Real Estate in Yucatan Mexico

The easiest way to explain it is to start from a place you may already know.

In Canada and the United states most deals are transacted entirely from a document known as The Agreement of Purchase and Sale. The Agreement of Purchase and Sale covers basically 5 things:

Name of seller. Name of buyer. The municipal address and legal description of the property being sold. The price the house is being sold for, and The terms of the sale which will include the closing date.

In the United States and Canada both parties are bound by The Agreement of Purchase and Sale. Many realtors including me, use APS here in Mexico and they really have no teeth.

In Mexico one or more of the follow may be typical:

People selling houses they don't own.

People selling houses they have an interest in but don't have the authority to sell.

People selling houses where some component of the property abstract is misrepresented i.e., lot line, structures included in the sale, type of title Jedo (hee-doe) etc.

People reneging on what they agreed to do in writing and considering it part of the negotiation process frequent occurrence.

So who do you have to watch out for ?? The foreigners !!! Really !!!!!!

This means the lawyer needs to do a thorough title abstract before we can give the seller any money.

This process can take up to 10 days, because unlike the USA and Canada where the lawyers use an electronic filing system, in Mexico all the property titles are recorded in big books. Sometimes the book containing the records of the subject property will be out, so the lawyer has to go back.

Once the lawyer is satisfied as to clarity of title the seller goes to the lawyers office to sign the Compramisa if a deposit is requested before the closing date.

Until the seller signs the Compramisa, and that document is notarized and registered, the seller is not really locked into anything.

The bottom line is that if the seller has already received your deposit, but goes sideways before he signs the Compramisa, it is just less hassle to forget it and move on.

Yucatan Mexico Beach Realty provides you with 25 years international industry experience.

Robert Harker is a Canadian living and practicing real estate in Yucatan Mexico serving the beach communities north of the city of Merida, in the state of Yucatan. He has been a practicing real estate and mortgage broker in Mexico for the last 10 years and has a total of 25 years international real estate experience with 1,000 career deals and counting. He specializes in retirement beach property for foreigners and has a full service construction company catering to the needs of his market niche.