Canadians living in the DR

Sasksue · #1 08-06-2009, 11:14 AM

My husband and I are looking at buying a villa in/near Cabarete. We would like to hear from other Canadians who have purchased - tell all the good, the bad, and the ugly!

This would be a vacation/retirement home.

Thanks to all.

AnnaC · #2 08-06-2009, 12:03 PM

Hi and welcome to DR1.

Not sure how often you've been to the DR, most real estate owners will tell you it's best to rent for a while to see what living in the DR is really like. If you know the DR well then I apologize and step aside for property owners to reply.

Best of luck

DominicanBilly · #3 08-06-2009, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnnaC

Hi and welcome to DR1.

Not sure how often you've been to the DR, most real estate owners will tell you it's best to rent for a while to see what living in the DR is really like. If you know the DR well then I apologize and step aside for property owners to reply.

Best of luck

I'll second this advice. Retired here from Canada in 92.

alicious · #4 08-06-2009, 12:31 PM

We were recently looking to buy in the DR, however the high interest rates made the properties above what we could afford.

I'm not sure of your financial situation, but you will find things are done much differently at banks down here when it comes to mortgage, than in Canada.

I can recommend the company we used in looking to buy a house, and then when we decided on long term rental instead, they were helpful in both aspects. Very professional and great service - of a North American caliber / standpoint.

We really enjoyed using Amber Guardian to assist us in looking at houses in Real Estate and then when we switched to checking out rentals.

I strongly believe an important part of locating and buying a house is working along with people you feel comfortable with. It is definitely to your advantage to come down here and spend a few weeks looking in person for your property!

p.s. I have no affiliation with Amber Guardian except that I am a satisfied client!

Sasksue · #5 08-06-2009, 01:34 PM

Thanks to everyone. We have travelled quite a bit in the Caribbean, and like the Dominican most of all. We would not be arranging a mortgage, lucky enough to have the means to purchase outright. One of the questions I have is how long does it take from putting in an offer to actually owning the home?

Thanks a bunch

rendul · #6 08-07-2009, 01:42 PM

Hi there. I am Canadian and we purchased our place in Cabarete in 2001. Many changes have taken place regarding purchasing of property by expats. I feel, mostly positive. In our instance, our closing took two months but the paperwork was in good shape. First question you need to ask is - does the current property owner have clear title? Don't finance your place in the D.R. If necessary, get your financing in Canada. Much better interest rates - such as a Credit Line. The offer can take variable amounts of time to conclude. It depends on the accuracy and completeness of the paper work and how easily your lawyer can do the due diligence required for the purchase. Land titles can still be a problem - non-existent or incomplete. This is just a little bit of what to know. It can get confusing so a good lawyer is an absolute necessity.

If you have further questions, PM me and maybe I can help.

Just know you will love it here!! We do!

bakersindr · #7 08-09-2009, 01:42 AM

We bought a house in Terramar Estates in Sosua a couple of years ago. The actual sale etc. probably took a little over a couple of weeks to get finished. We spent a week going up and down the North Coast looking at various properties before deciding on what we wanted. We strongly advise doing that as any pictures of properties tend to be highly misleading. Some places we thought would be palaces were dumps and the reverse was true as well. The place we finally decided on we had not even wanted to look at in the first place as the pictures of the place did it no justice. Our real estate agent, (Jim Belair of American Realty DR) suggested we look at it after he found out what our tastes were like from our opinions of the different places and we fell in love with it and settled on a price for it with the owner before we left the DR to come back to Canada. The rest of the legal stuff was done long distance with the wonderful help of Guido Perdomo the lawyer. All in all it was an easy process for us with no problems.
Unfortunately finances dictate that we are probably going to have to sell it now but we have loved every minute we have spent there and the great friends and neighbours we have made in Terramar and Sosua. If we do sell we will be buying again when retirement comes around for good.

ecarignan · #8 08-11-2009, 01:12 PM

Greetings from Ottawa, On.
We have bought, built and sold a total of 4 homes on the North Coast. It's a fairly easy process if you use the proper people. We have always used Guido Perdomo for lawyer and different realtors: Century 21 Alexn ad Anabella (from Windsor, On), Werner from Hispaniola RE, but other realtors suggested as well: Jim Belair. As long as you don't need financing, it's fairly easy. Stay away for non-clear titles (the realtors above will let you know). It easily would take us 1-2 months for closing max and can be done from back home. If you have other questions, email direct eric.carignan@commtech.ca

Good luck and escape the prairies for clearer skies in the DR!

kdeer · #9 08-11-2009, 04:51 PM

Hello, we are from Toronto and bought our place in Cabarete about 4 years ago now. We absolutely love it and haven't had any problems at all. The closing took about 2 months, we used Guido Perdomo as our lawyer and he was really good. We also use Amber Guardian to manage the property as right now we are only able to come down every few months (can't wait for retirement) and they do a great job of taking care of the property and renting it out for us. For us the rental income covers the cost of Amber Guardian and then some. We bought the property outright with any financing required arranged in Canada. Hope this post is of use.