Tag Archives: Property

St Patricks Day in Rincon

We ended up going to a bar nearby called the Rum Shack. Well I guess it is more of a resort with a bar, its behind the Lazy Parrot. Cassie and I walked over and watched the band and hung out for a while. It seems to be a pretty popular tourist location.

I didn’t catch the name of the band, but they were pretty good.

We then spent today looking at a few properties. Both were about what we expected. One of the smaller places in Aguada was nice, but a little on the high priced side. It has a few acres but its on the side of a hill. It is terraced and could work out for growing plants pretty well and that is one of our requirements. We would offer a lot lower than what they are asking for.

Also since we were by the beach, we went again. Here is another gallery.

I am working on a video to upload, its huge though so it will take some time.

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New Rental House

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Well, we found this sweet little rental house near the hospital and knew right away that it would be great to accomplish goal number one on our list as part of our process goals to Puerto Rico. We got it for a nice price, but it does need some work, so Britton and I have been going over there every night this week to paint, clean and update the place. Luckily we have been having some wonderful weather (in the 70s), but the time change has made it dark at only 5pm.

Outside of the house -needs painted but not in bad shape

Inside kitchen – quite colorful…will soon be painted and updated

These pink walls took a lot of white paint to cover

I’ll try and post some “after” pictures as well. We hope to have it finished by mid November. It has been kind of fun to have another project to work on, and much more productive use of our time. Once we get it occupied, our next step is to start saving -for goal número 2.

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Lares Puerto Rico Property Update

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View of the property

Well we saw that the Lares, Puerto Rico property was back up and listed for sale online. The price had gone up in the listing by $15,000. We had gotten our deposit back after a year + of waiting on the title. She was free to try and sell it to another buyer and we are free to look around again. So it was not a bad thing at all to see it listed.

I decided to call Alwilda just to see how things were going. I asked her how the title was coming along? She replied “I have sold the property”. I was kind of surprised, but knowing how badly she wants to move I was happy for her. “Bien! Bien!” I said, “When will you be able to move?”. She said that she is selling the property in June to some Canadians.

There are a few things that struck me odd about that.

I’ve looked up lots of information over this last year and its kind of hard to pin down, but I don’t believe she can sell the property until it is listed in the title registry. I’ve seen information online that even says that a notary has to sign for the deed and the first thing they have to do is verify is that the title is properly filed in the registry. This one isn’t listed, which is why we couldn’t buy it. Carlos (her lawyer & also a notary AND ex-son in-law) kept telling us that if we paid with cash, then we would be able to buy the property…Yeah….right. I have a bridge to sell you.

The other odd thing is that she is selling it in June which means to me she hasn’t sold it. Maybe they are looking into it the same as Cassie and I did? To visit and make a decision.

I don’t know the people that are buying the property but if they are reading this (they might stumble across this), be careful. There are some odd laws in the books down there. William is the one who owned the entire plot broke off and sold the 25 acres to Alwilda. William has children who may have legal right to the land when he dies (Spanish inheritance laws). When we applied for the loan thru the bank, the bank was saying “no way” due to the title issues. Some of the best advice I received from a realtor was to go thru the big well known institutions and reputable places. They are protecting themselves in the deal and as a result you get that protection. Which is why even if you have cash to buy something outright its not always the best route. You lose a lot of protection so you better be sure you know what you’re doing. That’s my opinion anyway.

Estrella, Alwilda and me, plus Pirulo (the dog)

It’s a beauitful property deep in the mountains of Lares and if we could have bought it legit, I think we would have. However, I think we are just going to look for a place closer to the beaches and wish Alwida the best of luck. We do feel like we kind of missed out, but it is probably for the best for both parties. We will continue to stay in touch with her and visit when we are in Puerto Rico next.

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Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice Every Morning.

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Yesterday we stayed at the property, hung out in the hammock and made fresh orange juice from oranges we picked on our hike. It was relaxing and nice not to drive at all for a day.

We decided to start looking at some other properties around the island. We dont know how long the title work will take in Lares. Its already been a year and could be another or two?? We talked to a realestate agent here and he confirmed that the title could take years because of the water resources. He also mentioned that the water law here is kind of complex (which is news to us). We want to stay friends with Alwilda even if the deal doesn’t go thru. She and Estrella are very nice people and have been very welcoming.

It takes about an hour to get to Rincon from the property and this seems to be where we gravitate to, maybe because of all the gringo amenities. Being closer to the ocean would be nice. We have an appointment setup tomorrow to check out some other options. We dont need to (or want to due to price) be right on the beach. Just a small house 1 or 2 bedroom with an acre or two of land would be suitable maybe in Aguada. We are also going to head down the west coast and just look around.

I dont think either Cassie or I have our heart set on the property in Lares. There are pros and cons and we go back and forth every day sometimes by the hour on if we should stick with it or not. Plus since the title has already taken so long; we aren’t counting on anything.