I bought a second home in Spain for $250,000 to avoid living in the US. It's half the cost of living in Manhattan.

Sitges is a beach town located on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, just 30 minutes from downtown Barcelona. Michael Steven Grant and his partner bought a second home in Sitges, a town near Barcelona, Spain. The couple still lives in the USA and can come for extended periods due to the possibility of remote work. Grant, who plans to retire in Spain, offers some advice on buying property abroad. This essay is based on a conversation with Michael Steven Grant about his decision to purchase a second property in Sitges, Spain. Grant previously worked in the nonprofit sector, focusing on fundraising, before joining VistaFutura in July, a company that helps Americans buy and maintain property in Spain. Grant declined to name his partner for professional confidentiality reasons. The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

After many years on the West Coast, I found myself back on the East Coast, in Manhattan, eight or nine years ago.

A year ago, my partner and I were thinking about where we would like to buy a second home, hoping that in the future we could retire there and live permanently. Although we have lived in California, Hawaii, and other places before, we couldn't decide on a location in the U.S. We visited Spain about five years ago and saw its three largest cities - Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, so I thought we should go back and take a look at one of them.

We decided to see what is within a 30-minute trip from Barcelona, so we could be close to a big city while also being at a beach resort.

I did some research remotely, and Sitges kept coming up. Sitges is a very European beach town just three blocks from the Mediterranean Sea. Apartments here are twice as cheap as in Manhattan, and twice as expensive.

We flew to Barcelona in September and drove to Sitges in about 30 minutes.

We were there for about two weeks, mostly on vacation, but also with the intention of looking at real estate for purchase. We checked out several places, but didn't make any offers on the spot. We had a fixed budget because we still have a place in Manhattan for which we are paying a mortgage, so we didn't want to overspend. We wanted to keep the budget below $500,000, which was about €300,000 at that time.

In our price range, there was a fairly limited list of what we could look at.

Through friends, we met a local Spanish lawyer who speaks both Spanish and English, and he turned out to be very helpful. We also opened an account at the Spanish bank Santander. This process took an entire day, and our lawyer had to be with us. It's quite a complicated task compared to opening an account in New Jersey or New York.

When we returned to New York, we mostly looked up places online.

It all depends on you as a buyer to do your research. It's like Manhattan - if you really want something, you can find it yourself. After all, everything is available, but real estate agents will try to sell what they have listed, which may not always fit your budget. We returned to Spain in March of this year and looked at about a dozen places, none of which we liked. Then we found another listing on the Idealista website.

The most beneficial thing was to have a lawyer with us who could handle all the paperwork and negotiations with the elderly woman selling the apartment.

We were probably among the first, if not the very first, to view the apartment. We wanted to buy it at the listed price, so there were no negotiations back and forth. We accepted everything as it was.

She just renovated the entire apartment. It is located on the second floor of a four-story building, with two apartments on each floor. It's very beautiful. This apartment has a view of the backyard, so you don't hear any noise from the street. The next day, our lawyer met with her, us, and our banker in a neutral office and took care of everything. We got a mortgage from the bank where we opened an account. Our lawyer helped us with that.

Some people think that it's impossible to get a mortgage by opening an account in another country. We obtained a mortgage for about half the cost of the apartment. We spent much less than our budget of $500,000 - €235,000, which at that time was just under $250,000.

We plan to keep this place for a few years, until we possibly finally move there. And then, of course, maybe we'll buy another one. We come for a few weeks every quarter, so we go there every three months.

Patience is key. There is no heating in the apartments and houses. In winter, it can be 10-15 degrees at night. In summer, we use a small air conditioner in the living room. Electric and other bills are not high. In Sitges and Barcelona, business is conducted very personally, one-on-one. Of course, some things are done electronically, such as payments and deposits, but much is done in a way that you could imagine 40 or 50 years ago. Everything must be registered with the city notary. So there are many small details that you cannot handle on your own.

For many Americans, I would say they need to be very patient. Yes, it's a different country, a different language, a different banking sector, different real estate; things won't happen as quickly as they would here.

As long as you are very patient and tell yourself, "Okay, I'll go to the bank, and it will take two or three hours," and accept that, then it will be lunch, drinks, a nap, and that might be the only thing you do that day. If you try to rush through some things, you will get frustrated.