* Read the first part here: How to buy an apartment to reform in the middle of a pandemic and not collapse in the attempt (I)
If since you became independent you have lived in rent, as was our case, the opening commissions, the search for the best interest or the binding products in mortgages should sound like Chinese. This was our case. But this time, if we wanted to buy our first floor, we had no choice but to roll up our sleeves, go down into the mud and start listening to everything the banks could offer us. Thus, dear readers, it was how we became masters of finance and mortgages. Well, I may have come a little up, but we did understand everything much better and we began to speak their language a little better.
If you allow me, and without serving as a precedent, I will make a recommendation from the deepest sincerity: if you have no idea how to get a mortgage or which doors to knock on first, let us advise you. What we did was call our lifelong bank, but obviously we did not stay there. We search and search until we find the best deal. And the best we could do was put ourselves in the hands of an advisor (I chose idealist / mortgages for more than obvious reasons and the result was more than excellent).
Once we chose a bank to marry (allow me a joke from time to time…) the paperwork began. Fill out forms, sign online documents, the appraisal of the flat, payroll, employment contracts … it is true that for a moment you think that they will end up asking you for a blood test and a lock of hair, but everything has an explanation and there comes a time when that you get THE MAIL: “We have reviewed all the documentation and we grant you the mortgage.” That moment, friends, is priceless.
With the mortgage under his arm and everything well studied, it was time to inform the owners that we could now sign. But I already told you that in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, none of this was going to be easy, right? Well, the owners of the apartment lived in the north of Spain, so they had to come to my city to sign. To this must be added that they were people in the risk group and that there were mobility restrictions, so their predisposition had to be more than high.
We agree on a date and reserve a time at the notary. They told us that they had no problem, but one, who is a bit dramatic and always sees the negative side of things (you will understand a little more my obsessive-compulsive character in Chapter III, in which I will talk about the works) I thought that they weren’t going to show up.
Well, if this whole process has taught me something, it is that I must trust people a little more, and that if something has to go wrong, it will go wrong. But that, if it has to go well, it will go well.
At the company
It was November 30, and that day we both woke up with a smile from ear to ear. We were going to become owners! We got ready and went to the notary. I didn’t eat breakfast, I had a shrunken stomach (really, I’m a very excessively long-suffering person). We meet at 9.30 at the door.
It was 9.45am and no one had shown up. They told us they were coming by car, but we didn’t want to call them so as not to be impatient. 10. I was getting sick. 10.15, and nobody came. We call them.
-Carmen? Hello, look, we are at the notary’s door and we have been waiting for almost an hour … we have worried because you did not arrive and we called you to see if everything was going well …
Total, Carmen and Pedro, two charming old Galicians, were in the cafeteria next to the notary having a coffee with milk with churros. They thought that we had met at 9:30 and, since they had not been in the neighborhood for more than 15 years, they had gone to their favorite bar for breakfast because “who knows when we can return, son.”
We received them at the door (holding the safe distance like champions, since they were two people who gave off an aura of unsurpassed tenderness) and we entered the notary. First we sign the mortgage, and then the sale of the apartment. They gave us the keys and told us that we wish we were as happy as they were in their day on the floor. And I, who am also a bit sensitive, my eyes clouded a bit … they didn’t just sell us a flat. They also sold us part of their history and their happiness. The truth is that it was a moment that we will always remember.
Once we left the notary, we said goodbye, we gave each other our phones and told them that as soon as the works were finished, we would send them photos by WhatsApp so they could see how it had turned out. They asked us for the address of where we were living now, and we gave it to them no questions asked. The following week, we had a box with a lot of sausages from the slaughter they made in the town and four sirloins. What I have told you, an endearing couple.
Next week I will tell you how the process of making a comprehensive reform has been. If everything goes as it should, I will write to you from our new home. Do you think we will succeed? Wish us luck and send us all the positive energy you can for this weekend… we are going to need it!
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