House Hunting in Europe: Seattle Couple Leaves the U.S. to Live Abroad

House Hunting in Europe: Seattle Couple Leaves the U.S. to Live Abroad

We’ve been burned before and so I guess the bar is a little higher this time we want to make sure this is someplace where we’re going to be comfortable I want this to be both an apartment and a city that feels like home Brent hartinger and Michael Jensen are two

Writers from Seattle who were fed up with the High Cost of Living and fast pace of life in the United States so they decided to sell their house put their stuff in storage and head overseas in search of a better life I met them in b o Bulgaria a small town of about

12,000 people nestled in the heart of the Pan national park and mountains banso is one of the most popular ski resorts in Eastern Europe also known as the ski capital of Bulgaria and in the summer it transforms into a green Paradise perfect for outdoor activities such as hiking horseback riding and

Taking part in The Many Music art and food festivals of around town as a relocation consultant I wanted to help Brett and Michael decide if banso was a good place for them to settle down for a few months or if they should move on to a different Location thought you were going to start I thought you were oh my name is Brent hardinger and I’m Michael Jensen and we are a couple from Seattle Washington who are now digital Nomads uh traveling the world and and living different places and we also both

Happen to be writers so a year ago we sold our house in Seattle and then at the end of December we left Seattle and we’ve been traveling the world ever since we stay in different cities and at the same time we are not on holiday we are not on vacation as everybody seems

To think we are continuing our careers as writers uh I write novels usually young adult novels and I also do screen screen plays and I am a historical fiction novelist um I published two historical fiction novels and then I actually became an editor and co-founder of a website I was doing entertainment

Journalism and we sold that to uh MTV Viacom now I’ve gone back to writing full-time and Brent and I together have also started a website called Brent and Michael are going places that is documenting Our Lives as digital Nomads and so we have a website and we have a

Social media presence people seem to have enjoyed following along you know we have a little map where we pinpoint every new destination we’re generally pretty compatible people say what’s the secret of a long-term relationship and I say be really really compatible because we share the same interests and the same

Values even though we spend a lot of time together we don’t really get on each other’s nerves so that’s the secret just pick the right person pick somebody who doesn’t annoy you that being said we’ve wondered a little bit about being digital Nomads and doing the co-living

How is that going to change a relationship you know we’re going to be living in small smaller quarters in sometimes stressful situations you know we’ll be in different countries and things will probably go wrong and I don’t know I feel really confident after 20 years we know each other and have

Each other’s back that um we’ll be able to handle whatever the road throws at us my name is Kristen Wilson and I have been traveling around the world for about 15 years so I’ve been living and working and foreign country since I was 20 years old I’ve been to over 50

Countries in the past 15 years and I’ve been a full-time expat or digital Nomad for the last 13 years my background is in real estate and I own a few relocation companies I own a company called orbis relocation which helps multinationals and their employees retirees foreign investors and other

Just regular people who want to move and and live abroad and I also am a content creator I run a travel blog and a YouTube channel called traveling with Kristen where I do a weekly show called digital Nomad TV with tips to help people achieve and sustain the digital Nomad

Lifestyle I wanted to work in relocation because it’s built on the skill set that I had um with a background in international business a background of traveling in foreign count countries being bilingual and knowing Spanish and I really felt passionate about helping other people be able to

Live life on their own terms and be able to live wherever they want in the world and to do whatever they want for work my life mission became to just basically help people live the way they want work in whatever they want and live wherever they want what I really love about the

Time that we’re living in now is that really anyone can become a digital Nomad as long as long as you have a remote job or a skill set that can be monetized and an internet connection with a bit of hard work and persistence you can become a digital

Nomad so today I’m going to show Brent and Michael around bco and see if it’s a good fit for them to put down Roots we’ll look at houses for them to rent a co-working space meet some foreign residents and get a taste of the local culture

The plan was to sort of slowly ease our way into the swimming pool and stay in the shallow end for a bit and what we found right away was it was both much more interesting than we thought and in a way much easier less frightening and

So we did quickly decide well let’s be a little bit more adventurous Let’s Go Places and you know you spend time in a country where people don’t speak the language and sometimes it’s a little Annoying or a little frustrating but it’s also really cool because you’re in another country where people don’t speak

Your language and it’s genuinely different and it’s genuinely exciting so the more we do it I think the more we’re looking for more different and more exciting Experiences I think that Brent and Michael are great candidates for the digital Nomad lifestyle because they are financially stable which is very important they both have a lot of career experience and they know where their income is coming from so they have savings they have money in the bank but

They also have a reliable source of monthly income which is first and foremost the most important thing for aspiring digital Nomads they also have a very open-minded accepting mindset they’ve spent about a year researching and planning so that’s a good amount of time to feel comfortable with entering

This sort of Lifestyle tie up loose ends at home and arrive at your first destination another really important thing that they have done almost unknowingly is they’ve really established why they’re doing this they’re very clear on their expectations they’re clear about the reasons for why they wanted to become digital Nomads

Because Brent and Michael have done their research they’ve saved money they’ve budgeted accordingly they have stable jobs and income they have a flexible mindset they also have a sense of adventure curiosity wonder and love for travel I think that they’re going to do just fine how will you know that this is the

Place for you well we came to banso with the idea that we would check it out for a week because after our last experience uh at a co-living co-work facility we had we had chained ourselves to it for 2 months and we had regretted it almost

Within the first week so we decided we wanted to come here and look around for a week and and see if it met the things we were lacking in in some of the other places so I really want to be able to get out and hike and ride my bike and

And have you know Green places to go for a walk-in and and nice Parks that’s going to be I think think really important for me this go around we’ve been burned before and so I guess the bar is a little higher this time we want to make sure this is someplace where

We’re going to be comfortable if we’re going to stay here for 3 months so I guess we went there to be nice restaurants we went there to be supermarkets where we have good produce we want access to a good Community we definitely want a good co-working facility that’s really really important

We want a nice apartment I don’t want to live in a grungy apartment I want it to be functional I want it to be nice um I want to be able to build a home because that’s our home changes but it’s still our home so I want this to be both an

Apartment and a city that feels like Home it would be nice to live someplace a little more affordable for a while a lot more affordable and sort of refill the coffers we typically spend about $4,000 on the road it would be nice to spend maybe 3,000 or 2500 that would be really great

One of the unique concerns that a gay couple deals with as digital Nomads is not every country is equally tolerant so before we go to a country we have to research it you know we want to know that we’re going to be able to go to a

Country like Bulgaria and if you know one of us is in a bike accident that we can get to the hospital and they’re not going to look at us and say sorry we don’t recognize you know same-sex marriage here um you can’t have access

To them at the same time I want to feel comfortable if we’re going to be here for 3 months I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder I don’t want to feel judged by people so I want to make sure that this is at least the bco part of

Bulgaria is a place where I can feel comfortable and I don’t feel unsafe in my personal life that’s really Important I love Bulgaria because it has a lot of the things that I’m looking for personally in a destination for digital Nomads it’s very affordable with a very low cost of living you can can live comfortably here on $1,000 a month or $1,500 a month no problem they and I

Myself are used to paying a couple thousand a month in rent when we travel and here you can get a one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartment for anywhere from $150 a month to $300 a month so it’s a huge cost savings especially if you’re bootstrapping a new startup company or

Something like that food is also very affordable you can go out to eat for a few dollars I never spend more than5 or $10 on a meal and you can eat for as little as $2 or $3 I also love that there’s so much nature in Bulgaria and

Banso has a lot of outdoor activities so I think that they’ll really enjoy being able to go hiking and biking and just being surrounded by the peace and quiet and nature here we’re going to go walk around town check out the market show them the co-working space and help them

Make the decision if they want to set up banso as their home base okay guys so we’re here at co-working banso and I’m going to show you the co-working space we have two sides there’s the quiet space here and then the social space over there let’s go I

Showed Brent and Michael around the co-working space at co-working banso one of the largest digital Nomad communities in Europe which has grown a lot since I first filmed this video so in here we have the kitchen um that you’re free to store your food there cook and then just here is the

Quiet room for phone calls so you can do any sort of meetings or work calls or things like that in this room so this is the Outdoor space this is where we um basically sit outside to work or take a lunch break or something like that but

There are actual plugs here so you look behind you you can actually plug in your laptop here and I work out here a few days a week we have multiple high-speed Wi-Fi connections in both buildings so let’s go look at the social space okay the team at co-working vanco provides

Support to people who are moving to the town from abroad and as a member there you can meet people learn new skills and get settled Faster co-working banso also hosts the annual banso Nomad Fest a c celebration of the location independent lifestyle which takes place over one week every summer after touring the co-working space we walk to the center of town to check out the local market and do some shopping this is the Sunday market that

Happens once a week and you’ll find the cheapest produce you’ve ever found in your life sounds great you want to let’s go buy some stuff yeah let’s check it out coming from the United States I’ve been shocked at the low prices of food in almost every other country in the

World in Bulgaria is no exception where you can find fresh seasonal produce for a fraction of the cost how much is that $2 outdoor markets are also a good place to practice your language skills make new friends and learn a bit more about the local Culture If you visit banso in the summer you can attend the banso JazzFest which usually takes place in August after having lunch in town it was time for some house hunting so we just walked through the main square of bow and that’s kind of the Heart of the City

The apartments that we’re going to are just up the road so they’re walking distance from the center from restaurants we have a wine bar here and the co-working space seems great let’s go let’s let’s take a look this is beautiful but it’s not exactly what I expected to find in

Bulgaria Better or Worse much better this is amazing Okay so this is our first property uh this is called the snow house it’s a one bedroom and it is $250 a month if it’s month to month but if you do a 3-month lease it’s only $200 a month and that’s with all the utilities included $200 wow

Yeah our rent in Seattle was 10 times as much my utilities in Florida were $200 a month easily I think you’re going to come in way below budget good to hear let’s take a look so this is the first option and it’s pretty simple but it has uh not

Lots of Windows natural light pretty quiet and peaceful and it has a little patio so living room dining area kitchen one bathroom one bedroom seems clean seems nice functional yeah I see that we have a a grape leaves growing outside with actual grapes growing on them so that’s kind of fun The Vineyards

Included actually Bulgaria is known for having some of the oldest Vineyards in the world yeah somebody said that W came from Bulgaria and then somebody else said no no no it was Mesopotamia no yeah unfortunately I think during the Communist era a lot of The Vineyards got

Wiped out but the wine is still really good I know from experience this is 250 per month on a month-to-month basis or $200 per month if you book for 3 months and does that include all you utilities and everything okay that’s really good but actually utilities here will only run you about

Um $20 a month for electricity and $20 a month for cable and internet and then water is really cheap as well so you’re still saving about $40 $50 a month with everything included wow amazing it’s growing on you right yeah definitely okay I’ll show you around so this is a one-bedroom

Penthouse apartment on the third floor it’s actually right there you have nice views on both sides of the apartment so that’s really nice of the mountains yeah so there’s a view out this way and then you can also see the sunrise that side this apartment the landlord said it

Would be $300 a month if you do month to month but if you rent it for a full 3-month period he’ll go down to 200 the utilities are also included in this one $600 for 3 months Yeah Oh this is really nice yeah and you weren’t lying about the view that’s Great it’s a little small but it’s got once again it’s functional it’s got everything though I think I’m might be a little too tall for that shower and did you forget $600 for 3 months rent yeah priorities guys come on so yeah this is the like kind of great room dining

Living area and then here’s the Little Kitchen it’s a little small it’s functional but on the other hand everything here in bco is so cheap I don’t know that we’ll be doing a whole lot of cooking $7,000 in Seattle $4,000 in Italy and $1,500 in banso Bulgaria I

Like this TR Trend I like why we’re trending I like the direction we’re going yeah and many people just don’t consider that Eastern Europe at all well I’m I’m surprised by how livable it is it is a completely modern world there’s everything you would expect in any other

European country at one half or one quarter the price it’s literally the perfect place for digital Nomads I really hope you guys decide to stay longer we’ll have we’ll talk about it we’ll talk about it I suspect we’re going to be on the same page all right guys so so that was a

Whirlwind trip around bow you’ve seen the center you’ve seen the river you’ve seen a few apartments the co-working space and now it’s up to you to make the decision well you’ve given us a lot to talk about we really like what we saw we really like the price of what we saw

Like price of what we saw all right well sleep on it and let me know what you decide okay we’ll let you know our decision I’ll see you at co-working tomorrow for your first day thank you sounds great thank you for all your help you’re welcome The next day Brent and Michael had a lot to consider in making their decision about whether to stay in banso or keep traveling to a new country they also had to choose between the two apartments they saw it’s it’s about a 2 and 1 half

Hour drive up from sopia 3 months is a long time this isolator it is it is and there’s not a lot of other towns in the valley I me there’s razlog which is a little bit bigger but not really any different so if we if we pick banso I

Think we’re going to be staying in bans and there’s also the gay thing we were concerned about how we would be treated here in Bulgaria is that going to be an issue and that does make me nervous so far though it seems like people have been pretty welcoming Christian has been

Great the community has been great the co-working community has been really really great really really wel welcoming the apartments are cheap but they’re not that nice I mean everything’s pretty old everything’s kind of dingy the beds aren’t that great you know the bathrooms look a little dodgy on the other hand it

Is really cheap even if things are a little dodgy even at that price it’s remarkably cheap you know we’ve both been surprised by you know how much beautiful uh nature Bulgaria has oh my gosh it’s so much greener than I expect yeah even beautiful even if the

Apartments aren’t as great I think we’re going to spend so much time outside you know we’ll go for bike ride I mean you know the the mountains are right over there we can go for all kinds of hikes everybody was talking about how they go for hikes every weekend they can take

The gondola up the the top of the mountain and even if some of the restaurants are closed for the summer it sure looked like most of the places were open yeah we’d have a lot of places to cheese and if anything I mean I think the prices are even a little cheaper

Than they would be in the winter seems like this is a this is a pretty great place to spend the summer and frankly you know I bet fall here is going to be pretty spectacular when the leaves change and there’s that cool crispas in the air basically it feels to me like

We’ve made a decision without ever having really had to knock off the pros and seems pretty clear it really really does I said at the start of all of this even if we live someplace for a short period of time it’s still our home so do

You think banso could be our home for 3 months yeah that feels totally agree totally agree so I think we have found our new home for the next 3 months in banso Bulgaria and I think we’re going to be really happy here who knew so after thinking it over it was pretty

Clear that we did want to stay in vano Bulgaria for the next 3 months and there were a few things that we were concerned about but I think overall the pros totally outweighed the cons and it was pretty clear decision don’t you think I do it’s really beautiful here it’s

Surprisingly beautiful it’s very very have we mentioned that that it’s affordable I think we’ve mention that it’s really affordable and it’s a great cont compared to some of the really sunny Aid places we’ve been before this this it’s nice to be around Greenery and and let’s face it the co-working

Community seems absolutely fantastic This Is The Moment of Truth what did you decide to do are you going to keep moving on or hang out in bco for a while I think we’re going to stay in bans for the next three months I’m sure that comes as a huge surprise but thank you

So much for your help it really was great and we’re really glad we had you as our guide to show us around town well yeah it was definitely my pleasure it was so great getting to show you guys around and what I love about this little

Mountain town and I can’t wait to hear how your trip goes group hug I can’t be more pleased that Brent and Michael decided to choose banso as their new home away from home this little town really epitomizes what the digital Nomad lifestyle can be all about co-working community and of course

Quality of life it’s been such a pleasure to help them get to know this town and I can’t wait to see where the digital Nomad Journey will take them next thank you guys so much for watching and I’ll see you next next time in another digital Nomad Destination

An American couple’s story moving from the USA to Europe: How to choose a country, find a house to live in, calculate your cost of living, meet new people, adapt to the local culture, language, and more. Want to live abroad? Get support with an international move overseas by applying at: https://bit.ly/twk_relocation (Serious Inquiries ONLY)

Follow Brent & Michael’s Travel Adventures: https://www.brentandmichaelaregoingplaces.com/

Subscribe to Kristin’s Travel Newsletter: https://bit.ly/twktravel

Top Travel Gear: ✈️
Merino Wool Clothing: https://bit.ly/unboundmerino_twk
Online Money Transfer Account: https://bit.ly/travel_wise
Travel Insurance: https://bit.ly/SafetyWingIns
Amazon Travel Store: https://bit.ly/Amazon_TravelingWithKristin
Digital Nomads For Dummies Book: https://amzn.to/3JLLx5c

Watch next: 👀
1 What to Know Before Moving Abroad

2 Best Places to Live Abroad

3 Downsides of Living Abroad

4 Why to Move Abroad

5 How I See the US After Living Abroad

🎙 Subscribe to Badass Digital Nomads Podcast: https://bit.ly/BADNplaylist

Chapters:
00:00 Moving from the USA to Europe
00:40 About Bansko, Bulgaria
1:02 Choosing Where to Move
1:21 Meet Brent & Michael
2:30 Living Abroad as a Couple
3:15 Meet Kristin, Your Relocation Guide
5:30 Why Move Overseas?
6:10 Is Moving Abroad for YOU?
7:25 Choosing a Destination
8:38 Calculating Your Cost of Living
8:59 Healthcare and Safety Concerns
9:44 Why Bulgaria?
11:07 Coworking & Community Tour
12:22 Bansko Digital Nomad Fest
12:44 Outdoor Market Tour
13:39 Jazz Festival
14:04 House Hunting!
14:32 Property No. 1
16:22 Property No. 2
17:50 Cost of Living Comparison
18:27 What will they decide?
19:09 Making a Decision (Pros & Cons)
22:05 Sharing the News with Kristin
22:32 Kristin’s Reaction and Wrap-Up

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

👱🏻‍♀️ About: Kristin Wilson is the author of Digital Nomads For Dummies, the host of Badass Digital Nomads Podcast, and known as Traveling with Kristin on YouTube. She’s traveled to at least 63 countries and has been helping people move overseas since 2005.

❤️ Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/travelingwithkristin

📸 Follow on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TWKinstagram

PS: This video is for entertainment purposes only and is not consulting or advice. Video descriptions may contain affiliate or refer-a-friend links for products I use and recommend. Thanks for supporting the channel!

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

#househunters #livingabroad #europetravel