Hello one and all: My name is Carlos. I was born in Mexico (therefore I am a Mexican citizen), but I have lived in Los Angeles since the age of 12. I am now 46 years old. Afte much debate I have finally decided to buy property in Canun. Some of the properties that I have in mind are: Novo Cancun, Cancun Towers, Bella Vista Towers, and Isola just to name a few. For now I want to do it as an invesment and eventually to retire and move there. Hopefully I can retire in 10 years. I have been going to Cancun since 1987, fell in love with it and ever since then I have been back every single year, many times 3 or 4 times a year. So this is the place for me. Since the last 4 years, I also fell in love with The Blue Bay Getaway (but that's another story !) Anyways, here are my questions: Does anybody know a good realtor in Cancun that can help me with my purchase? It seems that every time that I Google for properties, I come across Ricardo Barraza and Associados. Is this a good compay? Can I possibly buy my property without a real state agent? Does anybody know if American Banks would finance real state purchases in Cancun? Thanks in advance. Carlos
Hi Carlos, Good luck, and be very careful. I can at least answer one of your questions. No, you don't need a Real EState agent. They disappear if there is a problem. When I bought here, the notary signed there is no debt and .... "doy fe" !!! I realized 3 weeks later there was 50,000 pesos of debt, they all agreed to sign, I didn't know enough, it was a scam/trap among notaries. They were about to seize the apt. At that time I started to fight. The notary said I am not responsible, which is questionable, but the Real Estate said the same, and THAT is true. So, if you find by yourself, better. Triple-check on everything, nothing is "go without saying" here. I don't know about the american banks. Probably someone else can help you.
Not for sale I know nothing about Ricardo Barraza except that he still has a picture of our house (that we bought from someone else 5 years ago) on his website! Not sure what that says about the accuracy of his listings...
Ricardo Barraza is on top of the search engines because his web designer figured out a sneaky way to trick Google. His being on top of Google has little to do with his ability as a real estate agent. I'm not dissing the man's abilities, but his search engine rankings are not based on merit, he essentially bought his way to the top. As for whether you need an agent it depends on several things. The properties you listed are high-end new properties. I'm not even sure all of them pay a commission to outside agents (I know Novo Cancun does). Some new properties can only be bought by going through the inside sales people. As JenLeib suggests there are many people here in the real estate industry who have little to no ethics, and will run and hide when something goes wrong. On the other hand there are a number of agents here with strong ethics who could help you understand the market better before you buy. If you are buying a new property be sure to understand exactly when titles are being issued. If the property is not yet finished they won't be able to issue titles until it's done. This puts you in a vulnerable position in case there's a hidden problem that will prevent the title in the future. If you are buying a used property you must be careful to ensure that the title is clear before you agree to make the purchase. It's very common for people to have JenLeib's experience and buy something only to find later that they bought a title problem or a debt or an on-going lawsuit...big yuck. Regardless of whether you buy new or used I absolutely implore you to insist on title insurance (especially for an expensive property). It's not common here, but both Stewart Title and First American Title write policies here. Using title insurance will slow down the process by a good month or more, but better that than to find out later that you can't get a clear title. You can also insist on using escrow here, again it's not common, in fact I have not figured out how to translate it properly into Spanish. But having a neutral 3rd party handle the money during the transaction will give you added piece of mind. When you say you are buying as an investment what do you mean exactly? Do you want to be able to do short-term rentals before you move down here? Or are you primarily interested in appreciation of the property value? If you want to get into the short-term rental market here be very prudent and do a lot of research. First there are a number of property managers here who I would not trust with a property I own. Fortunately there are one or two good ones. And a number of properties, especially new ones, do not allow short-term rentals of the units. So it's critical that you study this issue. You do not want to buy an expensive property expecting to rent it only to find that the by-laws do not allow short-term rentals. And when it comes to this issue you must insist on seeing the written by-laws, do not take any agent's word for it that short term rentals are allowed! Get it in writing!!! And finally about financing. There are some American banks that are willing to loan on Mexican properties. Usually they want you to secure the loan with collateral of a property in the US. Unfortunately, although there are many banks interested in loaning money on Mexican properties, not many loans are actually closing! The reasons are primarily due to title issues, and valuation issues. American money for financing Mexican properties is still fairly new, and we expect that in a couple of years things will straighten out and loans will be happening easily. But for now be very wary if a company wants an upfront fee to approve you for a loan on a property here. They may well be simply after that up-front fee, and the loan might not close ever. If you buy a property that is under construction you won't be able to get a normal loan. You can only get a normal loan once the building is finished. Many new properties here offer some kind of in-house financing for the construction period. More than you wanted to know, I'm sure; hope it helps.
Wow, K. you amaze me . I have learned al lot today... like every day I do more! I didn't know about the title insurance. I don't know what an escrow is, not being an American, but neutral third party, hmmm.... here ? neutral??? Who pays more? Even though, you are not sure :wink: At least you have a lot of info and I am sure RiverGirl can give more :lol:
Absolutely many many thanks !!! Thank you very much for both replies, specially to RiverGirl. Whooohhh that was awesome !! Yes, I understand that these are high end properties, but I have worked for a good 25 years, 6 days a week, 12 hours a day to finally be able to afford my dream of living in Cancun. By the way, I'm an IT manager at an air compressor distributor company. Because of all the possible risks that I might be facing, like unscrupulous sales people, yes I am taking every precaution possible and doing as much research as possible before I commit to anything. I understand that on most (or probably all) of these properties you need to put down a 30% down payment on the property. I can defenitely do this now, but I would need to be able to finance the rest. I do understand that a lot of these properties can go for past $600,000 dollars. Of course, this is way past my budget, so I would have to settle for something around in the $300,000 dollar range. By no means I'm well off, so the first couple of years I would actually have to struggle just to make the payments, but like I said before, this is my dream and I am now much closer to finally making it a reality. As far as the part of me first purchasing this as an investment, you are right in stating that I was hoping to have it as a rental first and then of course waiting for it to appreciate in value. Since I eventually plan on making this my permanent residence, I am in no hurry for it to appreciate in value. I also do know that some of these properties have not been completed yet, in fact some of them are not due to be ready until 2009, I was hoping to take advange of what these people call "pre-construction" prices. Is there such a thing or is this just a marketing ploy? Would discounts really exist if you purchase at "pre-construction? Once again, thanks for the input. Carlos
Carlos - The concept of pre-construction pricing is real. Around here, with the projects I've looked at, the earlier you commit to a development the less you will pay. What appears to happen is that as they make sales they ratchet up the prices. If the prices stay the same for a while it can indicate that sales are flat. But you must be careful that the development you buy into has a reputable developer who has the money to finish the project. It's prudent to watch the local papers to see if the developer is getting into trouble here, some of them are always in the news because they violate laws and then bribe people to get out of it and that always ends up with noise being made. The developers who just do things right don't make lots of headlines, but they do get recognized for being good. And there are inherent risks involved in buying something that's not built yet. First off, you can't walk through it and see how it really feels. I know of one project, currently being built in Cancun, that pre-sold a bunch of units, then they built the demo condo and realized that the architecture was so bad in 3 dimensions that now they are scrambling to make changes. And sales have flattened out since the demo was finished because the prospective buyers dislike the space. It makes a big difference to be able to walk through and feel the space. If you can, try to get inside other buildings that a given development's architect has built. At least then you can tell if the architect is any good. Another fear in buying an unbuilt condo is what will the management company be like in the end? I've heard some horror stories along these lines. Personally, knowing the market as I do, I would feel more comfortable buying an already built property where you can research everything, and walk through the building (and inspect it), and titles are already in place, and you can attempt to get US financing. It just seems like more of a sure bet to me. But then it's not new! So it's a toss-up. Whatever you do be careful. This is your dream so you've got to do it right. Don't get lured into something you don't fully understand. To be blunt, real estate as an industry in Mexico is somewhat primitive. It's full of hustlers, and people don't use title insurance or escrow much. But the same market rules that apply in the US apply here, just go slow, understand everything, get a good lawyer (I can recommend one for you) and don't put any money into anything you are not 150% sure of. I've bought two properties in Cancun, both were found after months of combing the streets and looking and looking. We were bargain-hunting and we found bargains. Your case is different. But the principles are the same. Be careful, go slow, don't get emotional and learn everything you can.
