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We made it through our appointment at the Portuguese Consulate in San Francisco almost without a hitch. Only minor inconveniences. One of the silly bumps in the road was the amount to be paid to the Portuguese consulate upon arrival for our appointment. I called VFS, the “middleman” for the consulate, to find out the exact amount to make out for the cashier’s check. I was told $101 so I got two checks for that amount, one for me and one for my wife. However, it turned out that the amount was supposed to be $101.03. I was off by a whopping three cents!

So we had to leave the building and go to the post office down the block for two money orders. We returned the cashier’s checks to our bank for a refund. We also needed two money orders for VFS Global. They were off as well but were able to take a credit card for that payment.

Another hitch was that I had combined all of our documents, bank statements and other requirements in one folder. It was supposed to be in separate folders, one for me and one for my wife. Fortunately, I had made two copies of everything so the woman who we were assigned to was able to separate some things and throw away other things. We were allotted a half hour for the two of us but it ended up taking an hour.

Sainthood for the Woman who Helped us

The woman who was helping us was the most patient, efficient and good-natured person anyone could hope for. Considering that she is there all day, every day helping stressed out, discombobulated people like ourselves, I think that should qualify her for sainthood.

After we left the consulate, we decided to enjoy the rest of our day in San Francisco. We walked to Chinatown and onward to Fisherman’s Wharf. Stopped for gelato, food, drinks and just enjoyed the day, unwinding after completing our first step along the yellow brick road of our journey. But so far, no flying monkeys! I bet you were wondering how I would work the flying monkeys into this blog!

Then we called Lyft for a ride back to the airport and everything went smoothly. We’ve had better luck with Lyft, price-wise, than Uber but taking either Lyft or Uber around the city is so much cheaper and much less stressful than renting a car!

Selling Your House Without the Help of a Realtor

As I think I mentioned previously, we sold our house within a few days after listing it. The closing took about two and a half months due to some complications but all in all, everything worked out just fine. Many of you who are following our journey, well.. actually, I think that I only have five followers so practically nobody is following our journey. Hell, even my own wife isn’t following! Anyway, I’m doing this mainly for myself just to see if I have enough discipline to do it on a regular basis! And who knows, someday I may be able to help someone who accidentally stumbles upon my blog by searching the right keywords, ie., Portugalexpatlife with no spaces.

But I digress, I wanted to say something about selling your home. I know that many of you will have to do that in order to move. I know that the easy way to do it is to hire a Realtor to handle everything for you. That will cost you about 5%, give or take. That is a huge chunk of change and I don’t think most Realtors earn it. I used to be a Realtor so I think that I am allowed to say that. I Googled services that will put your house on MLS and provide a sign and legal documents to fit your state. It ended up costing us about $350. I printed flyers and ran local ads on Facebook, which cost me another $150. I know that isn’t for everyone but if you are so inclined, you may want to give it a shot.

Timing the Exchange Rate

I was able to transfer the proceeds from our house into our Transferwise account in euros. The exchange rate was 1.1057. I felt pretty happy about that because yesterday it was 1.1085. However, currently it is 1.0987. Every tick makes a big difference when transferring large amounts. Short of having a crystal ball to see the future (or to see flying monkeys.. hehe) there is just no way to know with certainty which direction it is going.

Time for the Garage Sale

We had a garage sale last week and we will have another on this week (last one). The garage sale mentality is an interesting phenomenon. Some people are content to pay you what you are asking if they see that it is a good deal but  others will offer you ten cents on the dollar of what you are asking, even if it’s only a buck.

Our buyers also bought some of our furniture. We were happy to be able to be able to keep our large TV until we move. Too bad they didn’t want our comfortable bed. We might end up sleeping on futons for the final couple of weeks. Anyway, we had a beautiful console with a built in electric fireplace and the 70 inch TV and three smaller TVs scattered throughout the house which we offered for a good price at $600. They didn’t really want the smaller TVs and asked what the price would be without them. I said $700. I was half joking, of course, but I didn’t want to unbolt the TVs from the mounts on the walls.

Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist and Scammers

We put a lot of items on Facebook Marketplace and on Craigslist. Naturally, we have received a lot of texts and emails from scammers. Sometimes I ignore them, sometimes I respond with “Don’t waste my time” or depending on the mood, I may tell them to F off. The last one, though, offered to buy my grill, sight unseen, for my asking price of $325. They would send me a money order and someone will come and pick it up. So I said “Okay” just to have some fun with him.

I received a text from him today saying that he would FedEx me $1810, including shipping, because they will also be picking up other items in neighboring cities. The next day I received an overnight FedEx envelope with a cashier’s check for $1,810. Then he texted me asking me to refund $1,435 through Zelle. I played along with back and forth texts until I finally told him that the bank is suspicious of the check and has turned it over to the FBI. He was pissed. Now I suppose he is off to his next victim. I do feel satisfied, though, that I wasted his money by making him use Fedex Overnight to send me a counterfeit money order.

Another scam I received was folks asking me to confirm a Google code using your phone number so that they know I am legit. I am not exactly sure how that works but I believe that somehow by agreeing to this they are able to access your phone number for some nefarious use. There are a million scams out there. Don’t fall for them. And don’t ever meet anyone in a deserted parking lot late at night.

Enough of that. I am supposed to be in the garage right now preparing for this weekend’s garage sale. However, it is in the mid 90s today and that garage heats up like an oven so I will wait until the morning. In the meantime, I will be in touch with you, all five of you, next month before we leave!