Decisions, decisions.

Gorgeous Rila Mountains.

 

So it's been a while since our holiday now. The main reason we have had to wait so long to go ahead with anything is because we are waiting for (a very long and slow) house sale here in the UK to go through before we have any money to buy our Bulgarian dream. As we said the holiday was meant to be a reckie rather than to find a property so we didn't think we'd have to make everyone wait so long.

 

Anyway that is the way it's turned out. Thankfully both the owners of the house and the owners of the extra land have waited for us (not sure if M and D have been having a hard time from them!) and now we know we will have the money by the end of August.

 

We have kept in touch with M and D via email the whole time and just today have sent over photocopies of our passports so they can send us the preliminary contract! EXCITING!!!!

 

So between then and now we have been working hard and enjoying the summer in Brighton. We have also had to answer a whole lot of questions before we were 100% sure of buying this property.

 

All practical questions - such as how much 'council tax' is in Bulgaria, whether we should set up a business to begin with, what the exact process to buy the properties is, etc. - have all been answered wonderfully by M and D.

 

But then we had other things to figure out. Of course we have read all the forums and blogs warning you about Bulgarian estate agents and advising to use your own solicitor. All the horror stories are lurking in our (and our parents) heads all the time, but in the end there is not much we can do about it. Flights in summer are too expensive for us to go out to Bulgaria ourselves to sign the deeds so we have to give power of attorney to someone. We only know the estate agents. We send a 1000 GBP deposit after the preliminary contract is signed, but then we have to send the rest of the money out and just wait for the deeds to be sent to us. We also can't afford to get our own lawyer/solicitor so we have to use the estate agents. As well as using them as our translators. Basically we are putting all of our trust into M and D (Cheap Bulgarian Houses). We have gone through all the options but this really seems like the most plausible for us right now, if we want this particular property (which we do.) And although obviously quite nerve-racking, we do feel we got to know M and D in the short time we were with them - including going to their house and meeting another client of theirs who highly recommended them. Although we never did ask him if he used his own lawyer...

 

So yeah, it is a bit worrying but as we don't have much other choice at the moment we'll just have to cross our fingers and hope for the best. Wish us luck!!

House hunting holiday. Part 2

Exploring beautiful BG.

 

The next morning we went back to the property we liked, but decided it was going to be too much work for us (one of the outside walls was falling down!) After this we weren't really sure what to do. M and D had nothing else on their books that would suit us.

 

As it was a boiling hot day we went to the village of Izvorovo (our second choice of where we would like to live) and got a beer at the shop. M and D spoke to the lovely shop keeper about us and managed to find out there was a property for sale on the edge of the village. It didn't have much land but it did have empty land surrounding it which we could look into buying if we wanted. We had nothing to lose so we went up to have a look.

 

The house was great; in need of some love but not about to fall down. There was a barn and out buildings, a very over grown garden and to top it off a beautiful walnut orchard backing onto a pine forest. It was also on a hill so had lovely views over the village and surrounding hills. We were already picturing ourselves sitting there with a glass of wine on a long summers evening! The only problems were that it wasn't quite big enough for our campsite (although there was a very nice plot of land joining it) and we had no idea of the price.  

'Our' walnut orchard. 

Annoyingly we had to leave the next morning to meet some other estate agents near Elhovo in the south east. We said goodbye to M and D and they told us they would keep in touch to let us know more about 'our' lovely property.

 

Before going to Elhovo we headed down to visit Sakar Hills Campsite, near Harmanli, for one night. This area was where I originally really wanted to be as it was the only route to Turkey so there would be alot of passing trade. However the feel down here was much more 'out back' with lots of deserted villages and gypsies. We ended up meeting the owners of the campsite - an older English couple who had been out here several years. Even they said that this area was 10 years behind the rest of Bulgaria (so about 50 years behind the UK!) We did tell them that we were looking to buy a property and they warned us off estate agents and even drove us to have a look at a property that was for sale! They definitely made us a bit worried as they said the most we should pay for a house with some land is about 3000 GBP - at least half of everything we'd been shown by M and D. Are we getting that ripped off? Or is it the region we were in? Anyway they were friendly and, even though it was rustic, the area was extremely beautiful. But in the end we decided that we didn't want to live there.

 

Sakar Hills Camping

The next day we called the other estate agents (Brits2Bulgaria) to cancel. We decided not to waste their time and that we would drive back through the center of Bulgaria on the old main road, just to explore another area and look at some more villages. We were very excited to hear from M and D that the property was 13500 GBP and that there was some joining land available for sale as well - although not the bit we'd seen. As it was on the way we decided to go back for one more look the next day.

 

In the end the place was perfect. It has everything we want/need - including a total of 2 acres of land - all for 20000 Euros (roughly 16500 GBP.) That is with all estate agents fees and legal fees (as long as we use the estate agents lawyers.) We were feeling very excited and over-whelmed - we weren't really expecting to find a property in one week! Anyway, after spending our last days with some friends near the Rila Mountains we had to fly home and think about what to do next! 

 

The first glimpse of our future campsite.

 

House hunting holiday. Part 1.

Our first couple of days were spent visiting Sofia (we didn't go last time) and Lake Batak. Sofia was a pleasant city - we loved the underground ancient city and the cheap beers and banitsa. Canape Connection (the hostel we stayed in) was really cool and we found a great vegetarian restaurant - which we certainly didn't expect in Bulgaria!

 

At Batak we stopped one night at Eco Camping Batak, which was a very nice campsite in a fantastic location. Unfortunetly it was a bit wet but we had a nice evening a great (and so cheap!) meal out in the village. We also took note of the cool eco toilet and shower block.

 

The next morning we drove a couple of hours to Chirpan to meet the Cheap-Bulgarian-Houses estate agent. We met a friendly couple - M (Polish, living and working in Bulgaria over ten years) and D (English, living in Bulgaria around four years). We told them in more detail about what we had in our minds and they decided to show us a few properties that we hadn't actually asked to see. Happy with this we drove off into the hills, passing lavender fields and wild flowers, to a few small villages North of Chirpan. The area is gorgeous - rolling greens hills and pretty stone houses. There is a big hotel being built just outside Chirpan which shows there is development in this area (very important as many villages get abandoned and loose power and water) and a new motorway to Istanbul being built. Also it is about half way across Bulgaria, between Bourgas and Sofia, and we know from personal experience that a campsite is well needed here unless you want to cross the whole country in one day. It was all very ideal.

We spent the day viewing about 8 properties (actually only 1 we'd chosen online!) The prices ranged from 6000 to 12000 GBP and the conditions also varied. Nothing we viewed had any kind of toilet and some didn't even have floors. Some were old and rustic, one new and un-finished (literally just bricks). Luckily it was exactly what we were expecting so we weren't too shocked. Anyway we like a challenge. We also visited M and D's house to see the end result of a renovation, which was really good to see.  We loved the area and some of the properties were interesting but nothing blew us away. There was one property we quite liked but we didn't have the keys for. (Actually this was quite normal - we climbed through several windows that day!) M and D said they did have the keys though so we could visit again the next day. After a long day and a lovely evening we went to sleep in our posh hotel room.    

Some of the properties we viewed.

 

Preparing for our first trip.

So the first thing we did was start searching the internet for properties in Bulagria. We had been told the best way to buy property was to just go out there and start speaking to locals - this way you would get the best deal. This was exactly what we would do when we had the money and time to go out there, but for now we wanted to get an idea of what you could get for your money. Of course we don't speak any Bulgarian (yet) so we were limited to UK run estate agents. We are still not sure if this is better or worse than Bulgarian run estate agents but at least we could read them. The three main sites I looked at were Rightmove, Cheap-Bulgarian-Houses and Bulgarian Properties.

 

We had decided we wanted to look in the Blagoevgrad Province as we had driven through here and thought it was absolutely stunning. It is also close to Sofia and en-route to Greece with a very good road - an excellent location for our business. But of course this is all taken into account which means that property prices were a just out of our reach. So we started looking else where. I found that there seemed to be certain locations that were cheaper (North - near the Danube, around Veliko Tarnovo, around Yambol etc) but none of these areas appealed to us. In the end we just decided to look in South Central Bulgaria and hope for the best.

 

We have a rough budget of 15000 GBP and want a house with minimum of one acre of land. From looking online we began to realise this was very reasonable.

 

Once we had saved enough money we booked a weeks holiday to Bulgaria with a hire car. We wanted just to look around and try and find an area we liked. In the end I decided to organise a few viewings through the internet so we could see what kind of state these properties were in and see how they compared in real life to the photos on the website. We organised two days with Cheap-Bulgarian-Houses and one day with Brits2Bulgaria (found via Rightmove website). After thinking more about it we decided that it would be much easier to do everything through an estate agent, if possible, as we currently have neither the time nor money to hang out in Bulgaria for months talking to mayors of villages.

 

Then suddenly it was early June already and were off to Sofia to meet with estate agents, like two real grown-ups, not really knowing what to expect. 

Welcome.

Eco Camping Batak

After our tour of Europe last year (http://mintyandpeter.blogspot.co.uk/p/our-adventure.html) Pete and I have decided to move to Bulgaria to set up a campsite. Running a campsite/B&B and living as self-sufficiently as possible is something we have both wanted to do for a long time and Bulgaria seems the perfect place to do it. We chose the country because it is green and beautiful with good beaches, awe inspiring mountains, historical towns and friendly locals. It is very rural but still has supermarkets and good roads, so we can realistically live there. As well as all this the price for property is very low, especially compared to the UK where we would never be able to live our dream.

 

I have decided to write a blog about our journey to find, buy and live in our perfect place in Bulgaria. This is mainly for us to keep a record and for friends and family to follow us, but could be helpful to someone planning to do something similar themselves. Please read..!   

Above is where our village is. Izvorovo, Chirpan. ^



And this is our 'U' of 2 acres of land. Including a house, barn and walnut orchard!