As our scouting trip in Spain wraps up, it’s time to start thinking about what’s next.

We both have Barcelona at the top of our list. But Barcelona is definitely the priciest option, so we’ll need to figure out if we can make it happen (more on this in a bit). From there, it gets a bit tricky. My second choice is Valencia; Michael’s is Alicante. Alicante is my third choice, and Valencia is third on his list. We both put Málaga fourth. After lots of discussion, we’ve agreed that if Barcelona isn’t in reach, we’ll try landing in Valencia. After all, as we keep telling each other, where we land doesn’t have to be where we make home.

The first thing is to start preparing for the visa application. We’ll need a lot of documents; many of them will need to be apostilled and translated, and several have short time periods of validity. This will be complicated by the fact that the requirements published by Spain’s government really are more like guidelines, and the staff at the consulate are free to interpret them. Yay. We’ll definitely be hiring Spanish experts to help us here.

While that process is going, we’ll be finding a Spanish tax expert and hiring them to run simulations for taxes in both Barcelona and Valencia. And we’ll be putting together spreadsheets to track things like rental prices and other expenses. Once we know what the Spanish tax situation will look like, we’ll contact our financial adviser and see what effect the taxes will have on our retirement plan, whether the tax will drain our accounts faster than is safe.

We also need to radically accelerate the purging of our possessions and getting the house in shape for sale. We’ll probably be doing giveaways of books, DVDs/Blue-ray discs, art supplies, electronics, houseplants, artwork, and even furniture for local friends (keep your eyes open if you might be interested). We’ll look into donating the remainders, and for everything else, an estate sale, I suppose.

When we move will really depend on when we get our visas (assuming Spain approves them) and how fast we can get the house ready to sell. Our local consulate only has a few spots each month, and they fill up fast. We’re planning to start looking for visa appointments in mid-summer, aiming to get one in September. But it’s probably going to be in October, November, December, or even later.

So, that’s pretty much our plan for the rest of the year. We’ve got one more vacation lined up (a cruise, of course), which will give us a nice break in August. But otherwise, I’m expecting moving to Spain to be our main focus for a few months.