Updated 7 days ago on . Most recent reply
Investing in a property in Mexico
We have decided that our next property will be located in Mexico. Ideally we are looking for a single family home (3+ bedrooms) in an area where STRs are profitable. We have not yet decided if we are looking near the coast or inland. Both are options on the table currently.
Does anyone have a realtor or lawyer in Mexico they would recommend? I know that these are largely location dependent, but it would be helpful to connect with someone and see what is available, get a feel for the local laws and what to look out for, etc.
We would also appreciate any insight from anyone who has done this already! Would love to pick your brain on areas, pros/cons, etc. Thank you!
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Hi Amy, I just replied to same question you asked me by DM. I'm also replying here so that everybody can benefit before the awesome @Michael Baum tags me as he usually does for all things Mexico or international. Hi Michael! :) And, since it's the second version, you'll get an even more complete answer:
ou are correct about location dependency and so you need to do your homework first. No good lawyer will spend time with you unless you've done your research first and show you're serious, unless you have a personal relationship or recommandation of course. Speaking of which, I used to recommend my lawyers to people on BP but to many have wasted their time so they've asked me to stop unless there is a clear intent to invest in their area. I hope you understand.
Even if you have a good lawyer, it's advisable to check their work. I started getting involved with Mexican contracts more than 20 years ago so I have the gift to see all the mistakes and issues even the best lawyer miss. For example, years ago, we bought a pre-construction property and, in the developer's standard contract, it was mentioned that the purchase contract could only be assigned with permission from the developer. I rewrote the corresponding clause in a subtle way that would allow us to do it without their permission and they accepted it. That development was very successful and many buyers tried to resell before delivery but the developer would oppose until they had sold all their units. We had no intention to resell but you never know and we got an unsolicited offer that we couldn't refuse and we're the only ones who could resell at that point.
Looking for a realtor like you would in the US is a huge mistake IMHO because they generally represent the seller. There are self-proclaimed buyer agents but many of them will have as main objective to sell you something.
The way I go about it is I look for properties myself and contact the seller agent when interested. People who don't have enough time, knowledge or connections on the ground have asked me to look for them so you can ask anybody independent who come across that could help you. This give me access to more opinions and more properties. There's generally no MLS so you'd only get access to the inventory your agent has access to if you hire one.
A good lawyer will help you with offer and purchase process but you can always hire an agent at that later stage if you need help.
Finally, there are very good realtors in Mexico but there's nobody I wouldn't risk recommending to you given that all the properties I've purchased have been off-market through my own search or with the help of a relationship on the ground. But again, if you do what I suggested, you'll come across several and hopefully might bump into a good one.
Hope this helps.