- Thread starter Robert
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Living Costs in the Dominican Republic
PayScale Dominican Republic - Dominican Republic Country Salary, Average Salaries
do not quite understand the posting for the teacher here.. but there are less than 300 people reporting -- too bad - would be interesting
do not quite understand the posting for the teacher here.. but there are less than 300 people reporting -- too bad - would be interesting
Someone just told me that DR has several apartment owners that are in the midst of losing their apartments and people are selling their apartments before they lose it. Anybody know if this is true? (This is in the Santiago area).
No! You heard it wrong! Yes they're selling apartments like hot cakes in Santiago for the reasons you said, but they also are giving you a 2011 BMW and USD$120,000 cash back on the sale with a coupon to go see Manny bat for the Aguilas free of charge for one year at the stadium!
You must hurry and buy as many as you can, since they're going crazy selling before they lose it all to the banks!!!! Hury! You'll miss the BMW, cash back and coupon!!!
I don't know about several, but there have been a few, yes. I know of someone that purchased an apartment via a bank foreclosure auction for $600K, the apartment is valued at about $2.5M, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, just needed some paint, upgraded kitchen cabinets and some love.
Bwahahahahahahaha!!!
You posted in the wrong thread, the clown bin is further down in the forum!
Bwahahahahahahaha!!!
You don't believe me? Well, if it happens here in the US ALL of the time why not down there? A former student of mine who works with foreclosed properties has sold several at 75% off of what the houses were worth 5 years ago. The house in front of mine was valued at $375K in 2006, they sold it at the beginning of the summer for $120K; foreclosed.
What does a foreclosure have to do with mortgages? When a bank/City/County forecloses the property is put up for auction and (most of the time) the starting bid is what ever is owed to the bank/City/County.
So if someone that owns an apartment worth $2.5M and stops payment after lowering the principle down to $500K; when the bank legally takes the apartment from this person the bank is only interested in what ever it is owed. So the starting auction is at $500K.
What belmont means [I think!] is that when people buy a house in the DR they either pay cash for it or put down a huge portion of the cost up front. It simply costs too much to borrow money there. So people normally own their places outright. Therefore, few foreclosures.
AE
The DR is NOT the USA when it comes to foreclosure or RE activities, let alone mortgages...
You're talking apples when the reality is oranges for the DR...
Foreclosure
Real Estate DR
Legal Provisions:
Articles 2126 to 2170 and 2204 to 2218 of the Civil Code and Articles 673 to 779 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
You really think that in the DR a Bank will place a property that's worth 2.5 million on the market for $500K???
You really think a mortgage holder in the DR can't get a second loan on a $2.5 million property before they allow the court to give the rights to the mortgage holder from a first mortgage gone bad?
You have no idea of the RE market in the DR, let alone about foreclosures or the many types of financing in play here...
You can't just assume that the US RE system is the same here! The DR can't have a housing bubble like other markets because of the heavy cash financing upfront needed to flip homes. The DR RE market is by far under valued as of now, but it will pick up steam once basic infrastructure and services come to par with development.
Property purchased out of foreclosure sales as you remarked in the post is all but impossible here, at least for now...
God knows REMAX and all other RE players are pushing as hard as they can to see it there...
Let me put it this way in simpler terms:
You can buy several lots in the most depressingly poor barrio of the DR, build mansions on them and see the huts around them go up in values light years ahead in time. After some three to five years your investment pays off with sky high dividends... Try that in the US and see your money invested go from flat to broke...
If you doubt that above, visit Los Alamos or Thomen in Santiago, Don Pedro, etc... The list is too long...
It's happening now in a poor sector like Pueblo Nuevo, where property is getting turned from old wooden frames to residential towers by the month...
Think Jarabacoa less than 10 years back... Where property was hard to sell in the steep hills, now they're the Dominican Alps...
Ok, I wasn't 100% honest a few post back when I described that a "friend" bought an apartment in Santiago for $600K that was really worth $2.5M. There is no friend; it was me and my brother whom bought an apartment for $600K (Was about $685K after all fees and taxes). We spent about 7 months looking via newspapers for foreclosures and after going to various actions with our lawyer friend, Cristian, we finally came across that apartment and won the bidding.
You are right, several people do pay off or get another loan before allowing the banks to foreclose on the property; thus the reason it took us so long to find an apartment at that price. I don't recall the name of the town where the apartment is located but if you head past las Colinas mall, past MonteBar, past where the rotando used to be there is a urbanizazion on the left hand size about 7 minutes driving from Montebar. There is a Mormon church in the street where you enter that area. In there is a 2 story building complex with a total of 4 apartments.
Let me tell you a story also about how many DOminicans think. My brother and I also lend money to home owners. Of course, in exchange for lending money we become lean holders on their property. Basically the way it works is our lawyer, Cristian, will hold the title of the property and will handle all of the paper work including collecting the money from the home owner for a portion of the interest payment the home owner makes every month. Long story short, we made a $900KDR loan to a gentleman who owed a house in Sabanete. Basically the way it works is that we get an appraisal on the property and will only lend about 60-70% of the appraised value of the house. Also, which is VERY important, no other liens can be on the house, we won't lend to be second lien holders. Anyways, this man's house was valued at around $2.4M pesos. He stopped making payments after 2 months of the loan originating. We gave him 7 months to try to catch up. After that, our lawyer gave him a warning and asked him to try to find a buyer for his house or else we would have to take procession of the house. Our lawyer tried to help him even further and told the home owner that he knew of someone that can take it off his hands for $2M. Which means that the home owner could have sold his house, paid the loan and still netted some money, which was way better than having his house repossessed. He said no, that he wasn't going to sell his house for less than what it was worth. 3 months after this (10 months in total of no payments), we finally filed and obtained his property legally. And, even after we got his property legally, we still gave him a chance to try and payback the full amount and only 50% of the interest payments that he missed. The owner didn't want to. We later found out he had a gambling addiction and pretty much was gambling everything away. Very sad but true.
So, now we have a house in Sabaneta. And, yes, we are trying to sell it for what is owed to us, not for what it is worth. Anyone interested can PM me more details about this.
Sorry for the long post but just wanted to get a point across. I may not no how RE works in DR, and you may be right that it will be harder to foreclose, but if you have the patience and are not in any rush, do what we did and spend time looking through the newspaper. Still doubt me? Just contact Chip, the Engineer, he can confirm everything
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Ok, I wasn't 100% honest a few post back when I described that a "friend" bought an apartment in Santiago for $600K that was really worth $2.5M. There is no friend; it was me and my brother whom bought an apartment for $600K (Was about $685K after all fees and taxes). We spent about 7 months looking via newspapers for foreclosures and after going to various actions with our lawyer friend, Cristian, we finally came across that apartment and won the bidding.
You are right, several people do pay off or get another loan before allowing the banks to foreclose on the property; thus the reason it took us so long to find an apartment at that price. I don't recall the name of the town where the apartment is located but if you head past las Colinas mall, past MonteBar, past where the rotando used to be there is a urbanizazion on the left hand size about 7 minutes driving from Montebar. There is a Mormon church in the street where you enter that area. In there is a 2 story building complex with a total of 4 apartments.
Let me tell you a story also about how many DOminicans think. My brother and I also lend money to home owners. Of course, in exchange for lending money we become lean holders on their property. Basically the way it works is our lawyer, Cristian, will hold the title of the property and will handle all of the paper work including collecting the money from the home owner for a portion of the interest payment the home owner makes every month. Long story short, we made a $900KDR loan to a gentleman who owed a house in Sabanete. Basically the way it works is that we get an appraisal on the property and will only lend about 60-70% of the appraised value of the house. Also, which is VERY important, no other liens can be on the house, we won't lend to be second lien holders. Anyways, this man's house was valued at around $2.4M pesos. He stopped making payments after 2 months of the loan originating. We gave him 7 months to try to catch up. After that, our lawyer gave him a warning and asked him to try to find a buyer for his house or else we would have to take procession of the house. Our lawyer tried to help him even further and told the home owner that he knew of someone that can take it off his hands for $2M. Which means that the home owner could have sold his house, paid the loan and still netted some money, which was way better than having his house repossessed. He said no, that he wasn't going to sell his house for less than what it was worth. 3 months after this (10 months in total of no payments), we finally filed and obtained his property legally. And, even after we got his property legally, we still gave him a chance to try and payback the full amount and only 50% of the interest payments that he missed. The owner didn't want to. We later found out he had a gambling addiction and pretty much was gambling everything away. Very sad but true.
So, now we have a house in Sabaneta. And, yes, we are trying to sell it for what is owed to us, not for what it is worth. Anyone interested can PM me more details about this.
Sorry for the long post but just wanted to get a point across. I may not no how RE works in DR, and you may be right that it will be harder to foreclose, but if you have the patience and are not in any rush, do what we did and spend time looking through the newspaper. Still doubt me? Just contact Chip, the Engineer, he can confirm everything
Again... There's no such 2 million + property that will get "repossessed" (which is not even on the books for the DR) for an outstanding loan of RD$600K in the DR!! Doesn't work that way here, after all I should know that with over 100+ properties held by my family alone. Not to mention the plenty of loans made out with property in collateral...
That you were told the apartment was worth 2.4 million is one thing, that it's worth that much in a real market sale is another thing. Property is worth the value it gets paid for, not what they say it can be worth in 20 years down the line...
If you doubt that just see how many for sale signs can be spotted all over the DR, for property that will wait years to find a buyer willing to come close of what they are asking for.
Your story is full of holes and no matter how you put it, the house/apartment is not worth 2.4 million pesos...
LOL, y sigue? Sure, it doesn't happen all of the time, but you will be surprised how many people are
1) getting a divorce
2) gambling/drugs issues
3) family member has the title under there name and is in money problem
4) a person has a property and needs to leave the country and needs fast cash.
PM me, I can get you a very good rate on your properties. We don't charge any late fees for the first 2 months, and if you are in financial problems or are very far behind on payments, we can help out.
Yes, this is also possible, but, still for what we paid, if today we get $1.5M thats still banking twice what we paid. my aunt got her house in la zurza appraised for $8M. Now there is no way this 1 story house which has roofing problems is worth that much.
This is also very true; but again, you will find people that are willing to negotiate because of problems, via financially or family or whatever. Most properties in the DR is 100% owned by the owner, meaning no liens. But again, that doesn't mean you wont find people in circumstances.
Well, I guess there is no arguing with this. Feel free to PM me
.Absolutely, if it worth what she says, why can't she sell for 60% of that?