On Sunday Lorraine mentioned to me that she had seen in the Arran Banner an advert for the sale of the lease for the Brodick Post Office, not thinking for a moment that I would be interested. Pretty soon thereafter I called the seller to get the lowdown and began to realise that this could very well be the opportunity of our lifetime. We’ve wanted to leave Luxembourg for a while and dreamed of moving to Arran (an island off the west coast of Scotland and the most beautiful place on Earth).
We looked at properties on Arran back in August and made some enquiries about getting a mortgage. It turned out that no UK banks or building societies would entertain us, as we’re not UK residents. I expected the same response when I began making enquiries about a business loan to buy the post office lease. I called my branch and got the usual response (I’ll call you back). Soon thereafter, much to my surprise, I got a call from the business manager at the branch on Arran! We talked for a while and it really sounds like this might be a possibility.
The seller has mailed us a schedule and some financial details. The bank has sent us two forms to fill out: a personal profile and a business profile. We can’t really get our teeth into those until the info from the seller arrives. We also need to find a solicitor to request that he submit a note of interest on our behalf, just to make things official. We have details of two solicitors in Saltcoats who have knowledge of Arran. Hopefully the schedule from the seller will have the contact details of her own solicitor so we can get that ball rolling.
So, let’s just wait and see what happens. If you’d told me on Saturday that, by the close of the following day, I’d be excited about buying a post office lease, I’d have thought you were nuts.
