Did we make the right decision?

On the day before we left for France, we received a urgent email asking us to phone the Emigration Fair representative for Lunde, Norway with whom we'd discussed a possible live/work opportunity (see this blog posting for the whole story).  Apparently, the three other couples they'd been working with had dropped out for various reasons and now they wanted to offer us the chance.

We had a long telephone conversation and several detailed emails in Dutch (the representative is a Dutch expat) discussing the somewhat unconventional business arrangement being offered by a Foundation.  In greatly simplified terms, the bottom line was that we would run the hostel as owners, using our own money to make interior improvements and keeping all profits but paying rent to the Foundation, which owns the building.  That sounded great...jumping in on a going-concern that was managing to provide a reasonable income with only summer guests and minimal effort.  An additional plus-point was that the municipality was enthusiastic about getting new blood into the business who would expand the offerings to guided tours, winter cross-country skiing holidays, etc.

There was a catch, though.   The previous owner-managers had put 100,000 euros into building improvements and wanted to be reimbursed by the new owner-managers.  We couldn't understand why the Foundation wasn't responsible for repaying and how it made sense to pass this debt on to us and the representative we were working with couldn't explain it sufficiently.

Here is the website for the hostel: Lunde Hostel

It's in a lovely location and looks like it's in good condition.  Additionally, as it was originally a home for elderly people, each room has a kitchenette and bath and there are no bunkrooms - so it's more like a ComfortSuites than a hostel.  We could do a lot with proper marketing and websites, even if it required mastering Norwegian. 

After a week of cogitation, making lists of pros and cons, stressing,  contemplating travel costs from Toulouse to Oslo and, in the end, enjoying our time in La Belle France, we informed our contact that we are going to pin our hopes of finding our dream place in the Pyrenees.  I don't think she was too happy with us as we haven't heard back from her but if this sounds like your dream future, let us know and we'll get you in contact!