Category Archives: Puerto Rico Property

Avocados Galore!

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My aunt Laura invited us to an avocado tasting party put on by the Avocado Diva and Vintage Inn in Eaton/Galeton. We had so much fun! The bed and breakfast was a beautiful house and the hostess is a terrific cook. There were all sorts of different foods to try that had a little avocado in them. From chocolate/avocado fudge and avocado salad to delicious guacamole and avocado leaf tea!


A nice spread of avocado and other snacks!

The Avocado Diva brought all of these avocados straight from small-scale farms in California. We learned all about different types of avocados including such varieties as Zutano, Bacon, Pinkerton, and the most famous: Haas. The type we were most impressed by was the Mexicola! According to the Avocado Diva, Brenda, this is the original wild Mexican avocado. It looks sort of like a fig or a plum and the skin is edible! The skin has a sort of nutty flavor to it. This is also the variety that you can use the licorice smelling leaves in iced tea. What’s more, is unlike most of the hybridized varieties, this one you can grow true to form from the seed. So we are going to try and sprout some here and maybe in PR too!


The small black, smooth-skinned Mexicola Avocado in comparison with another variety

We bought a variety box of them and are looking forward to enjoying our gourmet avocados for the next couple of weeks! Yay! We did find two or three avocado trees on our property in Rincon, so this makes us all the more excited to eat off our land! We learned today that there are avocados that mature at different seasons. Some are summer varieties and some are winter while others are year-round producers. We would love to be able to eat these all year round!


Holding a small Mexicola next to our box of goodies

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A Rincon Treehouse Idea

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Cassie and I have been thinking about the place in Rincon a lot more lately since the weather in Colorado has turned cold and grey.   One of the decisions we have been tossing around is what to do with the wood house that is currently on the property.

We go back and forth between tearing it down and remodeling it.  It is a unique type of house for Puerto Rico seeings how it is made out of wood instead of concrete.  This creates some problems with bugs, rot and the chance of hurricane.  However it has a feeling to it that concrete doesn’t have.   A warmth if you will.

Well perhaps we can do both.  Tear it down AND remodel it.  We have 4 acres to work with so we figure we can move it from its current spot, which is the prime location for a house on the property, to a location down lower on the property where there is a palm tree oasis.


Me Among the Palms (where the ‘tree house’ would go)

We figure there is enough wood to make a sort of ‘tree house’ type of structure or a ‘Swiss family Robinson’ type place.   That is kind of what we have now, but then we would build a concrete villa where the wood house currently sits.

We can then rent out the wood house for people to stay at when they are on vacation.  The property has very little human created noise at night and the jungle really comes alive.  It sounds fantastic.

We both drew up an idea of what we were thinking for the ‘treehouse’.


Cassie’s Drawing


Britton’s Drawing

As you can see, we have similar ideas of what we would like. We also found this site about tree houses in Puerto Rico that are built on a single point. They call them “hooches”. We’d like to possibly talk with the owner of this one about their place. We have been toying around with this idea because it would allow us to keep the wood house AND build a more secure / substantial concrete villa.  We could connect the two places with a nice walking path.  This is one of the reasons we wanted to have a bit of land, so that we could let our imagination run a bit wild.

We like this idea because it “saves” the wooden house, gives us more room for the house of our dreams, and creates a pretty cool spot -a type of tropical tree house! That’s the type of option we really like -a win-win-win!

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House Hunters International?

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I had a phone call recently.  It’s the type of call that is not “the norm”. I knew Cassie had emailed House Hunters International about the possibility of being on their show after she had heard from the Kruses that they were looking for couples who had bought a place in Puerto Rico. But I didn’t really think they would be so eager to talk with us so quickly! This is kind of how it went:

Melissa: Hi, this is Melissa from House Hunters International!
BK: Hi, this is Britton.  How are you?
Melissa: Good…We are interested in doing your story! Can you tell me a little more about it?
BK:( I told her all about our story, the property, why Puerto Rico…so on and so forth)
Melissa: That sounds great! Well, the next step before we line things up is to get a casting video from you.  I can send you some information about what we are looking for in it.
BK: No problem.  We can do that and have one to you in the next few days!

So these past few days Cassie and I (with help from Cassie’s mom the camera-woman -thanks Char!) made a short casting video.  In the video they just want to see how we live currently and why we want to move. They basically want to see how we look “on camera”.  Hopefully we come across well!

It would be cool to be on the show as it is one we definitely like to watch and I think we would be a bit different than their regular shows.  Most of what I’ve seen on there are people who have quite a bit of money to spend.  Cassie and I are very budget-oriented and one of our (my) criteria was that the place be “affordable”.  To me that meant not getting a mortgage. Also we were ok with having a fixer-upper, unlike most people that we’ve seen on the show.

We want to move down there in the next few years, not continue to work and pay for the thing over the next 15-30.  So, we save the majority of our income, we both drive normal little paid-off econobox cars, and we have invested in rentals in the hopes that one day we could use that income to live off of (see Fruitfulista for more on how we do this!)

I’d hope they would present us as the ‘fixer upper/saver/self-sustainability people’ and maybe tell the story of how we ended up with the property. One thing we were surprised about is that nearly all, if not all of the shows are re-enactments, so according to Melissa the producer/casting person in New York, we were perfect for their show!

So, here’s our casting video- wish us luck!…What do you think?

 

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Buying Property in Puerto Rico: Similarities and Differences

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There are many similarities and even more differences when buying property in Puerto Rico as compared with the states. So I decided to create a list for easy comparison. Can you think of any other similarities and differences when buying in Puerto Rico?

Buying Property in Rincon, Puerto Rico

We are new homebuyers in Rincón, Puerto Rico, but we had been looking for a property in Puerto Rico for some time.

In 2008 we attempted to purchase a property -a finca- in Lares, in the central part of Puerto Rico. In 2010 we also had another contract to buy a property in San Sebastian. It is from these experiences and our current experience buying our house in Rincon that we’ve learned that buying property in Puerto Rico is not exactly what you might expect stateside. We own properties in Colorado also so we do know about that process too. In some ways buying a property in Puerto Rico is quite similar to in the states, and in others, it is very different. Here are some of those similarities and differences:

Similarities:

  • Puerto Rico is part of the United States and so Federal regulations do apply to housing.
  • Most banks/mortgage lenders require the same paperwork: application, appraisal, survey, etc
  • You need a contract to buy/sell
  • The deed/title proves you own it. In Puerto Rico you own property basically just as in the states.
  • You will want to make sure the deed is clean with no liens including utilities.
  • You will have a closing and they will give you the keys. It is very informal with less paperwork compared to the states
  • You can work with a real estate agent or with the seller in “for sale by owner”
  • Closing with “cash” instead of a mortgage is less hassle

Differences:

  • Puerto Rico does it DIFFERENT. Puerto Rico has its own government and housing stimulus packages and requirements that differ
  • You can’t use a mortgage lender in the states. It must be a Puerto Rican lender.
  • The paperwork may be in Spanish (or it may be in English)
  • There is no MLS -Multiple Listing Service. This makes it very hard to search for a property in Puerto Rico.
  • Because there are so many people who sell “by owner” and because there is no MLS, you will be doing a lot of calling and setting up appointments to see houses instead of doing them all at once
  • Puerto Rico’s title laws do NOT guarantee a spouse (especially a woman) will inherit the property if the other spouse (the man) dies so this must be considered or explicitly stated in a will or other legal document
  • Notaries in Puerto Rico MUST be a lawyer. Basically you will need a lawyer at some point in the process if you are planning to buy a house in PR
  • The negotiation is generally not written out. In the states all offers need to be written. In PR, in our experience, only the contract and final paperwork was written out
  • Many houses, especially outside of San Juan or out of a subdivision are “non-conforming” in one way or another. This may make it difficult to buy a house with a mortgage. In our attempt to purchase the Lares property they found that the access road to the house was non-conforming as it went over a river. Other things could be if the septic tank is not accessible or even if the house is made out of wood like ours in Rincon. There are “non-conforming” houses in the states as well, but there seem to be a lot more in PR. This also makes it hard to get an accurate appraisal as there are often no “comparables”
  • There is a preference for concrete houses over wood for a few reasons (insurance, mortgage companies)
  • People buy houses with cash a lot more often than in the states. This is often to avoid a lot of this red-tape.
  • Prices may be ridiculously high or low. Because of the lack of true value appraisals, it’s sort of whatever goes.
  • Property tax is very low and sometimes nothing at all in Puerto Rico, especially for people with only one property that they live in (as opposed to a vacation home).
  • A note on buying in Rincón specifically compared with some other areas: Houses can be a lot more expensive in Rincón. Puntas, specifically even more so. Anything west of the 2 is more expensive than east of the 2. This is mainly because of the influx of stateside people willing to spend more (supply and demand).

These are just a few examples of differences in buying a house in Puerto Rico as compared with the states. As for us, the property deal in Lares fell through for a few of these reasons. We were attempting to purchase it with a mortgage, but it not only  had problems because it was non-conforming but also because the title was not filed correctly. With the Rincon property we determined that it would be best to get a personal loan from the states (a 401(k) loan) instead of getting a mortgage to avoid a lot of the hassle and since we knew we might be given some grief over one of the buildings being wooden. We did get a lawyer because 1) you have to for the paperwork and 2) to make sure everything was titled correctly.

Overall, buying a property in Puerto Rico can be somewhat of a challenge if you’re used to the way things are in the states, but it is really not too bad and in some ways it’s actually better/easier. In any case, we are so happy we did and we can’t wait to get back to our home in paradise. If you’d like to check out our property, here are some pictures and videos.

* This post was first written in collaboration with Rincon Life and Rincon Vacations.

 

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