful. I totally underestimated that. Really, I always kind of rolled my eyes when people told me buying a house is oh so stressful. Now I know better.

The good thing is, is that I also realized that I haven’t felt stressed in a very long time. Besides the usual worries about bad weather, annoying encounters with annoying men and the being alert all time when wild camping, my life was pretty much stress free. Life on the road comes with its challenges, but nothing I could not handle. Maybe the difference is that I somehow felt I was in control. Of course, you cannot control the weather or behavior of people you meet, but I could take precautions. I guess I grew a lot of confidence when it comes to solo traveling. This was my comfort zone.

Buying property clearly was not. Not in my comfortzone. I had no confidence at all.

Hiking the Macedonian mountain Traverse, this is Ljuboten peak on Shar mountain

Part of the process

I knew that once I would have my own plot of land, my finca, it would all be worth it. I wasn’t nervous about the amount of work the land will be and I wasn’t afraid to embark on that adventure alone. No, honestly for me this buying-the-property-process has been the challenge and maybe even one of the scariest things I’ve done. I’d much rather hike the Pyrenees or the Balkans or cycle across Europe. But yeah, it’s all part of the process I suppose.

Because I feel like most people start sharing their off-grid dream journey from the moment they bought something, I’d like to zoom in a bit on the steps I had to take to actually reach that point. I totally get it if you are here to read about the finca project, about creating a homestead or about life in the Spanish countryside. Good news, from next week on, I’ll be sharing exactly that.

Falling in love

It sort of was love on first sight. Yes, I felt immediately attracted to the surroundings, the views and I loved the entrence of the finca. You’re greeted by the trees and then it’s a green carpet to the second entrence, love it. But I do remember having doubts as well. It seemed like someone’s passion project had been left to, to what? To deteriorate. Messy and abandoned. Faded glory. It kind of made me sad. What had happened?

At the same time they had been building up something that was very similar to what I was fantasizing about. They used to have a camper site and I always wanted to create some kind of trekking camping for hikers and cyclists. But also, I wanted to build a small A-frame glamping hut as a first place to live in. An upgrade from my tent and a nice future guest room for friends and family.

This finca had exactly that, a lovely wooden A-frame glamping hut. Falling apart and sort of rotting away, but still. I could fix it up. All over the property were wooden structures that looked like I could have build it. Except that I don’t have any building experience yet, but the type, the style, the materials used, it all matches very much my ideas. My plans.

The more time I spent walking around, the more this finca grew on me. The only thing that really bothered me, was the smell. I could smell an animal farm.

Bathroom area and the caravan

Strange things

Something else that bothered me, was the fact that the house (or shed actually) was locked and blocked with pallets. I couldn’t enter and apparently there was no key. Why? The real estate agent couldn’t tell me. If I would buy the property, I had to break in, break the lock or break the door. Or both. Weird.

I left the finca with mixed feelings and a lot of questions.

A week (or two) later I came back to meet the real estate agent. He showed me around, we walked along the border of the property and he answered all my questions. This made me feel much better and also, I could camp there to get a better feel for the place. I mainly wanted to check the smell-situation, because at that point I could already see myself living there.

I found out that a few months earlier, there were other people who almost bought the finca, they even made a down payment, but they backed out. Why? They thought there would be a solar system and a sceptic tank. Very strange, because it’s obvious that this finca has none of these facilities. Maybe they didn’t visit the land? Or maybe there was something else.

The house

Trust

Somehow it felt as if I didn’t get all the information. I started to be very suspicious and I had a hard time trusting the real estate agent. This is the opposite of how I want to be, but I just got the idea that it would be very easy to fool me. The fear of being scammed took over and I tried to get control by diving deep into the research. I collected the important documents, went to the town hall to get more information, got in touch with a lawyer and I read everything I could find about buying rural property in Spain.

So afraid of doing something wrong, making a very expensive mistake. The real estate agent probably felt this, because he suggested that I could get in touch with the owners themselves. They were also Dutch and I could ask them anything I wanted to know. This has been very valuable.

I wanted to put in an offer, but I was still waiting for my lawyer to check the documents. In retrospect, I realize that I could already have put in an offer and then sort things out with a lawyer, but I thought I had to be 100% sure about everything legal before starting the negotiation.

The view

My offer

And then suddenly the real estate agent told me there were other people interested to see the finca as well. I couldn’t believe it. For over a year this finca has been for sale and the moment I’m about to put in an offer, there’s suddenly other people? I decided to not let it get to me, if the real estate agent was trying to put up the pressure, he wouldn’t succeed. I took the time I needed to come with an offer.

For the third time I went back to the finca and camped there for a few nights. This time I reached the point I was very very sure I wanted to be there, stay there. The smell wasn’t an issue, only when the wind comes from the direction of the farm or when the neighbors are putting manure on the land it is present. Fair enough, in the end this is the country side, right?

So, I texted the real estate agent with my offer. Ahhhhhh!

Bad luck

A few minutes later I heard a car driving onto the property. I totally forgot about the other people. A few days had past and I assumed that they were either non-existent or not interested. Turned out they were. We met, we talked and walked around the property together. Very awkward. They were friendly, but it couldn’t help but seeing them as intruders. I already started to feel attached to the place and I didn’t want to be the person to show them around and answer all their questions. That was just weird.

After an hour or two they asked me if I was interested in buying it together. Uhhmm, what? Of course not, why would I? I didn’t know what to say, but it was clear they would overbid me. Especially the man was very determent. And so I asked the real estate agent what would happen if their offer was higher than mine. Well, I would be out, was the answer. Damn. I decided to raise my offer. Not to the extend that it would be an unreasonable act of panic, but just to be taken seriously. Pfff, then I had to wait. This was terrible.

Three days later I still hadn’t heard from my lawyer and these other people still hadn’t put in their offer. How long could this take? Was this normal? Can they just let me hang in there? When I was about to ask the real estate agent if the owners had a price they would want to sell it for to me, I got a message from him. The other people had overbid me, nooooooo. But the owners wanted to make a deal with me. They accepted my offer if I would pay the real estate agent.

Relief

The deal was done. We signed an online contract for the down payment, made the down payment and then there was more waiting. This was exactly four weeks ago. Four weeks until the appointment with the notary. Four weeks with doubts and uncertainties, not knowing what to expect or who to trust. Is that contract even valid when we all just copy-paste our signatures into a PDF? The relief I felt on the first day after the good news, slowly disappeared. I couldn’t be celebrating yet, still something could go wrong. This waiting and basically trusting the process was nerve-wracking.

When I look back on it all, knowing that everything worked out perfectly fine, I of course see that it was totally unnecessary to be so stressed out. But the thing is, you don’t know. You have to trust people you’ve never met. You have to trust a real estate agent who wants to make money.

Now everything is done, I can say that it really wasn’t all that complicated. On the contrary, I would say it actually was surprisingly easy. Really all I had to do was put my signature and transfer the money.

Now the finca is mine. WoW. Still can’t believe it.

And you know what? I even got the keys!

New beginnings :)