Why not move abroad

The sad thing about incredible property deals is that I typically learn about them when reading about people who monetized those opportunities like crazy. Needless to say it’s always too late to get on the bandwagon. The Spanish bonanza, for example – so many people bought beautiful properties dirt cheap and now make a killing selling them or renting. This led me to another aspect of buying my dream home – does it need to be right here? I mean, what could possibly stop me from moving out to the sunny Spain or Greece (to exploit the economic crisis and falling property prices)?

Photo by fotografar

If I was to analyse the situation these are the arguments against:

• I don’t know the language. Not a problem – I know English. This should be enough for the first couple of months while I learn language of the natives.
• Finding a job will be a nightmare. Not really, because there is always some niche just waiting to be filled. English teacher? Professional photographer? Online entrepreneur?
• My family will miss me – and I will miss them. Definitely true, but with the advent of cheap airlines there’s no reason for me not to fly back every couple of weeks.

This idea sounds pretty good to me, I think I will need to research financing overseas mortgages to see if what I’m thinking has any chances of succeeding.

Getting the downpayment for property

This post may be helpful for you if you ever reach the depths of misery and try to run a mock-up mortgage application process. I’ve been trying to buy a property for the past couple of years but have been unsuccessful in doing so. To be honest, even though I’m not very picky there are certain conditions I expect my first true home to fulfil. I want it to be in decent neighbourhood, have at least 50 square meters of living space and a nice little parking space for my car. I would also like to find a mortgage which would not kill off my bank account or make me a slave for the next 30 years. I don’t care about the condition of property (to a certain extent) since I can do all the fixes and repairs myself.

Today I was exploring options for earning the money for down-payment. After careful consideration I have excluded bank robbery, blackmail and kidnapping. So in order to save up more money I need to:

• Find a part time job and work my ass off for the next couple of years
• Sell collectible items such as stamp and comic books (every little helps)
• Inherit large amount of money (technically not possible)
• Get a better job which sounds like just about the only reasonable solution.

Photo by epSos.de

Finding a better job will not only see my savings grow much faster but also will increase the maximum amount of mortgage available to me. So much for the theory, I’m off to browse my local job listings.

Property auctions – tip from a friend

My friend and I have similar targets for the coming year: get at least one step closer to the property ladder. Perhaps climbing it is not possible just yet, but who know – maybe we can come up with a crazy idea and instantly become filthy rich. Well, probably not, but hard work and saving will eventually get me to where I want to be.

Photo by Buckeye Beth

During a conversation we’ve had recently I was introduced to the idea of buying properties at auctions. The idea seemed to hold little sense to me at first but after coming back home I’ve checked some listings for auctioned houses and BOOM! that’s it, it may actually work. Initially I was put off by the fact that if I ever took part in an auction, my competition for the best properties would mostly comprise of seasoned property developers who know exactly how much to bid for each house and how much it too much. This would either leave me at a disadvantage and potentially vulnerable to overpaying for a property, or simply have me run out of budget half-way during the bidding.

Then again I though to myself that I’m never going to succeed with this kind of mindset. Who dares wins! I’ll be watching the listings very closely from now on.