Miamimike said:These prices and miantenence fees seem extremely high to me also and I reside in Miami where real estate probably appreciated 30+% in the past year. I have been looking at many countries in south and Central AMerica along with Mexico. I think I will passing on the DR as the current prices do not correspond to value received--I would never pay those prices as one poster wrote in a 3rd world country. I bought my Studio Condo here in North Miami for $17,000(thats right $17K) in 1996. I feel I overpaid by 10% even back then.Bought in a hurry. My current maintenence is $156 monthly and my Hot water is included in my monthly maintenece. We have nice pool but I never use it as I am only 3.5 miles west of the nice beach near Bal Harbor/Surfside on Collins ave for those of you familiar with Miami and the beaches. Deals are out there if you take the time to look. One thing I will do in whatever country I buy in and that is use a 3rd party representative like an Attorney of the country I am buying in--as soon as many sellers in whatever country find out you are a Northamerican, canadian or German the prices get jacked up due to the misconception we all have tons of money to spend-so I will hid my identity until the closing and the price has been locked in.Maybe I am overly cynical but I simply seen to many scams in the Latin countries.Personally some of the best deals I have seen are in some of the areas of Argentina(out of the capital buenos aires)--and the Trout fishing and Hunting in some of the mountain regions is simply out of this world.
Very good dissertation. Good luck in putting into practice what you just said here.