Moving To Spain: Now That We Have An Official Date (!), Exactly How We Plan To Proceed

And considering the hysteria over renting apartments in Valencia

Over the last year, we have hit several meaningful milestones as we prepare to move to Spain in January. There are links to those posts at the end of today’s installment.

However—to this point—the box we checked yesterday morning absolutely is the biggest. It makes ALL OF THIS feel ALL THE MORE REAL—again!

That’s the one-way flight we booked to Barcelona, set for Thursday, January 2nd, 2025.

Less than seven months away.

The other day I wrote about waiting for LEVEL—(basically the low-cost extension of Iberia)—to drop their blowout anniversary sale. Last year, we booked two roundtrip tickets between LAX and BCN for $241 apiece. It doesn’t appear that LEVEL will go quite that low this year so we decided to take advantage of the deal they’re marketing as their 7th anniversary sale.

Honestly, $233 each, one-way, isn’t an amazing deal. But it’s not a bad deal either. Plus, it feels good to make it official—to the greatest extent possible—and move on to the next steps. Sometimes paying what might or might not turn out to be a premium to feel good makes sense.

It’s exhilarating to be in the middle of an adventure where each big step is bigger than the big step that came before it.

Balanced with lots of rest and relaxation, I feel like this is what life’s all about, particularly as you head into your second act. Remaining mentally and physically engaged in big, meaningful ways.

As I look back on my childhood and progression through life, it’s crazy to think that I’m moving to Spain (!). Turns out it makes a ton of sense for post 30-year old me. But, this is something that wasn’t—to put it mildly—on my radar as a kid. I mean, pre-20 years old, moving to a place like Spain was as crazy and foreign as becoming an astronaut. It was so absurd and out of my wheelhouse to never even enter the farthest outskirts of my mind.

Suffice to say, I am happy I made the decision to leave my hometown, while realizing the role my upbringing has had on my evolution. I have only begun to realize some of the impacts my childhood has had on my adult life. Anyhow, with the flight en route to this next chapter booked, there are lots of emotions to sort out ahead of fully articulating them.

In honor of this milestone—

I’m offering a 50% discount off of a one-year subscription to the newsletter.

So that’s $25 for an entire year.

Great deal. But, it’s an even better deal to opt for a $100 founding membership. Because I immediately convert all founding memberships into comped lifetime subscriptions.

Basically, you—Pay Today and Never Pay Again.

As the rest of today’s installment helps illustrate, we have a ton of ground to cover not only through the rest of 2024, but in 2025 and beyond. From the visa ins and outs to the logistical and emotional aspects of moving to the process of renting (more on that in a minute), settling into a new country/culture and, eventually, buying an apartment in Spain.

A lifelong journey really, that I intend to chronicle for the rest of my life, making a founding membership average out to very little money—annualized—over time.

I aim to deliver this content alongside thoughts, ideas and strategies you can adapt to your personal financial and life situation.

Anyhow, I hope you’ll join our community.

With the flight booked, the rest of 2024 breaks out like this—

• We think we’ll stay a week in Barcelona to get over any jet lag, enjoy that city, put the final touches on the visa application and get it submitted.

• So we need to book a place to stay in Barcelona, a train ticket to Valencia and temporary accommodations in Valencia as we wait for visa approval (toca madera) and start searching for a long-term rental.

• That’s one key element with the second being our visa paperwork.

• The only parts of the visa application process that will happen in Spain are securing entry stamps on our passports, making copies of our passports and submission.

• Everything else happens here in LA starting later this year. This includes compiling documents and making some of them official for the Spanish government as well as organizing my work contract and proof of income for the final three months of 2024.

If you read this newsletter, you will literally have every single element about moving abroad covered—in detail—from two people who are doing it for real, on the ground.

The other day I stressed for a slight second when I read a post online that talked about how it’s “impossible” to rent an apartment in Valencia, Spain right now.

Impossible not only because of price, but, more so, for non-Spanish people moving to Spain because—according to this and other accounts—landlords won’t even talk to you unless you have a Spanish work contract. If you’re self-employed, you can even offer to pay an entire year upfront. They don’t care. They refuse to even entertain your prospects as a tenant.

While it triggered a mini-freakout, I know better.

If it’s so impossible, where/how are all of these people who are apparently driving up rental prices renting? And, if it’s so impossible, why do I see more than a few asking rents being reduced in the apartment listings I methodically follow?

Even more so, isn’t Valencia a landlords’ market right now!? With such demand, what landlord in their right mind would limit themselves to a subset of the population that, if you listen to these and similar accounts, isn’t driving this demand? Who cares if a self-employed foreigner flakes? You have their security deposit and should be able to re-rent your unit in less than 30 days. Because the market is so hot, so tight, so impossible.

Having rented in San Francisco during the height of the dot-com boom, bust and, subsequent, rebirth (not to mention Santa Monica and LA), I have some experience in hot, tight and seemingly impossible rental markets. So does Melisse. As I said, we know better.

That said, I don’t like to take stuff like this for granted. Ultimately, we won’t know anything definitively until we get there and go through the process. Even then, we’ll only know the details and outcome of our experience. However, I think we can pull something close to a few universal truths out of this situation.

I decided to message someone whose opinion I respect about what’s happening in Valencia. He lives there and works with all types of people making the move.

Here’s the bulk of what he said—

It can be tough but most find a rental contract within a few weeks.

You do not need a Spanish work contract, just patience.

For the cheaper end of the market the landlords ask for a work contract to get insurance of no payment but on the middle to higher end this is not an issue.

The something close to a few universal truths—

• Shit gets amplified and blown out of proportion online.

• You never know the circumstances surrounding specific online accounts.

• People love to complain.

• You get what you give.

Spanish landlords aren’t defeatist freaks who want to be shady and difficult. As is the case in most places. If you go in making an effort to present yourself as a good tenant, I’m pretty certain the landlord will be reasonable—even pleasant and accommodating—with you in return.

I find an air of superiority—bordering on racism(?)—online that paints Spain as a place where everybody is trying to rip you off, particularly landlords. I’m skeptical of this. In fact, I anticipate close to, if not the opposite.

I do know that rent will be a bit more expensive than we anticipated when we picked Valencia as our destination. But that’s hardly unexpected given that it’s regarded as an amazing place to be. Plus, from our relatively modest financial perch, we’ll likely come in right around what we’re paying in Los Angeles under rent control.

Whatever happens, you’ll be the first to know. I wrote this post before I told my parents we booked a one-way flight to our new home.

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We Just Took Two Major Steps Towards Moving To Spain

I Just Took A Practical And Psychological Step Towards Moving To Spain