Thursday January 7
(This has not been proof read.)
Jayne and I went apartment hunting. This time we went by bus to where the Four Seasons Hotel is and where there are other nice hotels. We looked at apartments there. We wrote down some phone numbers we saw. I also came across two estate agents that deals in rentals. We stopped in one and talked to the guy, but he couldn't find anything for us.
I called one number that I saw and talked to the woman. The flat sounds interesting.
We got home with nothing promising.
Yiannis invited us to come to his house for dinner. That was nice of him and it was a surprise. This is the first time since the New Year that I was able to see him.
Another couple came over, Aristos and his girlfriend and their daughter.
Friday January 8At Starbucks I met two black guys and we got talking about the internet. One comes from a Dutch island in the Caribbean. The other is an American from Ohio.
Then this girl came over, whom I met at the café last month. Christy is also into alternative health. She came with her friend, Maria. We talked and I told her what I did and did a demonstration on her with her fear of roaches. She went from an 8 to 0 in a few minutes! Another success story.
There was another guy who came in, that i've seen there many times before. He knew one of the black guys (Gerald). I talked to this guy, who's name is Chris. As it turned out he is an estate agent. And it was his office that we've seen (but the office was closed). I told him about our needs and he thought of one place. He said it's near the San Rafael Hotel. Now, this place is outside of where all the other people live. However, he told me that buses still go by there.
He described this place and it's on the beach, has a garden outside the flat, and has full sea view. It's one bedroom.
Later, I called Chris and asked him to ask the landlady that we are willing to pay one year in advance for less money. Instead of paying 650 euros/mo. We'd pay 550.
He got back to me later to say she said OK, but there is a tenant in there now and they won't be out until February 1.
This woman, Natasha, who owns the flat that we want to look at said that she would like to show the flat to us. I told her that we have plans to see another flat Tuesday, but I thought that there would be no harm in looking.
Saturday January 9Natasha came and picked me up at Starbucks and we went so I could pick up Jayne. We all went to see her flat. It looked nice and was lower on the hill than I remembered. There is also a mini food market there, which is important to us. It's on the first floor (second by American standards). It's two bedrooms, about 90 sq. meters total. Has a nice terrace with views of the sea. The kitchen it big. This is completely furnished with kitchen appliances.
She also agreed to a lower price if I paid up front. In short, we would pay 6,500 euros for one year, which works out to about 541 euors/mo. And this included common expenses. The other expenses would be electric, water, and internet (when I get it).
Sunday January 10
On the internet, I got the standard contract that Natasha mailed to me. I looked over and made some comments. I sent this back to her and she called me so we could discuss this. She agreed with my points.
There are some things that we important that were not in there. She agreed with them and said she'd make changes.
It looks like we will be meeting her Monday evening, where we will be signing the Agreement and the keys will be handed over.
Jayne will have to go to the local bank here and transfer money from one account to another, so she can write out the check. And I will have to go to the car rental place to get a car so we can move. I'll rent the car for at least a couple of days. I just need it really for one day, but it would cost more to rent. In the meantime, I could use the car for other things, such as taking Jayne's computer to the store, and doing some shopping at Debimhams.
Monday January 11I think that an Angel was watching over us. Today I met the other real estate agent at the café (that I met and talked to a week ago) about showing us a flat. Then I told him that we found another flat and we would not be looking at the one he wants to show us. Today I told him where it is, which is right in back of his office.
What he told me was that there is a lot of noise there. There is noise from the street and from the gas station. He said that at night young people skid around in their cars in the lot there, and you can hear the car washing machine, too. Then he said that there is usually an accident at the intersection once every day! His office is right there, and when there is an accident, he always gets a call from the police that ask if it's bad and if they need to bring an ambulance. So they know before they come out. He says he hates it, because as soon as there is an accident he sneaks out of the office and drives off so he doesn't have to talk to the police or give testimony as a witness. Can you image in that! If it was in a movie it would be comical.
The flat that he will be showing us is further out by 3 minutes, but he said that it quite there, it's right across the sea (sea view from the flat), when you walk out of the balcony there's a garden, and they also have a swimming pool.
It really sounds nice.
Well be seeing the flat tomorrow, so I plan to send you pictures the day after tomorrow (hope you have time to look at them ).
The flat is the same price as the one that we looked out Saturday. To get this lower price we would have to pay for a full year, but if there is no noise there, that would be fine. The only “noise” would be from the sea, and that would be great! The sounds of the sea is soothing for humans.
If we moved into this flat where there is a lot of noise, we would have paid a year in advance, too. But had we moved in, and Jayne would not be able to sleep, it would affect her health. If we moved out earlier to some other place, we would have lost the rest of the money.
That's it for the flat news.
I met with Yiannis later and he told me about anohter flat. I told him we can still take a look at it after I see the one tomorrow. He seems to think that paying 550 euros a month is too much. I told him that is all we found, if there are some cheaper, where are they?
Yiannis called the woman who owns the flat that he looked at for us before we came here. As it turns out this flat is still available. However, they want 600 or 650 (Yiannis isn't sure). Again, this is more than what I'm looking at. So, I'm still right in that I haven't found a nice flat for less than 550.
When Yiannis called he said he talked to the woman and said he'll give her my phone number but the plans are that we will meet tomorrow about 11 or 11.30am (after I see the other flat).
Now, if this woman went down to 550 when we first came here, she would have already had four months rent or more than 2,000 euros. If she finds someone this month to rent it for a year at her 650/mo or even 600/mo she would still have lost money in a year. I was told she is rich, but she still lost money.
Some people are good at making money, but they are not good at investing. There are a lot of people like that, and as a result, they are not as rich as they could be!
Tuesday January 12
Checking Rental Properties
I went to Starbucks first, as Jayne wasn't ready. I wanted to go early so I could go on the internet before we met Chris. As it turned out, he was already there with his wife. Chris was here for awhile then he must have left and called me on the phone to say that the owner would not be there until 10.30am, so we can meet at 10.15.
Jayne came over, then we went to see Chris who was with his wife. I think her name is Kleo. Then the three of us went in his car to see the flat.
It was not as I pictured. But what pictures we get in our minds has nothing to do with what is told us. Anyhow, it is located near the hotel San Rafael. This is build up area, too. I never realized it, though I had driven past this a couple of years ago.
Anyhow, we met the English lady owner. The current tenant is still in there, who is an Asian. I guess her husband is, too.
The flat is on the ground floor and is only one bedroom and kind of small. There is a patio with a garden and in front of that is the community swimming pool.
Now for the problems with the flat.
I smelled something, which I thought was from the swimming pool, but Jayne said later that it's mildew. She saw black on the curtains and around one door frame.
I noticed right away noise from the traffic. As I saw from the back that the main highway is 150 meters away!
The woman wants 550 euros of month – that's with our offer of paying one year in advance.
Right away we will not take this, but we didn't tell Chris that. We just told him of the problems, so he would put two-and-two together. When we left he drove around the area to show us that there are bus stops there and that is a mini-market (looks like they would just sell canned goods).
Then he drove us back to Starbucks. Jayne and I went back there to discuss the problems. When she went to the toilet, I was in line to order something. I saw this woman come in, and I remembered her. I smiled and she did, too.
When Jayne and I were sitting outside, this other woman and her friend were sitting at another table.
I told Jayne that I know her and she's Russian and deals in real estate. So, I went to her and introduced myself. She recalls seeing me before but can't place it. I reminded her. She didn't know Yiannis or her being in my flat to use my internet. Anyhow, I said to her, 'It looks like the angel is looking down on me.' And I went on to explain that we are looking for a flat and just looked at one now.
This woman's name is Tatiana and I gave her my phone number and what we are looking for.
Then I called Yiannis to tell him if he had called the woman about the flat. Yiannis knows this rich lawyer who owns a flat that is near Starbucks and she was to call me, but I didn't receive any call. He had talked to her yesterday and told her that I would like to look at it.
He said he'll call her.
A short while later Yiannis called me back to say that he got the keys to her flat and will show it to us. About 10 minutes later he drove up and pulled into the driveway. We saw him after he got out of his car and yelled to us. We went over while he parked the car.
The apartment is real nice. The furniture is real nice, too. It has two bedrooms, kitchen, dinning area, living room and a big balcony. It's on the third floor (fourth in America). The view is mostly of another building in the back but you can see a little of the sea, too, which is nice.
We listened for the noise on the balcony and inside, and there wasn't any! Thank God! Though the flat is on the main street, it's in the back so you don't hear the noise.
When I opened the small bathroom window I could see the green canopy of Starbucks. The ground floor of the building has a jewellery store and the elevator that you go in is very nice, too. There is a wooden plank that you often see in parking lots. This is what this apartment has and it's opened by remote control.
The building looks well kept. And the fact that it's close to everything makes it great. Now we have to discuss the price
Later in the day, Yiannis called the owner, Maria, about the price. Actually, the lawyer is her husband and she owns the flat, as I understand it.
When Yiannis first enquired about the flat she wanted 700 euors. I guess that is what she got from the past tenant. She had already gone down to, I think, 600 back in September. We didn't see, but we thought we could get something a lot cheaper. As it turned out, it has been sitting empty these past four months.
Yiannis said that we would pay 550 euros and we would pay for a whole year in advance. She agreed to this on the phone.
Back to right before Yiannis called her, I got a call from Tatiana to say she found a one-bedroom flat for 450 euros in a quite are. So, we made plans to meet at 5.15pm.
Now, we have to see the woman and her husband at 4.00pm. I should have told him that we have another place to look at, but I didn't. I think it's a good thing that I didn't since they might have backed out of the deal had I told them.
We needed to take our passports with us so the husband could write it down to put in the Agreement.
They live near where Yiannis lives. He told us they are rich and that they don't need to rent it out. They did him a favour by going down in price. We appreciate all of this. There home is beautiful. It looks like they have a formal living and dinning room. Then there is the informal dinning room and TV room. It looks like there are servants quarters in the back and there is a small swimming pool, too. When you enter there is a lobby with a nice staircase. Outside they have a balcony.
It looks like we will be moving in in two days. That would be Thursday January 14.
We were very pleased with what we saw. But we should keep the other appointment. This would be a savings of 100 euros a month if the 1 bedroom flat is nice. What we just saw was a two bedroom flat.
We met Tatiana outside of Starbucks. We got in her car, which was very nice and expensive. I think it's a Hunda SUV. We went to a street right near the Valana. The street is in back of the English Russian children's school. Well, the street and the flats on it are very nice. The street is a dead-end, so it makes it quieter.
The flat has one bedroom in the back with a kitchen in the middled and a counter separating it from the living room. However, everything was very small. I would not be surprised that the living room is a square 3 meters by 3 meters (3.5 meters maximum).
This is much too small for us. In fact, I would feel like we had more more where we are now.
I asked about a two bedroom and she made a call and took us to a place. This place is right next door to the supermarket that we use all the time.
This other flat is in old flat. One guy who entered right before us looks like an Arab construction worker that lives right across from where we looked at.
The owner came a few minutes later along with two workers. The flat is being remodelled now.
The building that the flat is in in not nice. It looks like there would be the same kind of neighbours that we have now. The flat has very poor furniture in it. Jayne had seen some roaches, and it's in the same neighbourhood. It's big inside, but it's not nice.
This flat looks like a good one for Jim and Vivian, who are neighbours of ours. They are looking, too. Jim is Irish and Vivian is Philodendron (Asian).
I told Tatiana about Jim and she didn't have time to show it to him. I asked for her phone number and she gave it to me.
We took Jim over to see it, and he liked it. Then he went to get Vivian to look at it, but when they went over there, the owner was gone.
So, ends our busy day of apartment hunting. It looks like we'll be in the flat of friends of Yiannis. Hurry and I thank the messenger (angle) of God!
Jayne didn't feel like cooking so we went out to eat. We ate a small place nearby that we haven't eaten at before. We had fish maze. It was very good! The cost for two was 25 euros. The owner happened to live in South Africa and had some restaurants there. I think that his ex-wife was Afrikaner (white). We had a nice chat with Christos.
Looking back
Yiannis had offer to look for a flat for us before we arrived in Cyprus. He said he knows a good friend that has a flat (the one we will finally be moving in). I think the lowest he got was 650 euros and he said they might go down to 600 euors. Well, we didn't even look at it as we thought we could get a flat cheaper.
He said that the owner is a lawyer and he is rich, so doesn't need the money. Well, as it turned out if they were willing to take 550 euros when we arrived they would have made more money. If we rented it when we came they would have gotten 2,200 euros already. They lost this money all for 50euros a month difference.
This goes to prove what I've said for a long time now. That a person might be rich but doesn't mean they do everything right. There are a lot of people who make good money but they don't know how to make their money make money. It's a two-step system. Even billionaires have made mistakes like this.
In the news in the past year there are articles about how many billions that Gates, Warren Buffet, and also Russian billionaires have lost money. They lost in in the stock market.
When someone says, “They are rich, they don't need the money.” But I say, why lose money? In this case, IF they woman really doesn't need the money then WHY didn't she go down in price. After all, it's just 50 euros a month.
The woman who owns the flat, didn't even put it on the market, which she could have.
Friday February 19
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