Your first days in your home in Hungary

We found our flat oursevles through a newspaper add.

We had used a few agents but they kept showing us proeprties that they wanted to move not what we wanted.

They tried to dump their no movers our way, not sure why, we were paying cash.

They kept showing us ground floor flats when we told them we were not interested at all.

Or flats with no view except the side of another building or the yard.

At the time though there was not allot of flats on sale for what cash we had on hand.

We were not interested in a bank loan and making payments.

We just wanted to invest our money without thinking we'd live here long term.

It was just a vacation property for us at the time.

We wanted a flat because we thought it would be more secure when it was left empty then a house would be.

It was not our dream place but it was paid off fully, had widows to the st. had an extra room and wasn't ground floor and was close to transportation and shops the building was built strong enough as well. It was pretty much middle class even if not in the most fashionable area. It also was a size that would later attract a buyer. Not too large and not too small.

We also were able to move in within 2 months after the sellers were able to get out. A month would of been ideal but we were flexible with the move in date within reason.

Can't be too picky when one buys a place over 100 years old.

I bought my cottage in the woods because I wanted an away from it all holiday home. I had started looking at Park homes in Ingoldmells uk but traveling and holidays in Europe gave me the idea that I could buy a country cottage with a huge garden for far less.

I had a Dutch agent and he found the right place for me. I particularly needed somewhere only an hours journey to the airport so I could fly to the UK easily and get to work.

A Hungarian friend looked after the place for me between Holidays.

A year or two later in 2012 I had an opportunity to stop working and I had also got to know Budapest better so I asked the same agent to check out prices in Budapest etc.

I am a city person at heart and in the UK I lived near the New Forest but had the best of both worlds town and countryside.

  I bought a large apartment for a very reasonable price. Unlike the silly prices of 2023 for tiny studios.

I need space for art materials and junk and having the apartment is cheaper than paying for storage in the UK.

I think its always been a problem getting the right people to help with renovations and gardening work in Hungary and that can be a drawback.

So I suppose getting good at do it yourself  has been a learning curve.

I'm also very fortunate that my partner can turn his hand to most things.

We've lived in an apartment in District III and also here in this village on the outskirts of Budapest.  As we have two kids at home we had to get somewhere bigger with a garden so we bought a house. We found it via a local agent (now deceased). She had her ear to the ground and our house was only about 200m from her house. She knew the family and what was going on in her immediate neighbourhood.

It was in dire need of renovation. Just for extra spookiness, supposedly the previous owner died in the house and in the very room I'm sitting in. We sometimes think weird things happen here but we all know it's unlikely. It's become a bit of an "in" joke that the previous owner is moving stuff around and he's to blame for misplaced things.

We completely rebuilt it. We only kept about 50% of the walls. It took about 2 years to rebuild the house. Some years later, we've only just got around to doing the garden landscaping, building walls, driveway, replacing all outside drains etc. That's been going on about 6 months. I'm pretty handy and can do quite a lot of things especially wiring/electrical work. But sometimes you need more people on the job and to get some trades in to push it along. Hopefully it'll be finished by the end of June and the garden will be usable instead of a mud bath.