It's official--Michel and I are under contract to buy a five-hundred-year-old riad on the riverfront in Azemmour.
Okay... maybe I need to be a little more precise in the telling. Michel is actually the one under contract, and only parts of the house are five hundred years old. But he and I are in this adventure together, and when I peek under the peeling facade and see sixteenth-century mud mortar construction, not to mention the medieval ironwork on our front door, I can't be bothered with hair-splitting about plaster and cinderblock upper walls built during the 1900s. Hello? This house has history, and now Michel and I are part of it.
We went today, along with @norrman and the property owner, to meet with the notary and sign paperwork binding the sale price and our intent to purchase. There is no loan to close on this transaction, but because of the quarantine and Morocco's international travel ban, Michel will not be able to return to France to make necessary financial arrangements for at least another two weeks. It will then take him a little time to get everything in order, so I'll remain here in Morocco to handle business on this end.
Buying property in Morocco is not a straightforward process for foreign investors. The most significant issue is the matter of cash repatriation. If the correct steps are not followed with the transfer of money into Morocco, it is very difficult to take the funds back to a home country in case of a sale or profit. Thanks to the Bank of Africa, formerly BMCE, Michel was able to painlessly set up an account to transfer funds with convertible dirhams, an electronic process that provides automatic tracking and attestation for all funds he moves into and out of the country. I think back to the nightmare we had with National Bank of Tazewell just trying to open a checking account with his name on it. Oh, well. Their loss. Turns out he wasn't trying to defraud them after all. Imagine that.
The other thing one has to watch out for in Morocco is lack of legal precision. People tend to "wing it" here much more than folks do in the U.S. There's great emphasis on good faith agreements, and while that in itself is noble and definitely a lost art in most developed countries, there is still the matter of risk management and when you're talking about this much money, it's worth irritating the hell out of the notary until he gets the contract right. I'm still not one hundred percent satisfied with the language this one contains, but at the end of the day it is not the purchase agreement, only the guarantee that the owner won't sell the house out from under us. So, provided there are no volcanos or tsunamis or crashing space debris that destroys the house we intend to buy, we should be just fine.
Another day, I'll return to the house and get better photos. For now, the ones I have to share here are plenty sufficient to show what we're so excited about. This is a beautiful home. It has about 1,200 square feet of finished living space spread across two floors, with a full rooftop terrace and ancient underground hammam. It needs basic renovation and some structural repair to one exterior corner, but the contractor's assessment and estimate were very encouraging. The house is a tank. It's main structure survived the 1755 earthquate without a single displaced stone, so there isn't much doubt it'll withstand any wear and tear Michel and I put on it.
The second floor has three large rooms, one with a lovely high ceiling and fireplace. It will be a master suite for guests, with another room serving as a smaller bedroom and the third room as kitchen and lounge. There's a large bathroom on the second floor, as well.
This leaves the entire first floor as private living space for Michel and me. The kitchen is large enough to accomodate a professional catering staff once we start receiving guests. Did I mention that the best cook in Azemmour will be our neighbor?
She's young and gracious and beautiful, but that woman can outcook anybody's grandma in the medina. Book a stay with us next year when the pandemic is under control and you can eat from her table yourself! (Dear cryptocurrency enthusiasts: we are also cryptocurrency enthusiasts. That's all I'm willing to say at the moment but infer from that what you will and come visit us.)
Now... on to the photos. This house is magnificent. I love it already!
Home Sweet Home
This fountain may or may not stay with the house. We're not yet sure what the previous owner will take and what he will leave. This is one of those "imprecisions" I mentioned, but it is not an important detail for us. If the fountain stays, we'll use it. If it goes, we'll build a koi pond downstairs under the open roof with a waterfall. We'll actually do that anyway, with or without this cute little fountain. I can't wait to meet our new fishies!
It's difficult to show what the downstairs courtyard looks like because it's too big to get in frame. I'll try to get some angles of it from upstairs soon. Suffice it to say that it has at least three large potted trees growing in it that we will replace with our own if the owner takes them. In addition to the koi in the pond, I want to see colorful birds perched in the branches. Maybe an Indian fantail pigeon or two. Nothing like bringing the outdoors inside, especially when you live in a riad!
The above photo of the courtyard shows two of the trees and the antique pole ceilings. You can also see a double window in the top right corner. The following photo shows the view into the courtyard from the opposite side of those windows, taken from the stairwell leading to the second level.
From this angle of the stairwell, you can see another view of the same double window on the right.
Below is another shot of the antique pole ceilings. It also shows the very, very old block archways over the doors on the first level. This is part of the original structure. The wall at the bottom right is the same wall you'll see from the outside in later photos, the original Portuguese rampart from the sixteenth century.
The antique woodwork and structural architecture of this house amaze me.
The next photo shows the other side of the wall I mentioned earlier, with the veneer stripped to show the original Portuguese construction.
The intersecting wall is the same rampart you will see in the last photo, which is the view from our terrace.
This is the side of the house that we had a contractor assess and estimate cost for repair. When completed, the exterior finish will match the front of the house, seen unpainted in the photo below.
The blue door dates back to the sixteenth century, with medieval ironwork and design.
I will keep everyone updated about our progress with this house, from now through the formal acquisition, move-in process, renovations, and gradual development as a bed and breakfast. At some point I will also launch an IndieGoGo campaign in hopes of finding some motivated investors. Michel and I have great ideas to boost tourism in the Azemmour area. This house is just the first step. Not to mention a fantastic place to call home!
(View from our terrace of the Oum Rabia river, showing the Portuguese rampart that forms the back wall of our house. The Atlantic ocean is visible to the immediate left, approximately two kilometers downriver.)
Congratulations! That is good news on the riad purchase.
Thank you! We are plenty excited about it!
How exciting! That's wonderful news. Good luck finalizing everything! :)
Canada is on the list of countries welcome to visit here. Just sayin'!!!
Wow, what an adventure, sounds like a huge place.
I'm going to hazard a guess that property is fairly cheap in Morocco!?!
Even if the property itself is "cheap," the maintenance and repairs never are.
What a find!
What a dream home! "This house has history, and now Michel and I are part of it." Sounds like a good opening to a novel. :)
Hi,
I think you may have replied to me my mistake, rather than the top level post!
Maintenance and repairs in Morocco are a song compared to what they are in the U.S., and the craftsmanship is extraordinary. You'd die if I told you the quote for repairing the corner of the house, which includes steel rebar reinforcement. You couldn't add a deck to a house in the U.S. for that amount. Some things in Morocco are expensive, like cars and internet service. But many other things mirror the ratio of dirham to dollar: one dirham equals approximately ten U.S. dollars. So a repair that would cost upwards of $20,000 in the U.S. could cost as little as $2,000 here.
Amazing!!!
So good to hear from you! :)
You got it: property wasn't expensive here in the first place, but right now, there's "blood in the streets." Not literally, of course. Just quoting Rothschild. We picked this house up for exactly half its original list price. Let's just say you couldn't buy a double wide mobile home for our final price. There are other homes in this area that are good buys as well, if investors are prepared for the long haul. They're not quick flips. For people looking to evacuate funds from the EU before bad things happen, it might be a thought.