Moving to the DR

How hard is it to move the DR and find a cheap apt and some work down the road?

Hello:
If your thinking of going to the Sosua/Puerto Plata area, I can be of assistance. I, have condos in Sosua. Very nice one bedroom w/t security. Rate are 525.00 per month. Let me know if you need more details.

John

Unless you are rich you better think twice before moving down here. This is not a place you can just land without a firm job offer or contract. Of course, if you want to leave in the slums and end up in a ditch, be my guest. Why dont you start by saying how much you got to cover your moving expenses, finding housing and supporting yourself here, then maybe we can give ideas. Unless you are a tourist in an all-inclusive package, you have to pay even for the air you breath.

I see our usual big mouth is decrying the DR for immigrants yet again - pay him no heed ace, a LOT of people come down to the DR with only a little & end up doing quite nicely. They WORK not just talk!! If you are coming to the North Coast, drop me an e-mail giving all the information you can about yourself & I will try to be helpful (truthful & factual). - Grahame.

Did I read somewhere in a past post that Grahame charges a fee for his help and his business is related? Please clarify. Now Grahame, since your post follows mine, I assume you directed at me. I just speak the truth. You think that everyone can live in the slums. People who want to move here have a paradise mentality and believe this is a cheap rose garden. Not so. If you come with $8000 dollars here you are a meathead and destined to be a street vendor.

It costs me as much to live in Santo Domingo as it did in Miami (similar lifestyle).

You can rent a small room in a poor barrio for RD$2-3000 monthly.
You can buy food and clothes at the local markets, lots of options.
You can use local transport, it's cheap and effective.

Then again....

Can you deal with 6-8hr black outs?
Unreliable water supply?
Security issues?
Can you speak Spanish?

It comes down to how you want to live?

It's all available in the DR, from the wooden shack to the marble palace :-)

You are right TW - as always!!! I DO charge a fee. I ask anyone I help to bring me in some pipe tobacco &/or decent chocolates that I find it impossible to buy up here without paying exhobitant import duties. I expect to pay for them when the people get here of course, the people I help are just the carriers of my vices!!

I agree US $8,000 is NOT sufficient to live on for more than 4 or 5 months, even up here on the north coast (according to your previous information, so much cheaper than Santo Domingo), but with careful accounting, sensible budgeting & a LOT of humble starting of a new life, coupled with a reasonably quick commencement of work, US $8,000 is not IMPOSSIBLE to live on! I DO know some who have done it on less, but it is not something I would recommend unless I know the person will find an income immediately (which is normally doubtful!).

Hope this puts your mind at rest that money & how I am percieved by others is NOT as important to me as it appears to be to you. I do not HAVE a job as such, I immerse myself in helping others & live off my investments, income from England AND (dare I say it?) the large income my pertner earns from her retirement pension. YES TW, I am (partly) a kept man!! - Grahame.

If you want to rent corvettes and pick up street urchins as a passtime, then you are right.

Some people have a modest amount of money in the bank and want to try out the lifestyle the DR has to offer them, and WORK for a living.

All the power to you Ace, we did the exact thing you are thinking about and it is working out great for us.

marc

I would certainly vouch for the purity and sincerity in Grahame’s character. I have known him for some time and I can assure you all that he is a fine gentleman who needs no favors, neither fees nor he earns any commission from his services to the new comers in this island.
I have seen him and his wife actively participate in the trial and release of an innocent American who was falsely accused of a serious crime in DR. They were the only people (that I know) who took time off from their daily schedule to keep up the political pressure on the Dominican judiciary system in order to make sure the defendant got a fair trial. Their persistent effort worked paid off and the man was found not guilty.
Mind you, Mr. Grahame Bush and Ginnie are both English citizens but I assure you that in case of trouble, you can count on them no matter what your nationality is.