Monday, September 11, 2017

A New Casa In 2017 - How Did We Get Here? Part 2

It is not possible to be brief about this.  How we got to this point is only something that could really be understood by someone who has been through it, sweat it out and felt it.  The journey is generally different now but some still live in the world I will describe.

Read Part 1 here since it will make this post more understandable.

During our next visit to Sayulita we decided to consider another lot purchase.  "The last one went so well let's consider this again" we told ourselves.  Real estate everywhere is going up, up, up and if we can buy another property maybe we can sell it down the road and pay off a significant portion of the purchase price from our original purchase.  Ok!  If we ever want to get rid of it we can just sell it right?  We are so smart!  Sayulita had gained some momentum as far as exposure was concerned.  Fonatur, the tourism engine in Mexico, was putting in a major tourism complex down the road only 15 minutes away.  Have you heard of "Cancun".  Fonatur, it's creator for better or worse is the ...

"mastermind the infrastructure behind modern tourism in Mexico by developing some prime coastal real estate and encouraging foreign investment in its projects.

If Fonatur is eyeing the area for a major development then maybe we are on the early track to get in on this area plus we really like it.  Double bonus!  So, we hooked up with a local Realtor and she showed us a property that had just hit the market.  It was in an established nicer neighborhood with "pica boo" views of the coast going north.  It was even a better asking price than our first purchase.  Perfect!!  Our Presta Nombre was happy to put her name of the papers and suddenly we were proud owners of two lots in Sayulita.

A little time passes and we thought we were so cool.  (Ok, maybe it was just me who thought we were cool).  We have two quality lots in Sayulita, Mexico!  In a location that we pegged as a great up and coming destination.  International investors.  Welcome the global financial crisis of 2007/2008.  This totally washed all those dreams of having a house in Mexico down the drain along with everything else.  Real Estate in Sayulita came to a stand still.  We listed both lots immediately but no one wanted to even discuss the idea of a jungle covered lot with no title.  If you have cash to make a purchase for a lot, odds are you have cash to buy a fire sale lot in a kick ass location or a house with a title with an owner eager to sell.  Casas were selling cheap at bargain prices all over town as second home owners were looking to ditch their investments in Mexico.  We were pretty much stuck with something that no one wanted.  We were fucked.



Again, time passes and we were stuck paying on this money borrowed from ourselves every month.  The process of titling our lots was finally available in 2010.  Perhaps if we had lots available with "title" the appeal to buyers would be better and we could sell and lighten our financial burden a bit.  So, to be clear, the process for foreigners requires that the titling process from "ejido land" is completed in a Mexican national's name first.  The result being that the Mexican national would have the property listed as his or her property on the title deed at the beginning of the process.  After that, the title can be transferred to the foreigner in the form of a "Bank Trust".   This is a legal classification to allow foreign investors to legally own property in Mexico a certain distance to the coastline.  The twist on all this is that, for some reason, we needed new Presta Nombres to carry this process through.  In other words, our original Presta Nombre said she was unable(or unwilling) to put her name on the title for the lots.  This posed a problem since we did not know many people in town who we would trust to put their names on the documents even temporarily.  We ended up tracking down a former baby sitter of the kids whose family worked for lots of people we knew.  She was barely 18 at the time but if we trusted her with our children hopefully we could trust her(with the right arrangement) with representing one of our properties.  We needed a totally separate and second "Mexican national" to help us to represent our second lot.  We just did not know any more people in town so the attorney who was completing the titling process for us recommended his brother as the stand in "Presta Nombre" for the titling process.

Ok, so where does that leave us?  Our original Presta Nombre had to step aside.  We now have two new Presta Nombres.  One who we have used for a baby sitter twice.  One we have never met or even talked to.  What the hell did we get ourselves in to?  Tune in to Part 3.

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