Our Spanish Dream - Part 12: Found at Last

With the house near former work colleagues still in our mind we started the final day of this search.  We had come over to Spain for a two week holiday, planning to spend it in the house we had lost, so instead had stayed near Mum and Dad in Moraira.  We had left our teenagers in their care while we went house hunting so did need to go back to rescue my parents soon.

Our poor estate agent had not had an easy ride with us.  He said there was a property that had literally just become available, it was 9 years old, had been bought off-plan by a gentleman who had intended to retire there after working for years in the far east and only visited briefly twice a year, until three years ago when he’d become ill and had died the previous year.  His daughter had no interest in the property and was selling it ‘as seen’ – she had visited once to take personal effects and that was all.

We parked on the road and walked to the end of the private driveway. The gated pool garden was at the end and the house right next to it, slightly raised up.  It was the best view we had ever seen of a communal pool from the terrace.  It was the largest house we had viewed.  Three large double bedrooms, two bathrooms, large lounge, solarium with sea views, under a mile from the beach and less than 10 minutes walk to the shops.

Inside it was dusty, unloved and neglected.  We barely spoke to each other as we walked around.  Usually I made notes about the properties and then we made our final score out of ten based on those notes.  My piece of paper said just three words – ‘needs a clean’!  Our hearts had been stolen.

As always there was a catch, it was way over budget!  We already had our finances arranged so we made the maximum offer we could, a price the agent didn’t think would be accepted.  So we left it with him and headed back to Moraira for the second week of our holiday, determined to enjoy it whatever happened.

Dave and Bev Townsend have two homes, their main one in Norwich and a second home in Playa Flamenca in south Costa Blanca, Spain which they also let as a holiday rental www.house-by-the-pool.com   They run a property finding business offering a free service for those seeking to buy a property in the Costa Blanca (Alicante) or the Mar Menor area of the Costa Calida (Murcia) www.SpanishDreamProperty.com   Bev has family in Spain and they intend to move there full-time in a couple of years.