| Starting
A New Life In Spain |
| Making
The Move |
| By Elaine Valet |
| December
2005
I suppose it
was about ten years ago when we first started thinking about buying a property
in Spain a holiday home that we would visit for two or three weeks of
the year. Over the following years, at weekends, we would trail numerous
property exhibitions organised by the big estate agencies. But back then,
like with many others, owning a home abroad turned out to be only a dream,
as the visits to the exhibitions were as far as we got and we never took
that step further.
But about five
years ago, on visiting yet another of these property exhibitions, we actually
booked on to a four day inspection trip to the Costa Blanca |
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of Spain that we knew absolutely nothing about). The trip itself was
a very arduous and tiring one - early starts and late finishes kept under
the watchful eye of our representative with no free time to ourselves,
driven up and down the coast in a mini-bus with other prospective buyers,
tramping over building sites, being shown properties that were of no interest
to us at all, etc etc. We were shown so many properties in so many locations
that in the end everything became such a blur we were sure that we would
return home with the prospect of buying a home in Spain still a dream.
However, on the morning we were due to leave, we were shown a property
that fitted our requirements and so put down a reservation deposit our
dream was beginning to turn into a reality. As the property was bought
off plan and was not going to be completed for another eighteen months
this suited us fine as this meant that we could spread the payments over
this period.
In the months
following that inspection trip, our views about the apartment being just
a holiday home changed rapidly.
My husband and I both held professional jobs, he was a Personnel Manager
and had been with the same company for over twenty years and I was a full
time Lecturer in Further Education. |
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to the stage where we had had enough of working long hours, were feeling
the stresses and strains of our professions and felt that we had no quality
time. On top of that were the soaring costs of living and above all, the
appalling English weather! And so our discussions turned to living, rather
than just holidaying abroad. We decided to make the break completely, sell
up, and move lock stock and barrel to Spain to start a new and what we
envisaged would be a new, happy, relaxed and stress free life!
We arrived
in Spain in March 2003. Previous to leaving the UK we had made plans
to work as agents for the company who we had purchased our property through,
but this fell through. At the ages of 47, we were both too young to retire
(and neither wanted to!), so having settled into our new home the
next task was to find work. Although escaping from the stresses of work
back home, we still wanted work that was both challenging and rewarding. |
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Offshore Resources Gallery
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| We didn´t
have to do much searching as the answer was right there on our doorstep
- we were living in an area with beautiful blue flag beaches, bars, restaurants
and championship golf courses. And with a growing number of people buying
properties as an investment and renting these properties out, the answer
was obvious to set up our own Holiday Rental/Property Management and
Airport Transfer business! Having had enough of working for others back
in the UK, the prospect of setting up our own business
was indeed an exciting
and challenging one, especially as this was a completely new field of work
to us. With sheer hard work and determination, Rest Assured Property Services
(our company) became a successful and growing enterprise, with many
holiday makers visiting our holiday homes - and a growing number of them
returning again and again!
About eighteen
months into our new venture we branched out into new avenues. Our experiences
of buying a property abroad were not positives ones and we were sure that
we could offer prospective buyers a more professional and personalised
service than that which we (and many others) had endured and so
we branched out into property sales. We soon found it difficult to manage
both the rental and the sales side of the business so decided to sell on
the Holiday Rental aspect of the business. |
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| With the growing
demand for people buying properties in rural Spain (or `real Spain´
as it is most often referred to), we found that much of our time was
spent travelling the countryside and so not only did we decide to sell
on part of our established business, but to sell our home too, and set
up home and office in the countryside.
We now had
the double task of finding a suitable location to open up an estate agency
and a suitable location to live. And so we spent many weekends travelling
the countryside searching for a suitable venue. One day we stumbled upon
a quaint little village called Abanilla in the heart of Murcia. We fell
in love with this beautiful little village and decided that this was where
we were now going to base our business and find a new home.
The move from
coast to country has indeed been an interesting - and challenging one!
The way of life in this real Spain is in total contrast to that
on the coast. Here, it seems, time has stood still. |
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Offshore
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get to grips with the language is a challenging experience, too, but as
our work brings us into contact with Spanish people on a daily basis, we
really do have to break through this barrier.
Our office
is now up and running and business is going well. We have commited
much time to developing our portfolio of properties and now have many properties
on our books and our portfolio continues to grow day be day. Establishing
links with partners we are able to cover a wide area of Spain: Murcia,
Castilla la Mancha, Valencia and the Costa Blanca. We have all financial
and legal services in place, establishing good working relationships with
reputable financial institutions and law firms. We have recently submitted
our application to become a member of the Federation of Overseas Property
Developers, Agents and Consultants (a professional organisation that
sets out Codes of Practice for businesses in this field to adhere to).
We continually
examine our business practices and strive for continuous improvement.
We have far from left the stresses and strains and the long hours of work
behind. Establishing a professional company that aims to provide first
class Customer and After Sales service and satisfied customers is not an
easy task, but we are working in a field that we enjoy and are dedicated
to and so the hard work and long hours are well worth all the effort.
If you would
like to find out more about the properties we have for sale and the services
we offer, visit our website at: www.restassuredproperties.co.uk
or Tel; 0034 958680551/0034 677138 312
To contact
Elaine Click Here
If you
would like to submit an article to Escape From America Magazine Click
Here |
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