At last…

So, yes, it’s finally happened. I’ve finally managed to sell my house in Olhão. And I have to tell you, that’s a big relief: no more additional bills, no more worry about tenants, and most important of all, money in the bank. Phew! I have to be honest, I was getting a bit short in that department.

Anyway, the whole process went as follows:

Firstly, I accepted the offer made. Actually, I didn’t accept the offer made, since it was disappointingly low. No, I haggled a bit.

I had my own valuation in my head, and their valuation was €40k lower. Mmmm… Whether my valuation was right or not, I still don’t know, but several people have told me that if it wasn’t, it wasn’t far off. So yes, I haggled and managed to get another few thousand out of the buyer. Presumably, he’d factored this in when making his offer, but there wasn’t a lot I could do about it. I needed to sell, and he wanted to buy, and the price they paid was as far as they were willing to go. C’est la vie, I suppose.

Next step was the signing of the promissory note.

I like this aspect of the house sale process in Portugal. The buyer pays a deposit of 10%, and we both sign a document agreeing the sale, the price and anything else pertinent to the purchase. The only thing I didn’t like were the requests made: check the plumbing, have the place professionally cleaned, leave the ladder, leave the plants, leave the washing machine, leave the fridge freezer, remove everything else… you get the gist. Oh well, anything to keep the peace. After a bit more toing and froing (the ladder wasn’t mine, so they couldn’t have that), we agreed the content of the promissory note, met in Faro with the buyer’s lawyer and my estate agent, and signed the document. If the buyer pulled out now, I would keep the deposit. If I pulled out, I’d have to return the deposit and pay the buy 10% of the agreed fee.

We were on our way.

So then, all I had to do was fulfil the various requests. Bloody hell. What do you do with furniture? Sell it? Take it to the tip? To be honest, selling it was off the table. I only had a couple of weeks before completing the sale of the house, and my previous experience of trying to sell anything online had not been a pleasant one. So, take it to the tip? But I’d have to hire a van to do that, and I really didn’t want to spend anymore money. Then Chantal mentioned that she thought that PAWS, a dog charity might well help out. She gave me their number and I contacted them. They agreed to pick my furniture up (and some clothes that I also threw in) and we set a date for collection. It all went smoothly, and they took everything that we’d agreed, leaving the appliances (yes, I agreed to sell those as part of the house – after all, what would I do with them?), and a few pieces of furniture belonging to my mate, who’d recently been living there. He collected those with a friend, and so the house was clear.

All that was left was organising a plumber and a professional cleaner. Here the estate agent (Henrique from EXP Ria Properties) was excellent. He organised both for me, which was great since I had no idea where to start.

The plumber was requested because the buyer had demanded a survey and the surveyor had stated that the kitchen sink was slow to drain. €70 later, the plumber stated that there was nothing wrong with the plumbing. Bloody hell.

Then came the one that really hurt. The cleaner that Henrique normally uses was unavailable, so he went with another cleaner who stated that the clean needed three people for two days. Eh? Six man-days to clean a two-bedroom house?! But I couldn’t argue. I needed it done and time was running out. So, €500 later (I’m not sure that six actually divides into five hundred…) all my commitments were sorted – and completion was fast approaching.

Completion day arrived and we met at the Notario in Olhão. The buyer couldn’t be there, but he’d given his lawyer power of attorney. So, there I was with three Portuguese gentlemen, the notary, the buyer’s lawyer and Henrique.

The deed of sale was read in both Portuguese and English. We then signed it and the cheque for 90% of the sale price was presented to me, along with a copy of what I suppose we’d call a bill of sale. That’s quite a weird feeling, I can tell you. That cheque was in my hand and if I lost it, the sale of my house would result in me receiving zilch, nada, nothing. Blimey, that’s pressure, I can tell you! I put it into my wallet and sunk my wallet firmly into my pocket – and that was that. I no longer had a house in Olhão, but I now had a large cheque. And soon I didn’t have that either – I went straight to the bank and deposited it.

And that’s the story of me (eventually) selling my house. It’s taken a while, but I got there in the end! And now I can sit back and enjoy life, for a while at least…