IHH - 103

Never a dull moment when it comes to house hunting in Spain!
(Click on the links f you missed Part 1 or Part 2)

Grateful that on day 3 of this journey a friend and her daughter accompanied me (with the promise of finding the chocolateria), we met our first appointment (slightly late) and quickly jumped into her car.  She knew we had worked the previous night with a different immobilaria so she began asking about what we had already seen and liked or disliked.  She then drove us to one property that she thought matched our needs, but that the listing was shared by other companies.  Sure enough, we had seen that one the night before.

(side note - yes, when you list your house with an immobiliaria you can list it with as many companies as you want - remember, no MLS system - very different than the states)

Since we had told her we only wanted to see things in the north she had nothing else lined up to show us.  She drove us around the central and south and explained a few things to us...

.... the majority of the properties in the north are owned outright, so the financial crisis is not creating a need for many of these to become available for rent -

....  what we find in the north for rent will probably be much more expensive and smaller

....  if we live in the north we will be in a "driving" community - meaning, we would no longer be able to just walk to the market or the park, but if we live in the south - it is a walking community (much closer to what we presently live in)

Now the question became, what next?  As we discussed schools and Alex and timing and more she realized that what was driving us was the school registration timeline (Alex really needs to be registered in school before July 2) and she felt instead of looking for more houses we should solve the school situation first

So, she offers to go with us to Toledo (Toe-Lay-Dough, not pronounced like the Toe-Lee-Dough in Ohio), where the main education office for this province is located and see what we can find out (it was about a 30 minute drive each way).  Off we go and we find out that Alex really has little chance of getting into the north school, because as of right now there was only one opening, but more than 10 in the south.

Now what?  Back to Illescas and the agent takes us to the school in the south, helps us get in to see the school and tells us more about the community where the school is located.

By now, we have had to cancel our 2nd and 3rd appointment, are exhausted, and as we finish the time with this agent we have decided we really need to look in the south and central parts of Illescas.  We set an appointment for Thursday to look some more, drop her off, and head out for the "important" parts of the day - lunch (chocolate and churros got totally missed today) and shopping!

We ate lunch at a restaurant we had visited before and it was all homemade- including the chocolate mouse!  I think I may have found my favorite dessert in town.

When I called Scott to give him the overview of the day he asks "so, how many chalets did you look at today?"  My answer, "none."  It was a productive day, but not so productive in the way we expected.

Day #4 on Thursday.