[size=55:1n9q2z4r]Sofia echo 17 September 2010


Bulgarian issues

I have been married to a Bulgarian for almost eight years. I love the country and the people and cannot wait to live there permanently. My eldest stepson lives in my wife's apartment in Plovdiv and we have bought a country property with seven bedrooms a short distance away, and we are currently renovating, using local labour so that when we can eventually move there, it will be ready.

Brits should realise that it is more of a lifestyle than a get-rich-quick destination, embrace it and it is far more satisfying than almost anything the UK has to offer.
Peter

I have bought and dealt directly with builders and professionals (maestros) and I have had no major problems, of course there have been some but I would have had those in the UK as well. My advice to anyone considering work being carried out (by Bulgarians or Brits) is to be on site while it happens.

As for difficulties in living in a foreign country and getting to grips with the culture, of course there are difficulties, there will always be wherever it is, so Bulgaria is not out of the ordinary. Anyone coming here or indeed anywhere in the world would be plain stupid to think it would be otherwise. I have found my time here stimulating, challenging and exciting, the people are great, so is the country, I certainly consider Bulgaria as "
home"
.
David

Not only WILL Britons return to Bulgaria, in my area of Bulgaria, they already are, and new arrivals are here too who haven't been here before.
Inexperienced people were seduced in the past by media spin and kidded themselves that Bulgaria was an opportunity to get-rich-quick, and in the main they are the ones who have abandoned property here, never to return.

Most of the happy people I have met who have either holiday or permanent homes here did their homework before buying. They didn't come for a quick buck, which is just as well as there is more vacant property here than people to buy it.

But the under-population and wide open spaces are JUST what appeals to this new wave currently arriving, so every cloud has a silver lining.

And if the sales are of small priced rural houses, so much the better. There's not enough profit in that to attract the sharks and the bloodsuckers, so there's hope of avoiding a re-run of the boom in the past where it was every man for himself and the "
I'll have six"
mentality.

My dad (a successful property buyer and seller) always said that as an individual, you should never buy an investment property unless you would want to live in it yourself. Wise words.

If YOU don't like the village your houses are in, or leave the properties run down and crappy looking, why should anyone else be interested in them? People should remember to pack their brains as well as their bucks when they buy overseas. If it looks too good to be true - it probably is.

Very well said,

Great post and excellent advice and all so very true if more people had read this then I believe there would have been a lot less heart ache for some of the people who have bought to try and make a quick buck.

Yes this is very good advice and if only some of the past buyers could turn the clock back I'm sure they would