When we arrived in Stoupa we were met by a young energetic couple: Laila Karsberg and Vassilis Tsoumeas. Laila is Danish and Vassilis is Greek. They had lived and worked in Denmark for about 10 years when they decided to set up a business in the area where Vassilis grew up.

We immediately liked Laila and Vassilis. We think this is very important because we were about to trust all our savings (and more!) to them. We started by looking at a lot of houses in the area that met our checklist. Not just with Laila and Vassilis, but also with others. This gave us a good feel for prices and what you can get for them, but also for the way people do business here. Some people we felt good about, others we didn’t. We went with our feeling, and the short timeframe made it a lot easier to make quick decisions; we just didn’t have the time to fuss about!

Half way during the week we decided we wanted to buy the house that we came over for originally! Laila and Vassilis were able to anwser most of our questions. And we could tell that they were used to doing business in the Northern European way. Not postponing things but doing them straight away and giving us clear anwsers. Besides the business part of it, we also liked them personally.

Of course when we decided we wanted to buy the house, we suddenly had a lot of things to do. And all in 3 or 4 days!

We had to get a Greek tax number, find a lawyer to represent us, find a notary to finalise the sale and check if there were no other claims to the house and the land it stood on. The house was still empty, it only had a roof and walls. So we also had to decide on things like what was the bathroom going to look like, what front door did we want, what shutters, what did we want to have on the floors, where were lights and sockets going to be etc etc. Laila and Vassilis helped us with all that. They introduced us to the right people, went to the tax office and notary with us. They went shopping with us in Kalamata, taking note of all the things that would have to be bought at a later stage.

When we left Stoupa after those 10 days we were almost the new owners of a house in Greece! We had a preliminary agreement stating that we had to pay all the monies for the house before a certain date, which we did. Our lawyer could sign contracts in our name.

When the house was really ours in June 2005 Laila and Vassilis proceeded with finishing the build and decorating. We had a lot of contact by phone, by e-mail and sometimes fax. Especially e-mail was very useful: of course it’s difficult trying to explain that you like a certain colour or shape of something over the phone. So then we often took a digital picture of it and e-mailed it. The same with drawings etc.

So far Laila and Vassilis have always kept their promises and stuck to dates when something had to be finished. They have a lot of people working for them and they check to see if everything has been done in the way it should. If it is not to their standards, they change it.

In October 2005 we moved into this beautiful, cosy house that we still can’t believe is ours! Before we arrived Laila and Vassilis arranged it that we had water, electricity and a solar system installed. They made a water system in our garden so that our plants don’t dry out during Summer. They pay our monthly water and electricity bills for us. In April 2006 we added a beautiful solid looking veranda to the house, all realised and overseen by Vassilis.

We still speak with Laila and Vassilis regularly. We are still adding things to the house with their help. And they are our caretakers when we rent out the house, making sure everything is clean and occasionally helping out our guests. We feel very lucky that we have found such trustworthy people that we can rely on. If you are considering buying a house that they will build, please feel free to contact us. (s.farrar@planet.nl)

And if you would like to take a look at the house, just go to www.greekvilla.nl "

Marc Kruiger & Sonia Farrar, The Netherlands, Nov. 2006