When we go down to Puerto Rico for this trip, we would also like to get a few things lined up with a Puerto Rican mortgage company. We had looked into Pentagon Federal when we had the offer in on the place in Lares, but they charge even just to fill out the application. Are there any other mortgage companies you might recommend? From reading CA2PR’s blog, it sounds like Banco Popular is not very good to work with even though it is the largest bank on the island. How is Western Bank? Any other mortgage companies that you trust?
This is one thing that makes moving so far away so difficult. We have a lot of connections here including a few friends in the mortgage industry. Their banks are national, but for some reason they don’t extend to Puerto Rico -poo. Anything we should be aware of that is different in the mortgage process? I would like to get preapproved and lined up before we leave from the trip. Another thing to do!! So much to cram into one week! We must keep telling ourselves, this is a property trip, not a vacation, but somehow it’s not sinking in! 🙂
Yeah, I highly DO NOT recommend Banco Popular. They are so shady that I can’t believe that the FDIC still backs them. I’m definately going to write a complaint. I’ll ask around and see if anyone has any recommendations…When are you guys due in PR?
We previously went thru Pentagon Federal and they were a major pain to get ahold of. Multiple phone calls to get someone to talk to. Sounds like Banco Popular is worse (shady)!
We are headed down March 16th and staying for a week. Hopefully we can find something or a few places to put offers in on.
I recommend you start the preapproval process before you even get to the island. You have to submit a stack of paperwork these days, such as your past 2 years of actual tax returns. Begin by contacting your lender(s) of choice ASAP so you know what they will need from you. You can complete a good chunk of the process by phone and on the internet. I have been reading in Caribbean Business about Moneyhouse, headed by people who left another mortgage institution in PR. They offer a loan that not only includes the value after a down payment, but also includes the cost of any repairs that need to be done, so you can roll it all into the same mortgage loan. I have no experience with them however. I have used Banco Popular and had absolutely no problem or delays with them whatsoever. But that was before the current housing crisis. Good luck! Fran
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Is it possible to take a loan out on one of your properties in the States? When we paid our loan off here we found out that it costs a lot of money to show us as the owner and not the bank on the deed. We still haven’t paid the big fee to get the deed in our name yet.
The rate you will pay here will probably ½ – 1% higher than what you could get in the States. We went with Oriental Mortgage. They did ok but it was frustrating. It took three months to get the loan. IMO they were incompetent because they asked for the SAME information over and over and over. They wanted PROOF of every dime. It was very frustrating but I don’t recall them changing any of the costs/fee’s so that is good.
Our sales contract was for closing in 2 months. We had to extend it a month because of Oriental’s delays. I got a power of attorney so I could sign for Katrina. That was also something that took some effort for Oriental to approve. I wish we did things a little different.
Oriental has an office in the Mayaguez Mall.
Banco Popular is a good bank. I recomended 100 percent ,had bussisness before with them.45 billon of assets founded since 1893.By the way they gave me my first job.My advice look some resarching regarding finantial institution instead reading blogs of irresponsible people that bash great name of an institution in Puerto Rico known as Banco Popular
Hello, I just found your blog while looking at Summer and Stefan’s. We bought in Rincon almost 2 years ago now and luckily we didn’t have t go through any of the banks in PR. Fortunately we were able to take a loan out on another property we own in upstate NY and pay cash in Puerto Rico. Apparently, if your property is paid off you also don’t have to worry about taxes. If possible I would go that route.
Cassie – I thought I had alot to do before I go to Rincon in 8 days! Wow, you guys have alot in your plate, but with all the good advice you should be OK. Frank and I went with the Cooperativa for contruction of the house and we never had any problems. Looking forward to seeing you in Rincon!
Hi Linda, thanks for stopping by our site!
Linda and Jeff, we might look into that option if the Puerto Rico mortgage places seem to be too difficult to work with…we’ll see. Rosa, I heard from someone else that the Rincon Coop is a good place to work with, so we’ll probably stop by there and call them this week to see what we need to bring to become pre-approved (like Fran mentioned -I think that’s probably smart). Reinaldo, thanks for your input, but we have tried to work with BP before and weren’t that impressed, although we never had the kinds of problems that Summer and Stefan did. Fran, I think it’s probably the case that things might have changed a lot after the housing bubble popped.
Rosa, you’re right…It’s coming up quick!! We are getting excited. We’ve cleaned out a few more drawers and things. Trying to cut out the clutter and get down to the bare necessities that we 1) need to live off of for the next few months and 2) that we want to take with us to PR. We are finding quite a bit of weird things!