Today I feel as though I’ve reached the end of our journey to the Sun – because after months and years of dreaming, we’ve just completed the purchase of a Spanish apartment. It’s ours. It really, really is!

The interstellar journey to getting there, however, was fraught with innumerable amounts of space debris comprising false starts, highs, lows and nerves on a knife edge, before our mission was finally complete. There are a few things I’ve learnt along the way, and some advice I would give to my foreign property-hunting novice-self who started this quest less than six months ago. So I thought I’d put these thoughts down in the hope they are of use to someone like me who is either ready for take-off, or at some point on their own journey to the Sun.

Obviously, everyone’s aspirations and experiences differ so you will have to make your own way. But here are my tips, based on my own Spanish property-hunting journey.

1. Do your research

I knew nothing at all about buying a property abroad until I went to the “A Place In The Sun” exhibition in Birmingham, just over five months ago. Going to this (and reading all the advice on their website) was probably the best thing I did. Talk to as many people as you can. Visit the stands. Go to the seminars and Q&As. Take all the free guides to property hunting that you will be offered, and read them all. The information will stand you in good stead and tell you what you need to do, and when.

2. Get your finances in place

There is absolutely no point in arriving at the launch pad until you have your finances confirmed and in writing, unless you are flying out purely on a fact-finding mission. Even then, if you happen to find the dream property, you are faced with either an anxious wait to see if it’s still available when your money is there, or parting with a deposit in the hope your finances come through. I actually made an offer on a property before my finances were confirmed and it didn’t end very well. Things can move very fast once that offer is made, so make sure you have everything ready to go when you do.

3. Get a good lawyer

If I only remembered one thing from the A Place In The Sun exhibition, this was it, and I’m glad. This was the second-biggest investment of my life (after my UK home), in a foreign country whose laws I don’t understand and language I don’t speak. You need someone on your side you have complete trust in. Even though I consider myself fairly sensible and well educated, there was a time during my false start when my lawyer had to phone me and, in that way a good lawyer can do, spend 10 minutes gently and diplomatically telling me to calm down and get a grip of myself. I’m so glad he did.

Search the AIPP website to find a lawyer. I would never go with one recommended by an estate agent – you need someone who is working for your interests and no one elses (see 5 below).

4. Allow yourself plenty of time for decision-making

My original plan was to fly out for two long days, view loads of properties, choose one and buy one, just like that. It was aspirational, to say the least, and nearly ended badly. It was, however, unbelievably useful in helping me to decide exactly what I did want and what I didn’t want, including the exact location I wanted to be in. It was also useful doing this search in the dead of December, the lowest of the low season. It really gives you an insight into what that beautiful picture on the internet looks like at its worst.

Even when I returned to finally buy my apartment, I went for a week, and needed that full week – what with viewings, haggling over the offer, being around to push the lawyers and estate agents into action, and having the second viewing to seal the deal.

5. Be ready for fraught nerves and sleepless nights

There was a night when I barely slept, sandwiched by two days when I must have checked the e-mails on my phone every five minutes. We had haggled over the offer for the entire first day and finally had one accepted, only for the price to mysteriously go up overnight. From that point on, I convinced myself this was a deal doomed to failure, to protect myself just in case it did! But we had completely fallen in love with the property; our second and third options were poor relations and more expensive.

Despite this, ours was possibly the smoothest property purchase in history – 22 days from offer to completion, and I worried about something on every single one of those days. You just have to tell yourself to stay as calm as possible, control what you can, and do your best not to worry about what you can’t. You are likely to have an English and a Spanish estate agent and at least two sets of lawyers involved in the deal, as well as the vendor. Things get delayed, lost in translation, and different parts of the chain seem to tell you completely different things. This is again where it is vital to have a good lawyer you trust. Sometimes it will feel like they are the only person on your side. Sometimes you might not even think they are, when you want to push something through and they are looking after your interests by telling you the paperwork isn’t in place! There is nothing you can do about all this stress except to be ready for it.

6. Be attentive to your timeline

Aside from the need to get finances sorted before making an offer, think about the small things too, such as the exact time when funds will be in your account and available to transfer. I had a needlessly anxious weekend because I arranged a currency transfer on a Friday (which had to be completed by the Tuesday) on a promise from my building society that the funds would be in my bank account by the end of Monday. Luckily they were as good as their word but I could have saved myself a weekend of worry by waiting for the money to be there before committing to a currency exchange.

7. Be lucky

I was very lucky on two fronts. The vendor had a very good reason for wanting to push the sale through quickly and had a specific date in his diary. So, when I was in complete despair and fearing our purchase would fall through because of all the usual hassle about estate agents, lawyers and paperwork, both the vendor and I were chasing for a speedy resolution.

Secondly, the Euro weakened significantly from the December when I first viewed to February when I took the plunge. It meant I could stretch my budget €12,000 further and brought our dream property into range when I couldn’t have afforded it before Christmas.

You can view our gorgeous new apartment at calidacasa.com, on Facebook at Calida Casa, or on Twitter @calidacasa. Or comment below or e-mail me if you’d like to discuss my experience.