After moving to Spain from California, I bought 2 properties for less than $370,000. The process turned out to be surprisingly easier than buying a house in Oakland.

This essay, created in the form of a narrative, is based on a conversation with Mei Leong, a 62-year-old semi-retiree, professional career consultant, business consultant, and fundraiser for a nonprofit organization, who moved from Oakland to Valencia, Spain. It has been edited for brevity and clarity.

My husband is originally from Limerick, Ireland, but we spent the first 35 years together in the USA. Since we lived in the USA all that time, it only felt fair to spend our later years in Europe and explore the many countries on this continent. In January 2023, we moved from Oakland, California, to Valencia, Spain.

We wanted to retire in a warm place, in a city by the water, so we considered Lisbon, but due to its hilly terrain, we looked to another part of Europe. Valencia, Spain, seemed to us like a place with a low cost of living, and over the course of a year, we purchased two properties there - completely in cash. We paid $170,000 for one property and $200,000 for the other. Additionally, we paid property taxes that were not included in the sale price.

We have a mortgage of $3,000 in the USA, but we are considering the possibility of permanently living in Valencia. We are living the American dream in Spain - we own our home free and clear.

We are likely going to sell our property in the USA. We are renting it out, but we will probably sell it since paying it off will take decades. My husband is a former sailing captain, and I am semi-retired. When we bought our house in California in 2016, we almost participated in a bidding war for every property we were interested in. We didn't want to get involved in that, so we bought a new house in Oakland for $520,000 - it was the only place we could afford.

Our property in the USA is a 1,475 square foot house with 2.5 bathrooms and two bedrooms. We were lucky to get a place there, but the process took longer since it was a new property. It took about nine months from the down payment to closing the deal.

Buying property in Spain turned out to be easier than in the USA. After we made the decision to move in June 2022, we visited Spain to explore neighborhoods. Within a week, we found an apartment that we really liked. The process of buying real estate in Spain is different. In the USA, there is a verification process, but we skipped it in Spain, and our lawyer handled almost everything. In many ways, we weren't even present during the process.

The realtor recommended our lawyer to us, and we granted him the authority to act as our representative for the purchase of our first property in Spain. After that, we returned to the USA, and just a month later, we became the owners of the property.

I was surprised that we acquired two properties so quickly. The first one is an apartment of about 800 square feet with two bedrooms and one bathroom in a great location, close to the city center. Apartments and houses in Europe are usually significantly smaller in size than in the US.

We purchased the second property for $200,000 almost a year after our arrival. We hadn't planned on buying another house, but our realtor showed us this magnificent loft-style apartment with high ceilings and exposed concrete beams – everything we love. It’s a little over 1,000 square feet with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a lovely courtyard. We moved into this second apartment and are now working on renting out the first one.

Although any American has the right to purchase property in Spain, you may need a visa if you plan to live here. I obtained residency through my husband, as he is an Irish citizen and resides in the European Union. Although Spaniards are predominant in our area, there are also various nationalities living here (Dutch, Ukrainians, Italians, French, Americans, and British).

As the number of Americans buying real estate in Spain increases, the issue of gentrification is becoming relevant, leading to rising housing prices. I believe that purchasing property here should be not only an investment but also a contribution to the development of the local community.

One of the challenging aspects of the process of buying property in Spain is that it can be confusing and unclear. Sometimes, when we spoke with one person at the city hall, we received different answers from others.

Fortunately, the real estate agents we worked with were extremely reliable. Buying property is a significant investment, and it's not uncommon to encounter scammers in another country. We found great local support groups on Facebook to learn about the local community and get advice.

When buying property in Spain, you need to be cautious. You might find a beautiful house, but upon closer examination of the documents, it turns out that it doesn't have residential status. We were warned about this by various sources: Facebook groups, our real estate agent, and our lawyer.

Overall, we prefer Valencia to Oakland for several reasons. Valencia has a lower cost of living, great weather, less crime, and excellent food and drinks. We can walk almost anywhere at any time of day or night without worrying about being robbed or attacked. We miss our friends and family, as well as access to the wonderful Chinese cuisine in Oakland and the Bay Area. Most Chinese restaurants in Valencia haven't been our favorites, but we still prefer to live here.

Valencia is also the third largest city in Spain - it's very urban. The appeal of moving to Valencia was being in the city center. Right outside our door, there are cafes and restaurants that stay open until 2 AM. We are happy here.