We have visited several islands in Greece. Crete appealed to us the most out of all the islands. Then you go and look on the internet what you can find on Crete.
We also came across websites with older houses. We liked that, in time to own a nice house there. During our holidays we visited some properties. What was offered as “old stone house, needs some renovation” often turned out to be a total ruin. So, it had to be completely renovated. We are not very handy and we certainly did not want to work for years during the holidays.
Later, we visited the second home exhibition in Utrecht, where we were introduced to Elxis. We also followed a workshop on buying a house in Greece. With this information, we went further. Elxis had among others houses from a project developer in Rethymnon on offer. Newly built houses. They looked very attractive. We decided to have a look during our holidays to see what the company was like and how the houses looked in reality. It was not at all disappointing. They took the time to inform us about the different types of houses, showed us the construction projects and drove us to the plots.
We immediately found the Afroditi bungalow very attractive. There was also a piece of land that really appealed to us. We decided not to make any hasty decisions and to think it over again at home. If it had been sold in the meantime, it would not have been for us. At home we still thought the same, if possible we wanted to buy now. We contacted Elxis again and said that we were interested in buying a house. We wanted to have an option on the plot. That was very unusual, but it was arranged.
In November 2004 we signed the contract of sale. Giorgos and Vangelis looked after our interests with the property developer. Of course, many questions came up. For example, we wanted the house to be turned a quarter of a turn from the original drawing. An extra wall in the bathroom. We put all our questions to Giorgos and Vangelis and they provided clear answers and made good arrangements with the builder. They also took care of a clear translation of the sales contract.
Finally, the time had come for us to start building our house. During construction, the builder provided pictures of the progress on the website and slowly you could see the house taking shape. Finally the time had come: the delivery and the transfer. Elxis took care of this as well. To the notary on Crete and then to a lawyer who took care of things for us on the spot.
We have been to our house several times now and it is becoming more and more like home. At the end of October we have one more week and then we’re done for this year…
Peter and Mieke emigrated to Crete in 2009.
