Expat Exchange Community
9 years ago
Being Prepared Pays Off
9 years ago
I recently decided that I wanted to seriously consider living In Ecuador. I speak Spanish, had traveled in Latin America since I was a kid and knew that I wanted to finally get to South America as I had friends there.
Having spent so much time in Mexico when I was young and having lived overseas for over ten years, I was fully aware of what culture shock could do to a person who hadn't done their homework. However, as I had taught Cross-Cultural Awareness and Social Studies in my teaching career abroad, I felt pretty prepared for my journey - and I mean that in two ways. I honestly thought I would fall in love with Ecuador, and I did! However, I also remembered my first three months in South Korea during which time it took a good friend calling me daily to keep me there -- and, I'm glad she did. I stayed over six years and made some lifelong friends in the process. But I knew that if I felt anything even close to my South Korean experience, I wasn't willing to go through that again.
I knew I wanted a small house and great weather in an environment that was quiet and tranquil. I did a lot of research before I left and figured that Vilcabamba would be a good possibility. I also began to look for real estate sites in both Spanish and English. I found a site in Vilcabamba that was run by a fellow who talked about his family's history in the area and mentioned who his father was. I felt like anyone who would post something like that in their own hometown would probably be a good bet, so went through his site. After looking at many huge plots of land with houses, I found a house that - well, it just seemed exactly what I wanted. I contacted the agent and made plans to meet him in Vilcabamba when I arrived.
We went the first day to see the house I'd seen on the Net - and I was smitten - but I also insisted that I look at several more comparable houses to get an idea of the market.
After seeing the other houses, I knew the house I saw online was "the one." It was a small adobe next to a church in a quiet barrio about ten minutes from Vilcabamaba. It had been gutted and then completely redone to meet western standards. The first thing I noticed, beyond the evident charm of the house, was that there were electrical outlets on every wall. I knew it had been remodeled right!
It had two bedrooms, a living room, a good-sized kitchen.
, a beautiful bathroom and two bedrooms. The small yard was completely fenced and was filled with both flowers as well as papaya, mango, mandarin, banana, orange and plum trees. There was also a small bodega that had electricity and the plumbing but needed to be finished off by enclosing one wall. I got two estimates and figured it would be doable.
Also, while I was in VIlcabamaba, I did more research and found that most houses being sold were running in the $50/sq ft range. At the asking price, the casita fell exactly in that range. As well, the seller had just dropped the price by $5000. I made an offer and went though an evening of negotiations - and I got my house and the final price was less that the going average of $50/sq ft.
I do think my confidence to make a decision on my first trip came from my ability to speak Spanish. When it was time to find lawyer, I first spoke with an English-speaking lawyer from Vilcabamba. I realized, after we had talked, that he reminded me of a lot of other lawyers I'd met in my life -and that was not a good thing! So, my agent suggested I go with a lawyer whom he knew but who didn't speak Spanish - and I followed through with his suggestion - and I was extremely happy I did. He was a kind individual who, while not bilingual, did have a bilingual daughter who was following the family legal tradition. We managed to go through every thing in Spanish, and when there were terms with which I was not familiar, she did a great job of helping me to better understand the terms. Also,when we had finished the contract and I had assigned my Power of Attorney to the friend of a friend I had in Vilcabamba, the fees ran about $1000 less that they would have if I'd stayed with the English-speaking lawyer!
Another thing that was really great about my experience is that I was able to speak directly with the owner through the the entire experience - from my first visit to the house, to getting together for lunch and then to all of us heading to Loja for the paperwork. I LOVED going through the experience with dealing with the owner directly. It just seemed so much less worrisome to be able to ask a question of the person selling the house rather than having the agent be the go between.
I have returned to the US and am now getting things in order to return in the fall. Would I suggest anyone else do the same thing I did? Probably not unless they had a great familiarity with living overseas, spoke the language and had a lot of miles of travel under their belt.
So, I think the moral of this tail is that looking online and finding you "dream home" is possible - but ONLY if you have both the experience and the knowledge of the local language - oh, and a LOT of luck, too!
Thanks for reading my story!
Having spent so much time in Mexico when I was young and having lived overseas for over ten years, I was fully aware of what culture shock could do to a person who hadn't done their homework. However, as I had taught Cross-Cultural Awareness and Social Studies in my teaching career abroad, I felt pretty prepared for my journey - and I mean that in two ways. I honestly thought I would fall in love with Ecuador, and I did! However, I also remembered my first three months in South Korea during which time it took a good friend calling me daily to keep me there -- and, I'm glad she did. I stayed over six years and made some lifelong friends in the process. But I knew that if I felt anything even close to my South Korean experience, I wasn't willing to go through that again.
I knew I wanted a small house and great weather in an environment that was quiet and tranquil. I did a lot of research before I left and figured that Vilcabamba would be a good possibility. I also began to look for real estate sites in both Spanish and English. I found a site in Vilcabamba that was run by a fellow who talked about his family's history in the area and mentioned who his father was. I felt like anyone who would post something like that in their own hometown would probably be a good bet, so went through his site. After looking at many huge plots of land with houses, I found a house that - well, it just seemed exactly what I wanted. I contacted the agent and made plans to meet him in Vilcabamba when I arrived.
We went the first day to see the house I'd seen on the Net - and I was smitten - but I also insisted that I look at several more comparable houses to get an idea of the market.
After seeing the other houses, I knew the house I saw online was "the one." It was a small adobe next to a church in a quiet barrio about ten minutes from Vilcabamaba. It had been gutted and then completely redone to meet western standards. The first thing I noticed, beyond the evident charm of the house, was that there were electrical outlets on every wall. I knew it had been remodeled right!
It had two bedrooms, a living room, a good-sized kitchen.
, a beautiful bathroom and two bedrooms. The small yard was completely fenced and was filled with both flowers as well as papaya, mango, mandarin, banana, orange and plum trees. There was also a small bodega that had electricity and the plumbing but needed to be finished off by enclosing one wall. I got two estimates and figured it would be doable.
Also, while I was in VIlcabamaba, I did more research and found that most houses being sold were running in the $50/sq ft range. At the asking price, the casita fell exactly in that range. As well, the seller had just dropped the price by $5000. I made an offer and went though an evening of negotiations - and I got my house and the final price was less that the going average of $50/sq ft.
I do think my confidence to make a decision on my first trip came from my ability to speak Spanish. When it was time to find lawyer, I first spoke with an English-speaking lawyer from Vilcabamba. I realized, after we had talked, that he reminded me of a lot of other lawyers I'd met in my life -and that was not a good thing! So, my agent suggested I go with a lawyer whom he knew but who didn't speak Spanish - and I followed through with his suggestion - and I was extremely happy I did. He was a kind individual who, while not bilingual, did have a bilingual daughter who was following the family legal tradition. We managed to go through every thing in Spanish, and when there were terms with which I was not familiar, she did a great job of helping me to better understand the terms. Also,when we had finished the contract and I had assigned my Power of Attorney to the friend of a friend I had in Vilcabamba, the fees ran about $1000 less that they would have if I'd stayed with the English-speaking lawyer!
Another thing that was really great about my experience is that I was able to speak directly with the owner through the the entire experience - from my first visit to the house, to getting together for lunch and then to all of us heading to Loja for the paperwork. I LOVED going through the experience with dealing with the owner directly. It just seemed so much less worrisome to be able to ask a question of the person selling the house rather than having the agent be the go between.
I have returned to the US and am now getting things in order to return in the fall. Would I suggest anyone else do the same thing I did? Probably not unless they had a great familiarity with living overseas, spoke the language and had a lot of miles of travel under their belt.
So, I think the moral of this tail is that looking online and finding you "dream home" is possible - but ONLY if you have both the experience and the knowledge of the local language - oh, and a LOT of luck, too!
Thanks for reading my story!
