Take me home … well, let’s find one anyway ;) .

Ronan, you need to see this property. It is absolutely gorgeous. Ah yes, Karen, That’s Laura Lanty’s mum’s house .

That is a fairly typical conversation start in our home as of late.  I attempt to navigate the local Irish estate agents websites, they don’t seem to have one central one like in the states, and harass him with real estate links to the homes that I think are nice.  During this process I have determined that my husband knows who owns every home in County Donegal.  He either was friends with the ones, went to school with, or it is actually a family member’s home.

That he knows the property owners, or his mum or dad knows them, is not a bad thing. To be honest it is to our benefit that we are known, or at least that our people are known, when we go to rent and then eventually buy a home.  We will be renting a home for the first several months that we are living in Ireland. This will give us a chance to save money post international move for a down payment.  It will also give us time to decide what exactly we are looking for in a home when we are ready to purchase.

His mum, Ann,  currently is putting the word out that we will be moving home in 20 odd weeks and that we are looking for a place to rent.   Especially for rentals in our (soon to be)  area, word of mouth is much more accurate and helpful than any website that I can find. I have to add, bless our mum, she is putting a lot of leg work in for us as we can not physically be there to look at the homes.  I am looking forward to video chats and pictures forthcoming from herself.

Twenty weeks ahead of time may seem a bit daft to already be looking at real estate, but I am trying to get a head start on securing a home.  For one thing, where we rest our feet will determine to which primary school our Molly-Ann goes.  Secondary school is set for our Malachy, but the primary school is a bit more determined by general area.  I don’t fancy the idea of starting Molly in one school while we are staying in dad’s home and then having to change if we find a home out of her school’s area. 

The other reason for starting the search now, if I am being honest with you and myself, I am one that likes to know what is what.  I want to be able to say “right. State Side friends we are going to live here.  Oh, you want to see pictures? Here you go. 🙂 ”  It helps me feel more settled in this unsettling, but happy and exciting, time to have an address to put in if I pledge to a http://www.kickstarter.com campaign or, more importantly, so I can start to make  “don’t forget me” cards for my friends with our new contact information.

For anyone who is planning an international move, it is in their interest to research the area schools and neighborhoods, see how the real estate market works, and most importantly look into what are the banking requirements to obtain a mortgage. In our preliminary research it seems that the banks are not concerned with what we have had in the States. Their concern is that we have resided in Ireland for a minimum of 6 months and in that time had a good debt payment history, the exact time frame is dependent on the bank.  On my to do list is to contact the banks again soon as mortgage regulations have changed quite recently in Ireland.  Minimizing any financial surprises would only be a benefit to my family.

Yes, there are a lot of headaches, paperwork, and financial hoops to go through for this move, but I am remaining joyful.  For goodness sakes, I am going to be living in Donegal, Ireland in just a few months!  Bonus for me is that I love looking at real estate, albeit via the web for now, it is one of my happy chores.  In this process I am determined that I will find at least one home that my Ronan does not know the complete lineage of. 🙂

Ireland and Donegal forever!