Buying a Hotel in DR profitable? with $100k down

[Vanmel]

Hello guys, I am new to the board however me and my husband are seriusly thinking about moving to teh DR, we live in florida and plan to keep our home here also, however we only have about $100,000 to invest, we were thining of buying a hotel/restaurant in cabarete which costs around $300,000 we are not sure whether we can get a loan from a bank, also would like to know the pros/cons of owning a hotel in DR, I am from the DR but have not been there as much lately, but I do have plenty of family there.
of course when we thought of owning a hotel, we thought about living in the hotel and that way we wont needto pay rent, I just have to find out why the owners are selling this hotel, it made me wonder if there making good $$ why are they selling so many hotels in sosua/cabarete area? I am not sure but will soon find out of course.

anyway I have to find out how to get a business loan over there since I am not sure if we could maybe get a hotel priced at $300,000 for $100,000 down, soemone said we only would need 10% down? also we will have about 50k start up money for the business, I just want to make sure that these hotel/restaurants make money over there since of course we want to make a profit, if anyone has advice for us and would like to share it please let us know, I am sure this cannot be easy but we really wouldlove to live there so I guess we have to get ready to work hard, if anyone can send me info directly at vanessamelly@aol.com it woudl be appreciated, if you think there is another business that could make us more of a profit, any advice is appreciated, however Please dont be rude to me, as I have seen plenty of rude responses, if you cannot give me advice or say something useful Please dont say anything at all.

 

[Mr_DR]

Hello guys, I am new to the board however me and my husband are seriusly thinking about moving to teh DR, we live in florida and plan to keep our home here also, however we only have about $100,000 to invest, we were thining of buying a hotel/restaurant in cabarete which costs around $300,000 we are not sure whether we can get a loan from a bank, also would like to know the pros/cons of owning a hotel in DR, I am from the DR but have not been there as much lately, but I do have plenty of family there.
of course when we thought of owning a hotel, we thought about living in the hotel and that way we wont needto pay rent, I just have to find out why the owners are selling this hotel, it made me wonder if there making good $$ why are they selling so many hotels in sosua/cabarete area? I am not sure but will soon find out of course.

anyway I have to find out how to get a business loan over there since I am not sure if we could maybe get a hotel priced at $300,000 for $100,000 down, soemone said we only would need 10% down? also we will have about 50k start up money for the business, I just want to make sure that these hotel/restaurants make money over there since of course we want to make a profit, if anyone has advice for us and would like to share it please let us know, I am sure this cannot be easy but we really wouldlove to live there so I guess we have to get ready to work hard, if anyone can send me info directly at vanessamelly@aol.com it woudl be appreciated, if you think there is another business that could make us more of a profit, any advice is appreciated, however Please dont be rude to me, as I have seen plenty of rude responses, if you cannot give me advice or say something useful Please dont say anything at all.

They could be selling because they probably found better investments with greater opportunities somewhere else.

They probably think that Sosua and Cabarete pretty much reached their peak.

 

[Hillbilly]

There are a couple of things to think about in general

1) Is if you are willing to work 24/7 at the business. HOtels and other hospitality businesses are time consuming, often back breaking, businesses to run. You have to consider if you are really "people persons" . Do you have expertise in electricity, plumbing, carpentry, and other such skills in order to keep things runnig to the satisfaction of your guests.

2) Contrary to what the above poster has said, the President, Leonel Fern?ndez, has promised to upgrade the infrastructure along the North Coast and make it more attractive. This is good, if it comes to pass.

A further consideration is what will be your demographic targets and how will you get them to come to your place. I think I would ask some of the true real estate experts on this board about the location, condition and possibilities--as they see them. Talk to people in Cabarete that might know the area.

And, unfortunately, I think a good heart to heart with the local banks would be in order.

HB ??

 

[Chris]

It is not easy. If you do not have hotel or bar experience, you'll be scouted as a newby in 5 seconds flat down here and your money will not go very far. If I was in your shoes, I would come down here and pay Marco at Rocky's in Sosua consultant's rates to talk to me for a very long time about what it takes to survive in the hospitality business down here.

Second thing, I would not tell anyone on a public bulletin board how much money I have available.

 

[Escott]

No where that I know of even in the US will you get a bank to finance a business for 10% down. That is nothing but a dream and not close to reality. Whomever gave you that info is out to lunch.

You won't get a loan from a bank unless there is more info than you have posted and not shared with us. 40% LTV is closer to reality so you will need a minimum of 180k down and working capital. The rates are also a lot higher than anywhere else I have been..

FWIW I financed a small hotel in Cabarete about 6 months ago and if you still want to do this after reading my post pm me.

In my opinion it makes no difference why someone is choosing to sell a business. They wont tell you the truth anyway so why waste your time asking. You need to make the decision "can I make money here". I wouldn't ask people here to answer the question for you because only you can be the judge of this. You know the old expression about opinions, right?

If you are just planning on sitting around and waiting for the business to come to you don't bother. You need to find a niche and promote, promote, amd did I mention promote?

What do you do now?

 

[Jimmydr]

There is always room for another quality hotel. There are way too few as it is. With the Europa and One Ocean sold out lately there are not that many other hotels to pick from.

 

[Snuffy]

Some very hard and almighty smart advice here. These people are dealing in reality.

 

[Snuffy]

Hello guys, I am new to the board however me and my husband are seriusly thinking about moving to teh DR, we live in florida and plan to keep our home here also, however we only have about $100,000 to invest, we were thining of buying a hotel/restaurant in cabarete which costs around $300,000 we are not sure whether we can get a loan from a bank, also would like to know the pros/cons of owning a hotel in DR, I am from the DR but have not been there as much lately, but I do have plenty of family there.
of course when we thought of owning a hotel, we thought about living in the hotel and that way we wont needto pay rent, I just have to find out why the owners are selling this hotel, it made me wonder if there making good $$ why are they selling so many hotels in sosua/cabarete area? I am not sure but will soon find out of course.

anyway I have to find out how to get a business loan over there since I am not sure if we could maybe get a hotel priced at $300,000 for $100,000 down, soemone said we only would need 10% down? also we will have about 50k start up money for the business, I just want to make sure that these hotel/restaurants make money over there since of course we want to make a profit, if anyone has advice for us and would like to share it please let us know, I am sure this cannot be easy but we really wouldlove to live there so I guess we have to get ready to work hard, if anyone can send me info directly at vanessamelly@aol.com it woudl be appreciated, if you think there is another business that could make us more of a profit, any advice is appreciated, however Please dont be rude to me, as I have seen plenty of rude responses, if you cannot give me advice or say something useful Please dont say anything at all.

What these people are telling you is to tuck that money away safely and take it out again when you know better what you are doing. If you have that kind of money sitting around then you can easily afford to come here and live your first few years on that money. This gives you time to look around and learn the rules of engagement. You don't need to come here, ready to work hard, if you have that kind of money. I will bet lots of people make that mistake. They dive in and hit a concrete bottom. Take it nice and slow.

 

[stallion]

most banks will only finance you only 50% to 65% of the proprety value.

 

[Vanmel]

Thanks for the advice

HI and Thanks for your very good advice, maybe the hotel industry is not the best way to invest our money,.

anyway the money we are getting is not available now since we want tor efinance our home and were told we coudl get upto $150,000 but of course its not like we have the money in the bank, we want to make concrete plans before we get that large sum of money, of course teh hotel industry would be good for us since I am a people person and would love serving people and we are hard workers.

however maybe in DR that is not a good business to get into, we will definately look into other possibilities, maybe buying a ome and renting it as a vacation home, creating a website and renting to tourists, this was my initial idea, however after i saw that the hotels we figured it would be a good idea, but in any case we were not just going to jump into that industry I actually wanted to maybe rent my home in florida as a vacation home and go to DR for some months and check everythng out and see what kind of business we can buy or start, I guess egtting a loa from a bank os out of our hands since we dont have alot of money, but anyway I will see what kind of biz we can start since I have noticed alot of foreigners moving there andstarting companies, so they must be making money. by the way someone asked if we had expertise in electricty,plumbing etcc,, my husband is an electrician and also does hoem remodeling, so he is very knowledgable, and I am a home decorator, and from the decor I have seen in the DR hotels they need a decorators badly!!!!!

 

[Snuffy]

You Need To Live Here First...

There are some homes here that would blow your mind. Believe me, they lack nothing in decor. The decorators are very talented.

You need to come here and live for a few years before deciding on anything.

 

[samiam]

Vanmel:
From what you said, I thought about the Velero and Agualina hotels in Cabarete. These where built and sold as apartments, owners come and vacation and the rest of the year they profit from the hotel.
The arrangements are very nice, the architecture is well laid out and in my opinion, they are the best places to stay in the area.
You can look for such projects in Samana too. Its a bit cheaper than cabarete because its so far away and not yet exploited.
Maybe a project similar to this ones might best fit your budget/wishes.

I agree some of the hotels here are like a time warp back to 1975. Its endemic of the area though, I've seem the same stuff in Costa Rica and Mexico. That is usually the case in hotels that fall behind though.

 

[Vanmel]

Hi, I am sure there are alot of well decorated homes
however the pictures of the inside of these hotels that are for sale
definately need help with the decor,


anyway I will go down there and check things out prior to moving, my cousin that lives there told me to be careful when buiying a hotel because there has been alot of hotels going out of business because they were losing money,so I will definately check that out Thanks for your advice

 

[gsupa]

work in hotel management and see if you like it. If you do, move forward and start small. when you have a biger experience, you can go bigger.