Going to have to stay in Santa Domingo

Welcome to the forums!!!!  Santo Domingo has lots to offer in terms of apartments etc.  It is easy to find a place once you are here. Be careful of what you see on the internet.  If you want to email me the place i can do some ground work for you.

Sosua is a completely different place then SD.  It is small, on the ocean, lots of expats but also lots of "problems"  You need to investigate well before you decide where you want to be.

SD is not for everyone but neither is Sosua.  If you tell us what is important to you we may be able to help you.

Maid - depends if she lives in or out, duties, days and hours.  6,000 a month is probably 3 or 4  full days a week, not living in the house. You may or may not need that.

As for a driver - for SD I will recommend you get a good taxi driver who you get to know and he knows you,  plus a back up or two. Driving is NUTS in this country. In SD it is inexpensive enough for a taxi that it may not make sense to get your own vehicle.  If you need a recommendation, I can send you someone. For a good taxi company I recommend Apollo here in the capital.

For a lawyer in the capital contact Wilson (Billy) Rood, he is fully bilingual, fairly efficient and fairly priced [email protected]

Thank you for your kind words and help. I got to look more on the net just to checkout more places in SD.I'll try and send you a link to this one place that kind of empressed me in SD.I'm sure theres loads of good places.Now Sousa, its smaller, loads of expats,but i was thinking of the not living in the city.Ha, only thing with that is I love to shop.ALOT! I'm addicted.So SD has that over Sousa.God they don't even have a movie theatre there. I found the quote on maids wages on the internet under  labor laws dor the D.R.It was a suggested wage.Guess i better think of about $10000 a month for 5 days,8 hours per day for a live-in then.Now thats a good idea of a taxi driver i can call as needed, and i wrote down the Apollo. I was impressed on prices on homes there. guess i should checkout SD more, haven't done that really. My biggest thing is getting there. I have multiple properities to sell and my business. Then i can move there and get out of the usa.Forever.I'm hoping for 1 year from now.Thanks for the name of the lawter. I will contact him as i get closer to being there.Thank you for all your help,gave me some new insights and help. Take care. mark

You are very welcome! By the way, unless you are a whole family who really needs as full time person in the house???

Mark,  Welcome again.  We live in the Sosua/Cabarete area and love it.  Have been here for over 7 years now and not looked back for a second.  We picked the area because of the beaches, people, community, and the fact that Santiago with all the shopping you could want is only a bit over an hour away.

When you are read to make the move you should spend some time exploring the different areas.

Bob K

Forgot to answer your question about maids. We pay our house keeper $9000RD a month plus transportation costs. She works 5.5 days a week, does all the cleaning, cooking when we want, laundry and takes care of the place. If we are going to travel and she stays overnight we pay extra for that.

Bob K

Now I know i'll stay in SD. I just got off line after reading the Sousa News.Wow, It seems there are several areas in Sousa that are suffering badly from no water or electric. Now i know that happens some, but the article made it sound like its bad, Another thing,is no tourist's are coming to Sousa,in the off-time. So resident's are charging theri food bills at the local grocery store, or using their bank cards for those that have them, with no outlook for better time's in sight.And there seems to be a closure of more store's there with no business coming in.The news report asked if you are a tourist please shop locally. Now I'll have no real problem myself if i lived there, but i'm sure some expat's are going too.Well I missed this report that was dated in late september. It doesn't deter me,just makes me think where i'll be better off in.Mark

Mark, good luck but before you write off any area you should come and explore the different areas yourself before making a final decision.

Bob K

I agree with Bob. There are always multiple sides to every issue.

here is what I would do: make a list of your MUST haves, a list of your would likes, finally a list of don't wants.  Then visit various areas of this country to see what works best for YOU.

For me I love the capital.  I also love Puerto Plata for different reasons.  Some people love Punta Cana / Bavaro and I  would not want to live there, at least not at this stage of my life.

Food for thought for you....

i thought i better answer this.Well it will just be me. Ok, i'm lazy. Now when I look for a place it has to be big. I know your going huh? Like 5 bedrooms at least.Close to town.I have ideas of converting 1 or 2 of the bedrooms to start another big collection of CD movies. I have about 600+ right now. I also have a place i can buy over 10,000 movies at.So UPS will be busy.But to tell you the truth,I can can clean up a place in sections.Oh another thing, I been window shopping if i stayed in SD, for places with a washer and a dryer.Some don't even mention one a few do.So i got to keep looking.i am still looking at places in Sousa.But like you said go there after i get there check things out.Have a good day. Mark

Thanks for the info! Do we get to borrow movies???