After consulting with specialists who have been selling foreign real estate for many years, "Real Estate Digest" has conditionally identified a dozen benchmarks - checkpoints whose significance should be determined in advance. At the very least, to be mentally prepared for possible surprises.
1. Trust, but verify
It is worth thoroughly studying all the opportunities the chosen region offers, driving along the coast yourself (preferably in different seasons), sparing no time or money on gas. Because, alas, some housing sellers, like that sandpiper, praise their own swamp, sparing no dark colors to describe imaginary social and natural anomalies in neighboring cities, provinces, and even more so in competing markets of other countries. Various exaggerations are used: impoverished immigrants, a mortgage bubble about to burst, icy sea and unbearable heat, sandstorms, and other horror stories.
If you succumb to manipulation and artificially narrow your choice, you may later regret it. Behind the veil of black PR, the option that is exactly right for you may be hiding, after all, human needs are so diverse. Therefore, it is better to approach information gathering with wide-open eyes. If a company does not work with certain areas, it is unethical for them to criticize them.
2. Orientation on the Ground
One owner of a Mediterranean villa told us a parable, supposedly from the life of his neighbors. Like, a man bought a new house, but either he didn't hang a mailbox on the gate or somehow else didn't 'attach' himself to the local postal service. He lives on, and meanwhile the local tax office sends him bills to the countryside, other receipts accumulate, but they just can't find the addressee. The penalty grows, the hapless hero is called to court and they almost sell the villa at auction for a pittance...
Whether it's true or not, the moral of this scary tale is correct. The title deed is far from the only document the buyer will have to arrange before settling in. A good realtor will always guide the client as to which local authorities and companies they need to contact: electricity suppliers, telephone and insurance companies, pool and septic tank cleaners. Few clients themselves compile a list of vital points in advance. Many new residents then call home for any reason for a long time, and the responsive home seller has to advise them on how to get to the supermarket, the local Sunday market, the fish market, or IKEA. Developing routes is a matter of time. But if, for example, there is a chronically ill family member, then the availability of a specialized doctor in the local hospital should be clarified before the transaction. Agents, of course, are willing to act as a nanny for the client for some time, but their capabilities are not unlimited.
3. Don't Relax!
Our citizen needs a foreign home for rehabilitation after stress at home. In a land where ministers drive in the common traffic, where throwing a cigarette butt incurs a fine equivalent to 5-10 of our minimum wages, and streets are monitored by cameras, one naturally forgets about precautions. A sensible person indeed does not have to fear crimes that threaten life and health. But a foreigner can become a victim of petty thieves and swindlers almost everywhere. After all, their craft is pure psychology.
One experienced home seller told us how last summer, after reading an article about theft on the plane, he nevertheless became a victim of the classic flat tire trick. What can we say about those who come on vacation... Softened by the warm humid air and sincere friendliness of the locals, our compatriot easily loses vigilance. He refuses to install bars on the villa windows, forgets to turn on the alarm, saves on insurance... But even in a protected house, simple precautions should be observed: hide valuables in a safe and do not leave a wallet in plain sight. There is a known story where thieves collected a good haul from a Russian villa owner through the fence and a window covered with a wrought-iron grill. The owner's family was enjoying a siesta in the garden at the time.
Don't want to take care of security yourself, install video surveillance systems and electronic keys? In this case, you either need to choose a house in a gated guarded community (a rare commodity at sea resorts). Or invest in a less democratic country where punishment of a couple of months in prison is provided even for excessive drunkenness.
4. Who Will Help?
Finding a good housekeeper and other permanent (or hired for one-time jobs) staff can be a big problem. Let's set aside linguistic difficulties – that is a separate issue. Surprisingly, in many places it is sometimes impossible to find a person willing to simply hammer a nail for money. And a low level of economic development is by no means a guarantee of available labor. For example, the population of the Adriatic countries is quite content with renting out housing and does not strive for more. And there are no ready-for-anything guest workers there – all Serbs are in high demand. You can still find builders and finishers, but finding domestic staff, especially in the height of summer, is extremely difficult in many resorts.
To never feel like a beggar in this sense, it is worth buying a second home in a country where there will be competition for your few hundred dollars – for example, in the Dominican Republic or some Arab resort. Walking around town with a Filipino maid who dutifully carries your heavy shopping bags – you can't afford that in Europe. The ultimate freedom in this regard is housing operating on a hotel & apartments system, when you have at your disposal the entire staff provided by the formula of a good hotel.
5. Limited Choice
Satisfying interior whims can also sometimes be difficult. Although housing in most cases is rented out already finished and even with minimal furniture, regional stylistic traditions are not to everyone's taste. In addition, in young markets, developers often abuse the word "luxury". A spoiled person has to adjust it to their own standards. The assortment of local stores is often immeasurably far from that back home: only locally produced materials (marble, tile or roofing) are abundantly available, while imports are almost inaccessible. In one of the most popular countries among our compatriots, the largest ceramics store has a sales area of no more than 500 square meters. If you make a mistake with the quantity, buying additional material from the same batch is almost impossible.
Solution: choose ready-made housing of a higher class, in economically developed countries, near large cities. Or transport it yourself by truck across the border. There have been cases where citizens transported finishing materials in a train compartment across the border. Seek and you shall find.
6. "Residence registration"
It is well known that in most countries attractive for living and recreation, a residence permit is not automatically granted to property owners. Nevertheless, our buyer is ready to do anything to get an "all-terrain pass". In the case of EU countries, the motivation is even clearer – freedom of spontaneous travel. But even in other cases, a compatriot is often ready to fight for a residence permit as a fetish – "just in case". This is not always justified. Opening a pseudo-business, dealing with other formal immigration criteria only to come and relax once a year in the summer – the efficiency is too low. A busy person often has enough of a multi-entry or even an ordinary visa.
Moreover, the rules can be adapted to suit you in various ways. Drive out of the country for a day when the permitted 30-day stay expires, and return the next day (a method practiced by apartment owners in visa-free Montenegro). Or obtain a student visa from foreign language courses at a not-so-young age (for example, in Schengen Spain). Or choose other intermediate methods that are optimal for your specific life situation.
7. Public or private
A car for the owner of a foreign home is not a luxury but a necessity. Renting a car for a long term is not profitable, and taxis are an even less reasonable choice. Relying on public transport is not possible everywhere. The latter factor is critical for those who hope to move their mother-in-law and children into the new home. Not all elderly female compatriots know how to drive, and staying in a place far from the beach and shops with long walks can become not a vacation but torture.
Many active compatriots fundamentally do without a car, even if they live far from the sea: a moped or even a regular bicycle suffices. However, due to lower prices than at home, buying a car in many resorts is a pleasant purchase in itself. This is especially true in the Persian Gulf, where due to the absence of duties and taxes, the difference reaches 40%.
8. The children's question
If you mean not only seasonal use of housing during the beach period, but also consider it as a full-fledged family residence, then sooner or later the question of education will arise for the younger generation. On none of the world's resorts are our compatriots pioneers, and the field of educational services has already been "plowed" to some extent by other foreigners. First of all, the British. Thanks to them, the chances that the region has at least one international school with instruction in English are generally very high. Teaching children according to British standards at much lower costs than in Britain itself attracts many. It is worth worrying about finding a school in advance, so as not to have to drive across the entire coast later.
If you are a patriot and want to teach your child in your native language, the situation is diametrically opposite. Often, international schools with instruction in Russian appear only in places where a "critical mass" of young compatriots accumulates, and from among their parents, enthusiasts emerge who are ready to organize this business. That is: obtain a license from local authorities, rent premises, invite teachers under contract, order teaching materials and textbooks. All so that the child can alternate studies here and at home if necessary.
Alas, a foreign educational institution (unless it has the status of a school at an embassy) is not entirely complete, since it cannot issue domestic certificates – only local ones. So you can study as much as you like, but you will still have to take final exams at home.
9. A native among strangers
Citizens who avoid the neighborhood of compatriots are usually no fewer than those who passionately seek such company. At any resort, there is always the opportunity to live as a cosmopolitan: among Austrians, Poles, and Slovenes in Croatia, surrounded by Germans and Irish in Bulgaria, greeting only the Dutch and Scandinavians in Spain (in Torrevieja there is even Swedish radio). However, you never know when or where nostalgia will catch you. Even business-class passengers sometimes bring in their suitcases food packages from home for their families (herring, dill, etc., depending on the region), as well as books, crossword puzzles, music. Where there are "Russian" stores and restaurants, all this can be bought locally. For example, in Dubai there are four such establishments, and they even offer pork, which is hard to find in the region.
10. What else?
Our conditional list of worldly needs could go on, but in conclusion we will mention spiritual needs as well. The presence of a church (mosque, synagogue) is hardly a determining factor for anyone, yet it is among the desirable, especially if this denomination or faith is a minority in that country. Moreover, abroad, religious institutions often become centers of cultural life and information exchange. Where the community is large, sooner or later a temple is built with jointly collected funds. For example, in one of the elite urbanizations on the Costa Blanca coast, where a considerable share of residents are Russians, a wooden church of St. Archangel Michael was built with the efforts of lay donors. The issue of registering the parish and building an Orthodox church in Antalya is being discussed.
Of course, one can initially choose an a priori "friendly" country from a religious point of view, where there are plenty of corresponding prayer houses (e.g., Turkey, Bulgaria, or Greece). However, the religious motive when buying a home is still a rarely encountered extreme. What matters more to people is, rather, the proximity of cultures – everyday and business. And this is not always related to religion.
Olga PERSIKOVA.
Real Estate Digest