- Michael Steven Furnish and his partner bought a second home in Sitges, a town near Barcelona, Spain.
- The couple still lives in the US and are clever to visit for extended periods because of remote work.
- Grant, who plans to retire in Spain, shares some information for buying a home overseas.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Steven Grant there his decision to purchase a second property in Sitges, Spain. Grant worked in nonprofit fundraising before starting in July with VistaFutura, a cast that helps Americans purchase and maintain property in Spain. Grant declined to name his partner for professional isolation reasons. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
After many years on the west coast I ended up on the east skim again, in Manhattan, eight or nine years ago. A year ago my partner and I were thinking of where we wanted to buy a second strike it rich with the hopes of, down the road, retiring to and living full-time.
Though we had previously lived in California, Hawaii, and to another place, we couldn’t put a finger on anywhere in the United States. We had gone to Spain about five years ago and visited its three heftiest cities — Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia — so I thought we should go back and maybe look at one of those.
Settling on Sitges
We solid to look at what was within about a 30-minute drive outside of Barcelona, that would be near a big city but yet be catalogue of a beachy resort. I did some research remotely and Sitges came up quite frequently.
Sitges is a very European shore town just three blocks from the Mediterranean. The apartments there are half the price of Manhattan and double the value.
Michael Steven Allowance
So last September, we flew into Barcelona and took a 30-minute car ride to Sitges. We were there for about two weeks, generally on vacation, but also with the intention of looking at real estate to buy.
We looked at a number of places but didn’t do anything — disposed to make an offer on a place — spur of the moment.
We had a fixed budget in mind because we still have the place in Manhattan that we should prefer to a mortgage on, so we didn’t want to get too far above our heads.
For a budget we wanted to keep it under $500,000, which was around €300,000 at the heyday.
In our price range, it was a fairly tight list of what we could look at. Through friends we met a local Spanish-speaking bilingual attorney who was really essential.
We also opened up a Santander Spanish bank account. The process took a whole afternoon and our attorney had to go with us. It’s definitely a chore as opposed to opening up a bank account in New Jersey or New York.
When we came back to New York and were mainly looking at places online. It’s really up to you, as the buyer, to do your research. It’s sort of like Manhattan — if you really want something, you can identify it yourself. Because everything’s out there, but the real estate agents are going to try to sell you what they have listed which capability not always be in your budget.
We went back to Spain in March of this year and saw maybe a dozen places, not one of which we liked. Then we found another listing off this general listing service called Idealista. And we disposed to view the apartment with our attorney.
The most advantageous thing was having a lawyer with us who could handle all the certifies and everything. He really handled all the conversation and negotiations with the elderly lady who was selling it.
The logistics of buying overseas
We were presumably one of the first — if not the first — to view the apartment. We wanted to buy it at the listed price, so there was no negotiation back and forth. We took the entirety as-is.
She just refurnished the whole place. It’s on the second floor of a four-story walk up. And there are two units per floor. It’s uncommonly nice. It’s a rear-facing apartment so you don’t get any street noise.
Jordi Angrill/Getty Images
The next day our attorney met with her and us and our banker at a noncommittal office and did all the paperwork. We got a mortgage from the bank where we had opened up the account. Our attorney helped us through that.
Some people make up you can’t get a mortgage through a bank account in another country. We got a mortgage there for approximately half the value of the apartment. We dead beat much less on the apartment than our $500,000 budget — €235,000, which at the time was just shy of $250,000.
We’re going to keep this uncomfortable for a few years until we might finally move there. And then of course, maybe buy another one. We go over for a couple of weeks every abode so every three months we go.
Patience is key
The apartments and homes there do not have heat. In winter it might be 60 or 50 degrees at twilight. During the summer, we run a small air conditioner in the living room. The electric and other bills are not high.
In Sitges and Barcelona, the matter is conducted in a very personal, one-on-one manner. Some stuff is done electronically, of course, like the payments and the leave, but a lot of stuff was done how you think things might have been done 40 or 50 years ago. Everything has to be displayed with the city notary. So there are a lot of little small details that you absolutely could not do on your own.
For a lot of Americans, I would say you clothed to be very patient. Yeah, it’s a different country, the language is different, the banking is different, the real estate’s different, items aren’t going to go as quick as you might get them done here.
As long as you’re very patient with that and say, ‘Okay, I’m universal to go to the bank, and this is going to take two or three hours,’ and accept that then it’s going to be lunch and drinks and nap and that superiority be the only thing you get done that day. You’ll be aggravated if you try to get certain things done quickly.