Making headway

We've made lots of progress now. This is our house in Arlington, which is on the market. It is nearly empty now. We've given away more than half of our possessions, and we are really ready to move
This is where we are headed. There are so many things involved in moving to another country. We were lucky to have an excellent real estate agent (Michael Green of Tropicasa) who has lived in Puerto Vallarta for about 12 years.

So now we own the house, and we have a property manager taking care of it until we move. We even have a maid and a pool guy (who also waters the plants.)
We were able to open a bank account in Puerto Vallarta, and I learned how to navigate the online banking even with the instructions in Spanish. Now I can pay bills in Mexico using my computer.

One important aspect to moving to Mexico is the FM3 visa, which allows you to move your possessions, duty free - but one time only. We got a "retirement" form of visa, which has no work permit. You need a letter from the bank establishing that you have an adequate fixed income to meet their standards. Generally social security is enough. And you need a letter from the police showing you have no police record. The letters must be notarized, and the notarization has to be "authenticated." In our case, we had to send them to Richmond. Then you take the documents, passports, passport pictures and cash to the Mexican Consulate. It went smoother than I imagined, and now we have it.

We also arranged for the mover. On the basis of blogs we've read, we chose the international arm of United Van Lines. They will come, pack everything, take it through customs, and unpack it for us in Puerto Vallarta. The estimate is between $7,000 and $8,000. Let's hope it turns out to be on the low side. It depends on the final weight.


We're really anxious to get there, and go to the beach. This picture is of the closest public beach for us. It is a 10 or 15 minute walk from our house.

Every step of the way has had its elements of anxiety, but now it is just waiting for a buyer. We don't have much of anything left to do, so I guess we'll watch lots of old movies.