Monument

Centre

Harbour / Pigeon island

Part 3 3rd June

Well it's now 10.30 in the morning, Nesrin had told us she would be here at nine.
We are begining to wonder how Turkish Estate Agents sell anything either they dont turn up or they have forgotten that you had an appointment.
We are starting to feel like we should never had come here, this will be the second day of our precious holiday that we have wasted.

Just as we are wondering if we should go to the bus station and return to Turgutries Nesrin and her driver(who looks more like a body guard)
turn up, its 11 o'clock
this is truely a whirlwind tour we are ferried rapidly from one property to another and Nesrin never stops gassing throughout the whole journey.

The first house needed lots of work doing to it but the second we are told comes with all the furniture and white goods only personal items and the rugs would be taken by the current owners."
We ask Nesrin how much," 34 thousand" she say's "pounds" i replied "no euro's" she said, "that is about 23 thousand pounds."
"Pah it is so cheap that if you do not buy i will buy it for my mother to stay in when she comes to visits me."
We see a few more houses in the same area, "now i take you to Davutlar, it nice small town"
We start driving out into the countryside along narrow roads lined with peach trees this really is out in the sticks, we are thinking it might even be too remote for us.
First we are taken to the beach which is a very wide and long swathe of golden sands and best of all there is hardly anybody on it "this is called Love Beach, it is quiet now but it does get busier in July and August when the children are on holiday".
We think that perhaps 50 people on this beach and the locals would think they had had a busy day.

We are taken down the long straight road wich runs from the beach into town, all along new housing delelopments are starting to spring up two years ago this was probably all farm land without a house or a toutist in sight. we pull up next to one of the new developments which seems to be half way to completion. "now i show you new house they build 24 here in circle twelve are sold i sell two last week, one to a teacher from England. when all the buildings are finished the builder will put in a pool which will cost 500 pounds, also he will landscape the garden" the houses are in a scandinavian chalet style with pine cladding on the walls and and upstairs celings," how much" we ask again" 36,000"
"Euro's?"
"Pounds, also £500 for the pool and garden when everything is complete ."
This really is exactley what we were looking for, but it's at the very top, in fact slightly over what we want to pay and it is about 2 miles from the beach although the walk is a flat one.
"Now i show you another area, not so quiet called Ladies Beach", the journey takes us back along the quiet roads, past where we stayed last night, into town and over the headland from the harbour. The driver parks the car and Nesrin takes us down to the beach it is now mid afternoon on a hot day and the beach is heaving.
Only a smallish beach compaired to the others but it seemed like the whole of Turkey was here today, shops and cafe bars lined the promenade very much like holiday resorts in Spain Portugal or Greece.

We drive up what seems a mountainous road to a residential area set on a cluster of hills.
"bit hilly round here" i say as we get out of the car .
"no problem, many Dolmus go up and down to beach many times a day, also into town for shop".
We are not convinced hills are fine when you are young or even at our age, but we are looking to the future and our retirement in ten to fifteen years.
The properties are very nice and there is a large communal pool but because it is a popular area with the british prices are high for the sizes of the houses.
In one of the houses we are shown (£45,000) Nesrin turns to us "you have seen all i have now i leave you alone to decide

We sit at the dining table with our book of notes we have made as we have been round.
We both agree fairly quickly that it is a choice of two the £23,00 house in Long Beach which we a christened the pink house because everything was pink inside and out, or the new build at Love Beach.
We call Nesrin back in and she sits at the table with us "you buy house"?
"Our hearts tell us we should buy at Love Beach but our heads say the pink house and as much as we are tempted to push the boat out and go with Love Beach we are going to say the pink house".
"I think you make right choice, you sign paper work today and pay deposit you could be on holiday there in two weeks and you have no furniture to buy".
"as quick as that"
"yes yes maybe sooner, now we go to my office and then solicitor who will give you copies of agreement in English then Noteer to do transfer of property and house will be yours"
The next three hours was a whirlwind of legalities and formalities. At the office Nesrin relieved us of £2,600 being ten percent of the house price and costs.
The solicitors office was conveniently situated in the same building and in thirty minutes we have copies in English and Turkish of the sale agreement all duely signed, the Note explained everything concerning the sale of property in Turkey and gave us two more forms to sign.

"Now you give me rest of money and house is all yours"
"What about our military check , i thought foreign buyers had to be checked by the military and approved"
"Just formality before paperwork can be issued, but house is still yours".
We agree to send the rest of the money via the banks when we return to England in ten days time.
We get into Nesrins car for the last time, "you go back to Turgutries tonight", yes i said you have taken all our money we may as well go back. Nesrin laughed as she drove us back to the bus station.
It is now seven in the evening, in the space of eight hours we have house hunted and purchased with all legal paper work done what would take 3 months at home, it does'nt seem right, some how the Turkish system seems all too easy.
On the bus back we talk excitedly of our day and make plans for our new home in Long Beach.
Carole insists that the pink has to go, the first job is to get the outside painted.Amid the excited exchanges Carole looks up at me "How do we know its really ours we have given them £2,600 pounds of our money and all we have are pieces of paper to show for it, perhaps we have just been ripped off".
My mind races across the days events "i dont think thats likely, rember all the people Nesrin spoke to at the Ladies Beach resort who she said had bought properties from her, also she knew all the site managers and they gave her the keys".
We arrived back in Turgutries at midnight and went for a meal at Hasans Place, where we tell him of our two days in Kusadasi.

The rest of the holiday passed as holidays do, only for the next ten days we felt like we were walking on air.

Part 2 2nd June 2005

It's 6 AM and we are on the early morning Dolmus to Bodrum to catch the coach that will take us to Kusadasi. Even in June there are no Tourist apart from us at this time in the morning, the conversations are all in Turkish we actually feel like foreigners.

The man in the ticket office speaks no English, we say "Kusadasi" to him and he replies "it's ok, it's ok" hope it is i say to him and he gives us two tickets for approx £6 . Dread to think what the coach will be like for that sort of money.

The coach turns up, its as good if not better than any luxury coach you will find in England; airconditioned, on board loo, very comfortable seats, and waiter service providing free drinks and snacks throughout the entire journey , best value travel for £6 .

The coach pulls in to one of it's many stops, this time though the coach attendant comes up to us saying "So kay" we look at him bemused "So Kay" he says again. We try tio explain that we are going to Kusadasi and where we are is not Kusadasi! "So Kay Kusadsi Dolmus" he says, a look of comprehension appeared on Carole's face " Thats what they tried to tell us at the ticket office, it's not okay but Soke that's where we are the coach only goes to Soke, we have to take a dolmus into Kusadasi."

An hour later we get off the Dolmus in Kusadasi city centre, this place makes Bodrum look quiet and small, we have immediate reservations as to whether this is the sort of place we would like to have a holiday home, let alone retire to.

Prior to leaving England we had contacted several local Estate Agents via the internet , telling them our interest in prurchasing a property there and the date we would be arriving, all had agreed to meet us over the two days we were going to be in Kusadasi, armed we their phone numbers we called them from our mobile. The first one we called with our appointment only one hour away did not even remember us arranging this he said he may be able to see us tomorrow.
The second one did not even answer his phone, well that was the two we had planned to see on day 1.

Feeling let down we decide to try and call tomorrows appointment to see if it can be brought forward, horay we have found an estate agent who remembers us and our appointment.
"busy with other customers today" she say's ," i will see you tomorrow where are you staying."
We explain that we have just arrived in Kusadasi and have not found anywhere to stay yet."I know good place very cheap where are you i will send my brother to get you."
Ten minutes later a Turkish man approaches us and asks if we are Carole & Dave.
He takes us to their office just a few metres from where we had got off the bus.

Nesrin the estate agent arrived back at the office like a whirlwind, we were soon to learn that this girl does'nt stop she is a one woman dynamo.
On the journey to the hotel just outside of the town centre she does'nt stop talking telling us how many wonderful houses she has for sale and what a wonderful investment Turkey is with prices rising 15 to 25 % every year. We are still not convinced this is the place for us.

Well the hotel is nice, everything looks new, clean, it should do we are the only quest's!
The whole hotel to ourselfs for only ten pounds a night B&B.
Nesrin say's she will see us at 11 am tomorrow and speeds of in her blue corsa.

We spent the rest of that afternoon looking around the area where we were staying it is very hot so we head towards the beach, it is much quieter here than in town few cars and fewer tourists which is strange as there seemed to be plenty of hotels, perhaps each hotel, like ours, has only one room let.

In the evening the local bars and restaurants never seemed to be more than half full, the atmosphere at this end of town seems very lay back and lowkey more the kind of place that we like.

We are starting to look forward to tomorrows home hunt.

THE STORY SO FAR.

Part 1
29th May 2005
We have just arrived for our Annual holiday in the small turkish town of Turgutries (4th time at this resort, sixth time to Turkey), only this time we are more excited than usual for after years of dreaming we finally hope to purchase our own holiday home.

Spending money this fortnight £4,500 as we have been told that a 10% deposit plus fees will be required upon agreement to purchase a property. We have also been told there is no such thing as a mortgage in Turkey so our total spend is limited to £36,000 , even in Turkey this is not a lot for a house in the holiday areas.

30th May 2005
Dave is in a dilema, he does'nt know whether to carry the money in his body belt or leave it in the hotel safe, which is in an often unattened reception area. After much fretting he finally decides to take it with us.
We wander into town and look at a few estate agents and see some properties in our price range
Which is surprising as Turgutries has become an expensive area since the marina was built.
What a dissapointment! The two properties within our price range were in a poor state of repair
and one just over what we hoped to pay, had nice views but was half way up a mountain about an hours walk from the sea.

Still in two days time we are going to look at some property about 130 miles away at the resort of Kusadasi, we know a family from nearby Yatton who have bought a property there and they have told us there are still some bargains to be had there.