Stacey and Marc's Excellent Adventure

We meet Tania and Anna from IAD at the first property, a 3br on the Rua 5 Octoburo a major avenue just two blocks outside the old City center of Faro. It is a nice but older remodeled property on an upper floor of an apartment building. We saw it online, now in person. Price good, sorta view, great location. There was a link, but I think it might have sold. The second apartment was right around the corner from the first, even closer to the supermarket and central market if Faro. A small 4 flat building, top floor, brand new 3br: https://www.iadportugal.pt/anuncio/apartamento-venda-7-divisoes-faro-se-e-sao-pedro-206m2/r13713?_locale=pt Great kitchen layout. Garage storage, home automation, fancy tilting vent/slider doors to the balcony, great A+ energy rating. But no views. Then we saw an apartment North of town near the University. It would be good to rent but we didn't like the layout. Prices in the 350-370K Euro price range. Add about 8% for costs...

After meeting with the nice lawyer we met with one of the realtors, Peter of Algarve Holiday Lets. He is just down the street and works with Paula-the-nicest-lawyer a lot. Peter and Paula are advocates of Western Algarve, and suggest the Portimao area. Peter also thinks we'll find more English ex-pats and activities than in Faro.  We decide to visit Portimao the next day, after we meet with the banker. We had a good meeting with Peter, and he says he'll arrange property meetings for the next week when we are back West staying in Lagos. Faro is about a 50 minute drive down the autostrada from Lagos/Carvoeiro - but he's a Brit and I figure it is a looong distance by his standards. Portugal is a lot narrower than California. Meanwhile, back East, we are texting with Tania from IAD, a large Real Estate company that advertised on Portugal Property Guides. She has flats lined up in Faro and Tavira for Thursday. This gives us a day off. Yay, vacation. In Portugal, at lea...

In preparing fo the trip we got our Portuguese tax id (NIF) numbers via our (nicest) lawyer (ever), Dra. Paula Miereles. You can't do anything in Portugal without the NIF number. She also recommended a banker with Bankinter. We were able to find out what documentation we needed, as 'muricans, to open a bank account. While we couldn't open the account over the internet, we were able to provide all the documentation via email. Our tax peparer in the US will be happy. One more IRS form. We'll find out how big red audit flag an oveseas account flag is to the IRS! (We had to give Bankinter a W9 and confidentiality waiver permission to share with the IRS). Unlike the US,  you can open an account without funding it.  We have accounts, debit/credit cards, online banking, all that stuff. And a 5% interest rate the first year which will help with currency conversion, a little. One last thing. We visited Paula-the-nicest-lawyer the first business day in person and signed...

The Algarve, I mean. Doing our research, we first read about the "big" city (pop 120000) Faro, the capital of the Algarve. So we went there first by train from Lisbon. We really liked Faro. It is a coastal city with all sorts of goods and services, a major regional airport, and, for us, a good vibe.  It is in Eastern Algarve. We liked the old town, the Centro pedestrian shopping area, the Marina. There were Summer concerts in the park near the Marina. Great  restaurants, people are super friendly and largely multilingual. It is safe. And affordable. Big mall, IKEA, lots of optometrists (seriously) and hair stylists and barbers (equally serious). Hospitals, doctors, major services. Check. Note medicine is about 50% cheaper than the USA - but where isn't? On the train from Lisbon, there is a junction between the national rail and the regional rail. The train emptied with the announcement for the connection to Lagos, in Western Algarve. Hmmmm. And, friends liked Ca...

On our first trip we met with Dra. Paula Mierles, of Carvoeiro Advogados. We got her info via  Rightmove.  She specializes in property acquisition and immigration for ex-pats. Mainly Brits. She took time to outline the processes at her office one afternoon: Acquiring property is no different than E. Coast US, where lawyers get involved (as opposed to CA where it is real estate agent and title company). It might take a few months but at the end you own a freehold outright. You can combine multiple properties (say, a primary residence and a rental) to reach the 500K Euro needed for the Golden Visa. Property taxes in Portugal are an order of magnitude lower than California, a big consideration on a fixed retirement budget. Then once you start buying, there is a year to complete and reach the total for a Golden Visa application. The minimum residence to maintain the application is only 2 weeks per year. Doable! No language requirements! Lawyer Paula can do everything with...

We decided to visit Lisbon and Faro for part of a vacation to Portugal and Spain a couple of years ago, to scope it out. It was lovely! Nice small city feel. And, English was not a problem. First world services, good roads, food, services. And everything - except cars and gasoline - is cheaper. Waaaay cheaper than the Bay Area. We even met with a local lawyer to learn about owning property and the Golden Visa Program. Funny story. The lawyer got serious for a moment and said, "Just so you know, you do have up to a 2500Euro per year property tax to think about". We burst out laughing. We also visited Lagos, a major tourist destination in the Western Algarve. It is nice, too, and maybe even livlier. Retiring to The Algarve became a plan "A". We decided to keep an eye on things - prices, property values. Faro, Lagos and/or Carvoeiro. Villamoura was far too planned a development for our taste. Sort of reminded me of Foster City. We did a lot of research ...

Stacey and I are embarking on an adventure to look for retirement property in The Algarve, Southern Portugal. This blog will capture that journey. The first question you readers may have is Why Portugal? Let's get one thing out of the way early on. This isn't politically motivated. Well, not entirely. No, I don't like Trump and I am liberal, but this notion of retiring abroad started long before 2016. Stacey and I love to travel. Silicon Valley is a damned expensive place to retire. Portugal offers a reasonably low buy-in for permanent residency and foreigners can own property outright. The weather in Southern Portugal is similar to the San Francisco Bay Area. Portuguese is a difficult language, but English didn't seem to be a problem. The Euro is very low right now. And yes, the politics in the US right now kinda creeps us out. THE List Years ago, we sat down and thought, "Damn, It's getting really expensive here", which led to th...