Mistakes expats make in Bulgaria

Paying for work up front when confronted by a sob story...'Baby needs medication, so if you lend me 50 leva I'll work it off'
Soft hearted as we are we have found out virtually every time that work paid for in advance seldom seems to get done to the same standard as work paid for on completion!

It is like this all around the world so not a typical mistake for Bulgaria

Hi everyone,

Just to inform you that some inappropriate posts have been removed from this thread.

Thanks,

Priscilla 

Priscilla has asked about Bulgaria & not the World

I was too impulsive in buying,i did,nt take my time in viewing different areas of BG,so in hindsight I would take 1 month viewing & also rent a place prior to viewing,,Also be very careful on trusting people on face value,,it takes time to get to know people,,,locals & expats,,,,,so in hindsight learned a lot of wisdom & so happy I Stayed ☺☺☺

eddieg wrote:

Priscilla has asked about Bulgaria & not the World

The comment was in relation to other comments that have been deleted.

In short, when renovating our house we got carried away and made it too big! It was a bungalow which we added another floor to for extra space.  Later we turned an unconnected part into a guest annex too. Don't get me wrong, I do love our house, but if we were to do it all again, we would keep it small. The reason for this is,it's easier and less expensive to heat during the winter, and this last winter was particularly harsh. We seemed to build the house around what we thought would be nice for our visiting families, when in reality they are only here for one or two weeks at a time, and we live here permanently. Now, we need even less room as our son has moved back to the uk! All is not lost, we remodelled his bedroom into a new dining area and created a second lounge downstairs, and now we have the option of shutting the upstairs off if we get another bad winter, and heating it like a bungalow 😊.
Also, our roof has been done the English way, breathable membrane and then reused the old tiles- however, there are three types of these tiles, they don't all sit flush, and the birds think it's sheer heaven and have created many nests and much mess! Plus piercing the membrane, which gives way to rodents etc making their way into the loft space! Which in turn attracts Pole cats.... the list goes on- so, we are left with the notion of redoing the membrane with new tiles that sit nicely together or to do it the Bulgarian way, and board it out?
There's probably other mistakes made & learnt from, but this is our biggest.

Hi all - Blind bid Won Bulgarian 3 bed house on ebay in 2012. At that time for the winning bid price, in England, I could not have bought the bricks to build said house. Then I flu out to do paper work and view property for first time. I was gobsmacked to see what I had won for so little. 3 bed house in half acre of land with 3 semi detached outbuildings bigger then the 3 bed house. The estate agent, Georgei did every thing in the price, no hidden extras - I am facebook friends with Gerorgei. I am just out from VT. Good neighbors all round, never looked back.

Well,

Expat mistakes has tuned out to be an interesting topic here. Can you please sort of split things into categories, up to your understandig ofcourse, e.g.:

* House buying mistakes
* Travel mistakes
* Job related mistakes
* Food topics
* Marriage mistakes
* Any other subfolder ...

Could be useful to have this put together.

Never, ever pay anything in advance here, and never listen to sob stories about 'sick babies'. Instead, hand the folks some baby aspirin. Yes never pay in advance anywhere in the world, but here people will tell you anything.

Wise words- we found Tutrakan after buying in pretty but impoverished dump village. Fortunately not an expensive mistake as we were able to sell it, but it could well have been otherwise.

In keeping with other 'mistakes' listed here, I believe most people do not do enough shopping around before they decide on the 'where'. And I am constantly mystified by people who go right to nondescript areas near VT simply because there are a lot of other Brits there- who needs them? . The Danube region is totally overlooked (even by Bulgarians) simply because during communism it was a no-go area  due probably to the prison camps on the islands. Vratsa is also superb, as is the area around Belogradchik, and I could name many more.

Secondly, always get to know your neighbors as well as possible before making a decision. They can make your life sublime, or a living hell.