We still have some things to take care of before leaving on Saturday, but we are pretty much ready to go. One thing we are waiting on, though, is the number. What number? Well, the amount we need to get a cashier’s check for to close on the property in Rincon. Thankfully we were able to avoid getting a mortgage or going through a Puerto Rican bank (through savings, a 401(k) loan and another small short-term loan), but this is still all new territory for us.

Not much time left!

We’ve bought houses in Colorado before, as you know from our rentals, with both mortgages and without. But never in Puerto Rico. I can say without a doubt that buying a house (at least in Colorado) without a mortgage is the way to go, as long as you have all the legal things done, the title is good, etc. I think we have a great lawyer working for us there in PR, and so far everything in his research is coming through fine. The problem, he said, is that he doesn’t know and will have to do a little more investigation into how much exactly the sellers need to pay on the taxes. Puerto Rico has recently changed the tax law regarding property taxes including this new Puerto Rico tax incentive (Impulso a la Vivienda) that will make it so we probably won’t have to pay any property taxes at least for 5 years! But it does complicate things, apparently.

So anyhow, we are getting a little anxious to go to the bank and take care of this. We don’t want our bank to put a hold or anything on the cashier’s check -which I don’t think they would since it’s our money in their bank! But still…I like to have everything all lined up and this waiting to the last minute thing is getting me nervous!

If it gets too close (since we only have one more business day left), then worst case scenario, we’ll just get the cashier’s check for the amount we agreed to pay minus the earnest money and pay any other closing fees that are our responsibility with a regular check.

This song from Mecano reminds me of this waiting and countdown. It’s about the new year, but to me, this Puerto Rico goal represents a whole new chapter in our life that’s about to open up!