Buying a house in Puerto Vallarta
Buyer real estate agent services offered for homes, condos and land in Mexico
Mexico real estate market does not function the same as the USA or Canada. To lower your risks, it is advised to have a highly educated, experienced, and credentialed buyers real estate agent representing you. This will help when buying a house in Puerto Vallarta and facilitating a good experience navigating the quirky, non-compliant, misleading, or hidden surprises and scenarios that can be a huge risk to your financial investment. In most scenarios our services are at ZERO cost to you. Below we outline the steps we take to facilitate your property search, and comprehensive evaluation of the property you select to ensure you have a smooth favorable purchase transaction experience.
Property Search
Trying to find a Mexico Dream Home in an area that you are not familiar with can be intimidating, that is why we do the work for you. We know the different areas and know much of the available inventory. We take a comprehensive approach up front to identify your specific desires and address known variables that apply to this market and determine what you are ok with and not ok with and then we search for the inventory to match. Presenting that inventory electronically or in person at your preference for consideration.
Property Tour In Person/Virtual
Once you have identified the properties that you would want to see its time to view them. We provide in person tours, as well as pick you up and take you back to the place you are staying. We also offer virtual tours for those interested in buying real estate down here.
Our real estate market does not have Realtor lock boxes on the doors and often homes are rented or occupied by owners. We must coordinate with the listing agent whom must meet us at the property to facilitate entry. This process can be challenging at times as most people who are renting are on vacation and out on the town or on the beach, so setting up tours and property viewings takes some effort to coordinate.
Fair Market Evaluation
A home sale price evaluation – also known as a CMA or “Comparative Market Analysis” is a report that we put together comparing the subject property to similar properties in the market – sold, unsold, and time on market. This will give us real perspective on what the fair market value of the home is that you are interested in, and will be used to support the price when the offer is presented.
Buyers Reverse Capital Gains Tax
For those of you who are able to get a really good purchase price below tax value there is a reverse capital gains tax that you will have to pay on top of your purchase price. Most agents don’t know about this but we certainly do. Paying this tax likely means you are getting a really good deal and should be happy to pay it. We can facilitate identifying if it will be part of your financial picture so you have no surprises.
Bilingual Home Inspection Report
Mexico constructions standards are often not standard. That is why making your purchase offer contingent upon a satisfactory home inspection is important. Some homes have been built up and added onto over many years this can create electrical, plumbing, and structural integrity problems. Condos can often have plumbing and electrical challenges also. We have a select group of bilingual inspectors that will use the same methods of a USA property inspector to go over the house to identify any undesirable surprises. They will deliver a fully bilingual PDF property inspection report.
Facilitation of Small Property Fixes or Full Renovations
Your prospective home may just need a few easy fixes, or perhaps you want to do major renovations. We work closely with many vendors that can handle the small and big jobs, including large renovations. Pre-vetted electrical, painting, plumbing, engineering and architecture, interior designers, masonry, tile, carpentry, cabinetry, window coverings, furniture restoration & reupholstering.
Credentialed Professional Opinion
As a result of a property inspection, or a general walk through we may determine that a credentialed professional opinion is advisable. We have existing relationships with engineers, architects, electrician, plumbers, masons, roofers, tile setters, carpenters. The cost of a bad investment may be huge, taking time to evaluate things correctly upfront is important, that is what we are here to help you with.
Vendor Services
Once you have finished buying a home you will start on maintenance, cleaning up old items, and setting up ongoing services with vendors. In a tropical climate, ongoing maintenance is a must. We work closely with many vendors that we can connect you with to handle these items for you.
Attorney Legal Review
In the USA or Canada you likely do not have an attorney representing you in your real estate transaction. For foreigners we recommend having Mexican attorney as legal counsel. We have several bilingual highly qualified real estate attorneys we refer our clients to. Your purchase contact will be bilingual as a courtesy but the Spanish is the legal binding part of the contract. Your final papers that you sign at closing of which there is more than 60 pages are all in Spanish with no English courtesy, the content is mostly legal language that is even more difficult for those who are not fluent to understand. Signing a bunch of legal documents in a language you don’t speak or speak very little can make people feel uncomfortable. We recommend our clients review all documents with the legal counsel they day before signing, this tends to make signing day go much quicker and with less doubt or concern.
Perhaps more important than a home inspection is the “legal review” contingency in your purchase contract, this is the part of the purchase contract where we ask the seller to provide use the information and documentation we need to dig deep into the legal status of the property to determine liabilities and or rules or regulations that would be unsatisfactory, all legally binding documents have to be in Spanish. The items we are asking for to review in a transaction are as follows, but not limited to:
- Deed (Escritura) legal description of property
- Public registration
- Predial, or Deed (Escritura) page which specifies Registro Catastral (tax registration)
- Documentation for Fideicomiso bank trust (when applicable)
- Utility bills
- Information regarding any liens on the property
- HOA regime & bylaws, with all modifications (as recorded by Notario Publico)
- HOA Financial Statements for the last three years
- HOA assembly of minutes for the last three years (as recorded by Notario Publico)
- HOA building insurance policy (if applicable)
- Information regarding rental income, expense, and up-coming reservations
- All documents and ID’s) relevant to Power of attorney(if applicable).
- Information on employees that work at the property such as cleaning and maintenance services.
These items are what your attorney will review and produce a “Legal Opinion Report” all in English that will summarize their findings and anything else they may have uncovered during their process. At times our clients in the past have found items during this review that were unsatisfactory and backed out of transactions. You will be much happier paying an attorney a little money upfront and, if needed, backing out of a transaction as a result of the findings, versus finding out information that you wish you had known before buying property.
Contracts
Contracts are produced by either the buyer or seller, or their agents, or legal representatives. Our market has standard contracts put together by highly qualified real estate attorneys, but also allows for other non-standardized contracts. You will not have to come up with any contracts. All legally binding documents are in Spanish. In our market courtesy side by side translations are often provided with all contracts. At times it is best to have access to a highly qualified bilingual real estate attorney who can provide some oversight or feedback before signing on the dotted line. We have such attorneys that we work with on a daily basis, thereby protecting your best interests.
Utility Close Out & Paperwork
Congratulations!! Your own a Mexico Property. You want to move into the property without disruption of services. It is common practice for utility transfer paperwork to be executed at closing. This tells the phone, internet, electric, water, television service providers to transfer the service into the new buyer’s name. The forms and requirements for each of these service providers are frequently changing, requiring regular monitoring with each provider. We can do the work for you.
Coordination With Transaction Manager & Notario Publico
There are many people involved when buying a house in Puerto Vallarta and surrounding areas, such as Nayarit, Punta de Mita, and Nueva Vallarta, which is why considerable coordination must take place. As a buyer we will be able to designate a transaction manager to facilitate at no cost to the buyer. The transaction manager will coordinate aspects of escrow (when applicable), property tax appraisal certification, drafting the Escritura with the Notario Publico, capital gains tax strategy implementation, set up of Fideicomiso Bank Trust, paperwork sign-off by the Trustee of the bank, Foreigner Permit registration/issuance at the federal government, local government offices, and much more!
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