Not sure if this could be useful to anyone... Just the other day, in my search for hipoteca, one of the banks requested ¨certificado de vida laboral¨ so I thought ¨damn, what a pain¨.
It turns out that one doesn´t need to go to a tesoreria and can easily request this document online. Here is the link:
http://www.seg-social.es/inicio/?MIval=cw_lanzadera&LANG=1&URL=50
I filled out a short form, submitted it and within 2 days La vida laboral was delivered to my home.

Thanks for posting these details. Can you keep us all posted on how this whole hipoteca/house-buying thing goes? Does this mean that you found a place?

Yes I have!!! Its outrageous amount of money but I think still a ¨buena inversion¨. I already signed contrato de arras and got nota simple which is the most important document about the real estate and you have to show it at any bank.

So I am looking for hipoteca, figured I´d try 3 different banks:
- la caixa - since this is where I keep my money
- cajamar - have some business dealings
- ING - since they are so aggressive getting into the market

With La Caixa it seems to be a non issue (I have a good friend working there and he doesn´t even care to take a photo copy of my contrato), so its a little bizzare.

Cajamar has been questioning me as if I was already a bankrupt at least 5 times in my life. Turns out they offer an interest a bit higher than La Caixa so they are history.

ING - they don´t care about anything that I own, all they want is check off the little boxes in their application. They insisted on seeing tarjeta de residencia but finally accepted that I don´t and won´t have one. NIE and passport had to suffice but they requested la vida laboral or certificado de negativo hacienda. They also want to see the work contract and nominas for 3 months... I have nominas for only 2 months but they don´t seem to mind that minor detail. They offer 4.51% interest right now.

All in all, I think I will go with La Caixa because their interest is very close to ING´s and *supposedly* its a better, more flexible type of hipoteca... not that I can tell you WHY, at this point but hopefully I will understand it better in the near future. And I want to bring business to my friend. I´m one of those people who on one hand are really good with their money but on another don´t know what they´re doing... quite a contradictory statement, but I just do everything that my gutt tells me to do, without much analysis.
Anyways, thats where I´m at now. Let me know if this is of interest to you and I can keep you informed.

That's great that you found a place. You are here for the "long haul," so I'm sure it IS a good investment.

Thanks so much for all the details. I am very interested. I don't know if we'll take the plunge any time soon, but it's good to know what steps are involved. Are you doing an adjustable rate mortgage?

P.S. I make my most important decisions EXACTLY the same way. Huge amounts of methodical, rational research and planning and then we it's time to take the plunge, I go with my "spidey senses."

Here is a little update of my apartment buying experience... let me sum it up: IT SUCKS. But then I guess these types of transactions are not supposed to be smooth.

Getting hipoteca has turned out to be a nightmare. Soon after I initiated the process, my la Caixa buddy got a job offer for a director position at Banesto. This helped big time. Still I´m less than ideal customer - my vida laboral from last year shows big ZERO, I´m single and most of my assets are outside of Spain (so they don´t count.) Fortunately I am a sole administrator of a company here which owns real estate in this country, so that my big negotiating point and did it in the end.

Unfortunately, even though I have my hipoteca ready to go, I still need to sit and patiently wait, as the apartment moves through the final stages of inheritance proceedings... sounds hopeless (everybody who I mention it to gives me this patronizing ¨you´re in deep s#!t¨ look) but apparently there is one last paper needed to finalize inheritance (which we´re hoping to get relatively soon) and then we can sign the contract...
So I´m back to waiting and practicing patience.