looking for a property with an old house for renovation

@Michaelyard

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your property search!

I think the days of 10k houses are pretty much gone, especially if you want it to be near the sea/lake (and/or a big town or city). So I reckon you're being very optimistic and might need to revise your search parameters. My guess is that you're more likely to be in the 20k-30k range for something decent.

For a quick bit of research, I suggest checking out BulgarianProperties as they're a big agent with lots of listings all over Bulgaria. Their website is searchable, so you can narrow it down by land/price/location.

I'm an Ebay fan, I've purchased cars and properties on this site. The UK site (dot co dot uk) usually has some interesting Bulgarian offers at/near your price range.

Your owner-only restriction will also make your life very difficult, so you might want to include a  few reputable agents. The Ebay listings are often from the (expat) owner, but there are quite a few regular sellers who are agents. One of the agents in Realestateinbulgaria and he has pretty decent (renovatable) houses up in the north-west which seems to be a bit cheaper. And I remember seeing water involved as he recently had one on a lake, and another riverside. BulgariaDirect (dot com) is another frequent seller with plenty of positive feedback from forum members, and they sometimes have houses close to the Danube.

The other option is maybe OLX (dot bg) which is a very popular online marketplace in Bulgaria. This also has lots of listings and you can filter by owner/business. But it's a pain to do deals here unless you've got sufficient Bulgarian to chat with the owners.

The cost of labour and materials has gone up a lot in the last few years (like everywhere), so renovation is also a very substantial investment. You might find that a well-priced renovated property is a better deal.

👍

Don't waste your money where it can be saved. A lot to learn when moving out to Bulgaria and people will make money out of you where it can be saved and spent on the important things. It's hassle to go through the motions yourself, but very cost effective. I'd be happy to point out what you need to make things easier for you. Also you will find properties are hiked in price. We have one available, it's more than what you have stated but we'll under 20k large plot too. Inland but a fishing lake at the end of your road.

Let me know if you need help.

@allenredfearn7  Can you write in what village to you have this property for sale?

I love the Varna and Dobrich regions! That's where we ended up buying. We're not on the coast but inland, in a more rural area.

I don't want to be discouraging, but you may find you need to either be willing to pay more or extend the distance you're willing to be from water. There ARE still 10,000 EUR houses available in the region, but they'll always need a huge amount of work, and probably won't be as close as you might want to water. Even buying direct from the owner, you're likely to find you do need to pay quite a bit more than 10,000 EUR if being near the coast or a decent sized lake is the most important thing for you. I don't think you'd find anything within 10km of the coast under 20,000 EUR, but within 40 minutes drive of the coast or alternatively with a small lake nearby, as @allanredfearn7 is suggesting, it's possible

Just as an example, our village is an hour from the coast and has a pretty but small lake a couple of km away. We paid 10,000 GBP for our house two years ago. That was on a pay monthly from a reputable agent on ebay, so we did pay quite a bit more than the market value at the time. It was worth it to us to pay in installments and the agent has been a lot of help, so I feel we got value for money. But now, there's nothing available for sale in the village or the area with an asking price of less than 15,000 EUR, even for houses in worse condition than ours was.

Have you been to Bulgaria yet to look at village houses? We thought we knew what to expect after multiple visits to Bulgaria, but I was still shocked at just how much work our place needed and the conditions the previous owner lived in. Unless you can do the work yourself, renovation may also cost more than you anticipate. We've spent more than 10,000 EUR on renovation work, and it's nowhere near finished. I expect our final total spend including purchase price will be in the vicinity of 35,000 EUR, probably nearer 40,000 EUR. Our house is small and simple, nothing flashy. It's worth it to us. But the days of Bulgaria being insanely cheap are now passed.

I agree Jane