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Once home, we had a good a good talk about our weekend. We had a really good time and had got on well with both Dan and Russell. They had looked after us well and had shown us a full spectrum of places and properties as we had asked. We were very happy with San Juan as a place to live and we were happy with the house we had reserved. Being home didn’t change our minds on any of the decisions we had made. Dan e-mailed a schedule of payments due on the house so that I could sort out our finances and I asked him to recommend a Spanish solicitor we could use.

If you read a lot of the forums about buying property overseas, a lot will recommend that you find your own solicitor through recommendations and don’t use any that your agent may recommend. Well, having worked in Estate Agency for over 20 years, I have to say my views are different. If you are comfortable with your agent, and the advice they have given you, why would they recommend a solicitor that is no good? It’s in their interest to get the transaction through and to keep you, the client happy. Providing you are not being charged fees over the norm, I’m happy to take an agents recommendation. Dan put me in touch with a local English speaking solicitor and the contract for the house was sent through to them with a copy to ourselves in Spanish with an English translation of the main parts. I spoke with the solicitors’ assistant who had a perfectly good conversation with me in English. Things were moving forward.

We now needed to make a list of other areas to consider in organising our move to Spain – I could see several more nights on the internet ahead.