BiggerPockets

How to Buy Property in Mexico

Tuesday, March 17

Many people still believe that buying property in Mexico, is not possible, and even less so if it is on a beach for non-Mexicans.  There are actually over one million Americans and Canadians who have purchased Mexico real estate, and have been enjoying winters in the comfort of warm sunny year round weather and at some very incredibly low prices. 

In the posts to follow, I would like to share with you the process on how non-Mexicans are able to purchase property down here south of the border.  How some people will need to set up a fideicomiso in order to invest, others will need to set up a Mexican corporation, others neither of the previous two options and they can own fee simple title. 

I have been living and working down in Mexico for just about 15 years, and we have a group of experts from various regions of Mexico, and from various industries;  Mexico Real Estate blog.  You can jump ahead or look up good information on the topics that I will be discussing in these posts or just browse to see how the Mexico real estate market has been behaving these last several months. 

The first step in preparing for investing into real estate outside of the your home country, is to research and interview for qualified and recommended Mexico real estate agents.   You may be a seasoned expert with much success, but this is a different market, different laws, and your first investment it is always good advise to surround yourself with experts on all sides.  After you get your feet wet, know the ropes a little, then you can either continue with your real estate team, or shift some people around depending on the service and the expertise that was delivered to you during the transactions.  But I will go into further details on this process in my next post.

Comments

1. 

   Joshua Dorkin Reply
   almost 3 years ago

   Its great that you'll be posting about buying property in Mexico. Most people do think that you can't as an American, and I hope you'll help fill in the details.

   That said, I think that anyone pondering investments in Mexico should take into consideration the current unrest in the country and the horrific conditions, given the drug violence throughout the nation.

2. 

   Thomas Lloyd Reply
   almost 3 years ago

   Joshua,
   thanks for the invite and the welcome letter. I am looking forward to joining further chats with you and meeting more people on this site.

   As to your comments, I would like to point out that President Felipe Calderon, from his initial campaign speeches advised that he was going to have a firm fist in his stance to bring control to the streets of Mexico again. Many people in this society are upset and worried about the drug situation and how it is creeping into the Mexican society and affecting the children of Mexico….too. As we know, Mexico is not the final destination for the drugs, there is a demand, a strong demand in the US, and the channels and the enticement of money trafficking the illegal substances north is enticing for those in need. President Calderon has kept to his promise, and has begun “battling” these illegal activities for the past year. The drug violence you are seeing today, are actually the vacuums being left in regions after the leaders of these illegal industries have been picked up and placed behind bars, and the reprisals from these groups battling back defending their “way of doing business”.

   Is this good for the short term….probably not, but for the long term yes.

   Many people are unaware, that Mexico’s number one source of revenue is generated from the oil industry exports, but soon, the projection is that this will be replaced by the tourism industry around the year 2012. Mexico is preparing. They have begun massive investments into the infrastructure, into the training, into the safety issues for tourists and second home dwellers. So, in my opinion and experience, this country will be seeing a large inflow of Americans and Canadians buying winter homes and retirement getaways over the next ten years. I believe the Homeland security secretary stated on CNN that “Mexico’s situation is a lot of hot air. The rumors of our neighbor's demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

   I know there are some regions, or better said some neighborhoods that are seeing much violence during this conflict of cleaning up the streets, but sometimes we over generalize and mis understand that these reports DO NOT include all the cities of Mexico, and not all neighborhoods are facing these violent incidences.

   Last week Michigan state university was visiting for a week at a clinic my family and I participate at quite often here in Playa del Carmen. A clinic that helps children needing medical attention. The doctors and students from Michigan state took their spring break week, along with many Mexcian families and local businesses along with a large expat community in helping the local children. The mayor of the city made a special recognition and celebration for this event, but these stories just dont quite make the front pages. And usually many of the volunteers are expats who are retiring down here getting involved with the communities and neighborhoods. Very rewarding and the seeds to healthier and safer societies, states, and countries.

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