Juan Dolio - South Beach of the Caribbean !!!

[STEVE G.]

Never saw a sign '' SE COMPRA ESTA CASA ''

[Fernandez]

There Is Alot Of New Construction In The Mcc- Both Lots Held For A While And Lots That Have Turned Over. The Sale Of Any House Will Depend Upon The Quality And Special Features Is Has Over The Competition. My Feeling Is That Most Metro Construction, Not As Of Late But Definitely From A Few Years Back, Are Inferior Quality, Built By Some Sham Belgian "beltran" Who Stuffed Junk Into His Homes. The Leaks, Cracking And Infrastructure Issues Are Plenty In These Homes, And Any Prodding Buyer Will Know To Stay Away. My Neighbour In The Metro Has Had To Redo Her Roof Twice, And There Is Still Filtration From The Second Floor To Her Kitchen- Now She Rents It Out.

The More Recent Homes Are Much Larger, With Greater Design Emphasis And Better Building Quality. These Are Commanding Greater Prices, And Moving The Market Upward, But There Are Still Alot Of Smaller Questionable Homes That Need To Get Weeded Out- Some Are Actually Buying These And Putting Second/floors Onto Them. The Homes Are Selling, Slowly, And One Must Be Willing To Accept A Lower Price- Remember, This Is The Dominican Republic After All. Once You Invest There, You're Subject To That Market. Its Best No To Put Important Money There Unless You Have Time And No Need For Return On The Capital.

Sales Would Have Been Better If The Metro Kept Construction In Check And Subject To Plannification By Zone/ Area. You Can Drive Through And Find Huge Homes Next To Much Smaller Properties- No Planning - Even The Hotel Is In The Middle Of The Design- This Has Been A Big Negative On The Metro In A Variety Of Ways - Should Be On The Blvd, Gated And Separate From The Home Sites To Attract More Business- More Safety For The Residents.

I Have Lots In The Metro, And Have Decided To Sell These- Us$250mtr On Good Golf Frontage, In The Better Home Areas/private Non-traffic Zones. These Lots Were Purchased Around Ud$70 In 2003- We Take No Less At This Point. And, To Protect Our Investment In The Home We Built And Other Have Built Around Us, We Will Sell The Lots "subject To Plan Approval" To Ensure That Anyone Building By Us Will Build In Common With The General Size/investments That Have Been Made There.

Its The Only Way To Protect Your Investment, And Improve The General Sales Potential Of The Properties Already Built. In My View, However, Metro Cc Homes Do Sell- Slowly- At Adjusted Expectations On Price.

[DrChrisHE]

Originally Posted by mikey007

i guess everything is for sale most of the time

Ah yes...THE ENTIRE DR IS FOR SALE!

Now, back to my examples though...the houses I am speaking of HAVE NOT sold in the two years. I'm not just going by the se vende signs (if that were any measure than the whole country really IS for sale.) I'm talking about people who are legitimately trying to sell their homes so that they can move back to the US, Canada or Europe. I'm sure some of you know some of these people, so there is no denying this. The problem for these folks is that all their money is tied up in their DR homes. For some, they have kids growing up here when they didn't want their kids growing up in this setting.

As for the lack of transparency, I think that in general realtors and sellers prefer this because everyone involved gets to make claims that may or may not be true. I have no desire to make enemies of those in the business (in fact I have a good friend who makes his living this way HERE) but I also am in favor of full disclosure of conditions. I've spoken to way too many people who have buyers' remorse or regret their decision to buy here before renting. Each has their own story but there is an under current of what they perceive to be worsening conditions in JD (decreased livability), without a commensurate balancing say of increased convenience (for example IF a full service grocery were to come in it might off set some of the negative of the road conditions.)

For me, I have relatively little at stake in this debate (at least financially) so I call it as I see it (and my view is DEFINITELY tinted by the lenses of a public health professional.) From a public health perspective SPM is awful. JD is BETTER than living IN the city of SPM, but it could be so much better. We own 5 acres and a house in the US and thought we'd be here only for a year (long past and no idea when we are leaving.) That is why we didn't come in and buy as we have with our other moves. In retrospect, I'm grateful that we didn't.

paz y salud,
DrChrisHE

[mikey007]

hoe would u rate the quality of construction for the beachfront developments

[Fernandez]

finish in the DR- without particular emphasis on beach front development - is generally poor. the lack of training and proper tools, supervisory attention to detail and overall slack approach is evident across the building industry. The developments you refer to are average - lower end results, though the intentions were much better.
Solution: buy the unit "unfinished", and negotiate at least 20% final price. The finish is the most expensive aspect and commands the greatest degree of professionalism. This will allow you to correct/improve defects and, while keeping to basic apt layouts, you can produce a better result different from the rest, and thus more marketable.

[STEVE G.]

Originally Posted by Fernandez

finish in the DR- without particular emphasis on beach front development - is generally poor. the lack of training and proper tools, supervisory attention to detail and overall slack approach is evident across the building industry. The developments you refer to are average - lower end results, though the intentions were much better.
Solution: buy the unit "unfinished", and negotiate at least 20% final price. The finish is the most expensive aspect and commands the greatest degree of professionalism. This will allow you to correct/improve defects and, while keeping to basic apt layouts, you can produce a better result different from the rest, and thus more marketable.

I actually enjoy reading your posts Fernandez . They are very clear and informative . Just a simple question for you ( with no hard feelings what so ever , only curiosity ) : you have a Join Date: Jan 2002 ... last post ( in the past) was made on 04-29-2002 ... and you never post anything up to 12-31-2007 when you suddenly appeared again after so many years ... just a simple curiosity ... what happened in all this years ? Were you suddenly inspired by our New Juan Dolio debates ?

[andrewc52002]

Originally Posted by STEVE G.

I actually enjoy reading your posts Fernandez . They are very clear and informative . Just a simple question for you ( with no hard feelings what so ever , only curiosity ) : you have a Join Date: Jan 2002 ... last post ( in the past) was made on 04-29-2002 ... and you never post anything up to 12-31-2007 when you suddenly appeared again after so many years ... just a simple curiosity ... what happened in all this years ? Were you suddenly inspired by our New Juan Dolio debates ?

It's not nice what you are doing. This should be a private message, is your concern and a private matter. What the moderator has to say on this matter ?

[STEVE G.]

Originally Posted by sheiladave

I want to agree with the sewage plant. My husband and I stayed there at a resort run by German's, (we were told) about 4 or 5 years ago. There was an terrible smell of sewage when the wind blew in the right direction and when some of the tourist looked out there back windows behind a fence they said they saw an open sewage lagoon. We ate outside at the buffet that was swarming with flies and most everyone in our party got sick. At the end everyone was only eating the soup which was in a covered pot and trying to get reservations to eat in the enclosed restaurant. Which were hard to come by. The German tourist were seen having meals arrived on covered trays directly to there rooms. We will not go to that part of the island again.

Probably you stayed in Decameron Resort . Before it was operated by Allegro ( many years ago ) after by Barceló and later on by Ocean Arc ... Now it is closed. They open sometimes on weekends for locals only... Basically all this old establishments should be remodeled and if it is not possible demolished and rebuilt together with a new sewage plant . But it is just my personal opinion ...

[STEVE G.]

Originally Posted by andrewc52002

It's not nice what you are doing. This should be a private message, is your concern and a private matter. What the moderator has to say on this matter ?

I really enjoy reading Fernandez's posts and find them very informative . What is wrong with it ( to express myself in public ) ?

[mikey007]

whats wrong with good info unlesss yuo have a vested interest in the topic gre:gre:gre:gre:gre:gre:gre: