Your first days in your home in Portugal

We arrived in 2015 and had already made contact with a relocation agent based in Cascais. Initially we stayed for about 6 weeks in an apartment in Almada, which was very nice. With the help/guidance of the relocation agent we went through the whole process of settling into Portugal (NIF, Bank, hunt for and rental of first permanent apartment, utilities, health and other insurances, NHR, buying a car) very smoothly. Having this relocation agent was definitely worth the money. Thanks to having an excellent shipping company for our container, the customs clearance part of the move was also very easy.

After living for a while in Cascais we decided to buy a property in a different location and by then we knew really experienced people helping us with all required processes including the annual tax declaration and so on.

My advice would be to avail the services of a good relocation agent and have a good shipping company that does all you customs clearance and so on for you.

The move to Portugal was our 9th move.

The real estate agent who sold us our house was mighty helpful, introducing us to a few people and getting us set up with utilities etc.  And touring us around the countryside, etc.  In the US I would have had my "own" agent (paid via percentage of sale, so not really clear whose side this person is on), but I think my experience in Portugal is fairly typical.  A good listing agent is going to make a big difference, and of course it's good business for them to be known for that.

Other than that, we managed without much help or previous Portugal experience.  However, I can speak some Portuguese, enough to talk to real estate agents, who in the majority of cases did not speak English.

I would say the biggest mistake when we first arrived in Portugal was to try to use a real estate agent to find a rental apartment here in Porto. She was not able to arrange almost any viewings because almost none of the contact numbers on our shortlist of apartments would return her calls - we soon understood that they didn't want to split the fee with another agent.

After a couple of days she started stalling by inventing all kinds of reasons why she was not able to get any appointments. We wasted almost one week like this and it was a really, really stressful experience. In the end we took the matter in our own hands, especially since I was able to speak and understand some Portuguese and started contacting various agents or landlords directly, which worked a lot better, and were able to find something within another 7-10 days.

So the advice I would give to anybody now would be to use a translator app or an interpreter and avoid using an agent to find a rental.

It's good of you all to share your experiences and give advice.  After reading these replies I feel so much more confident about making the move, even though it probably won't be until next year. 😀🙏

So the advice I would give to anybody now would be to use a translator app or an interpreter and avoid using an agent to find a rental.
-@ctomac

My advice would be to use a relocation agent that can help with everything that is required at the start. The one we had knew exactly the right, and most efficient, sequence of what needs to be done and she talked to the different RE agents and organized the viewings with them. She drove/walked us around and so the settling in was easy as. She also helped with insurance, bank and so on and we could contact her later on, if we had questions. I found that the few hundred EUR were well invested.

@nz7521137 Hi, can you share the information? Where to contact that agent?

@nz7521137

Please send information about the agent you liked so much.

Thank you,

Maddie