Sesonal living

So I may have lofty dreams but if we are not dreaming we are awake and that just seems sad.
I don't have much ex-Canadian military I am a gringo my Spanish is terrible but I have dreams and aspirations of living seasonally in Puerto Rico. I cannot fully retire on the small military pension I have but I am also only 40 years old and willing to escort Americans on diving excursions and keeping them as safe as I can. I do have a background in videography and photography as well as tours in Bosnia and Afghanistan as an infantryman.
Unfortunately I have spent 20 years in the Canadian armed forces so I have had my hand held for everything I have ever done and would love someone to hold my hand through this or crush my dreams.
feel free to post comment and say hello forgive me as I am a NEWBIE.

any information would be great especially along the lines of minimum survival cost as well as housing purchase information that can be used as a rental in the off season for augmented funds.
If I am successful it could lead to more people coming

Hi Dan, are you a US citizen or do you have the green card which allows you to work in the US?

DND computers are so restrictive

having problems replying
but again I do not have citizen ship nor a green card I would assume that would be difficult to apply for my speciality's are not that unique.

Dan,

If you intend to maintain Canada citizenship and residency (spending fewer than 83 days/year in PR), then you should be fine.  You would want to establish a corporation in Canada, and then do business in PR.  This is easier than it sounds, at least on the Puerto Rico end.  I've got an LLC and considered keeping it when I moved to PR.  Oddly enough, a mainland LLC is considered a "foreign company" in Puerto Rico.  All you do is register it, and then you are free to conduct business:

http://info.nationalcorp.com/blog/bid/2 … uerto-Rico

As a foreigner you are allowed to own property anywhere in the USA including Puerto Rico. But your stay in the island is limited by visas. No difference visiting Texas as visiting PR.
You can rent your property to locals or to tourists (short term rentals) however somebody has to maintain the property and you can not always time it, so you need hire someone to deal with the maintenance and to greet your renters, give them the keys, inspect the conditions and get the keys bank then clean up and get it ready for the next guests.

The business idea sounds great thank you for that!

Ic about rental property that is always a risk in all developing countries even if you use a reputable company trusting while not being there is kinda a night mare I am really hoping that PR is more amairican and more developed

Warren,
Should it not be just under 6 months kinda like a snow bird to maintain citizenship?
I will have to look up that rule as i also have to maintain Canadian benifets.
Again thank you the 83 days sounds short just want to make sure

Take trip, judge by yourself.
Puerto Rico is being influenced by the US but it changes slowly, it is still very much and old Spain outpost.
Before you consider the idea you should take a long trip and visit different parts of the island and get a feel if PR is for you or not.

Oops, that's a typo -- I dropped the leading "1".  183 days is half-year plus one.  Typically (at least in the US) that's how residency is determined.  You may find that as long as you spend half the year in Canada, you can own property in PR and rent it out while you are away. 

Bear in mind that my advice comes from a US perspective, and there may be some additional hurdles or challenges as a Canadian that make this problematic for you.  However, Rey is correct that there are no restrictions on your owning property in PR, and foreign companies can rather easily (and cheaply) be licensed to do business in PR.

For listings of properties, the three most popular sources are
Classificados
http://www.clasificadosonline.com/

Point2Homes
http://www.point2homes.com/US/Real-Esta … gs/PR.html

and Zillow
http://www.zillow.com/pr/

Bear in mind that many properties are not advertised at all, while others are sold, but not dropped from these listings.  You can also check some of the island banks for foreclosed properties.  Buying in PR is frequently a long, tedious, tiring and frustrating process.  That's why there's rum!  Rey is also correct that you should plan on spending at least several weeks on the island getting a feel for its varying regional personalities.

So glad I started posting here great info guys,
I will plan a long trip, possibly some sort of dive learning trip my friends have been there many times as the American Airborne love jumping there and thank goodness they bring there little brother Canadians with them.

but you are right that is all second hand info.

Hmmm Rum!

Drink all you want, we'll make more

Our plan is to eventually be snowbirds in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately we have to wait another 10 years or so before we can do that so we bought a place last year in Cabo Rojo. After a long process of 3 months we were finally able to seal the deal. We went back to PR and In 5 days we managed to close on the property, get the electricity and water turned on, cleaned, painted and slightly remodeled, had a plumber and electrician in to do repairs and we completely stocked it with furniture, appliances, linens and kitchenware. (We luckily had another couple with us who worked their butts off!) We met with a property manager that we located before we went down there and we signed on with her. She took over the rest of the things that needed to be done; getting the cable and internet turned on, letting the electrician back in to install new A/C units and we had it listed as a vacation rental property a month later. We went back for a week in November to add some art and other decorations. It looks great and is renting pretty well for a new listing. The plan is to have some of the costs offset but hopefully it will pay for itself.  It would pay more if we didn't use a month of prime rental time for ourselves but we're from Michigan sooo.... lol.

That is my recommendation for you. This property will probably not be the place we move to in the future though. It's in a resort area and is only a one bedroom but it's our stepping stone. Hopefully we'll be able to buy a second home and keep this first one as a rental income.

Great plan Neiner! We have a rental house we purchased last year. Currently is been rented from day one. The plan is to get one more property before retirement next year and offset part of the retirement with that income.

That sounds wonderful neiner (assuming you are 9er domestic)

the person you talked to are they going to look after the rental details IE security, finding tenants, in and out clearances? as a formed company in PR Adlin20 your in the conversation to that is exactly the kind of risk vs reward I am looking for think that I have about 100K to invest in a property that's Canadian so its about 40K LOL:)
I have a friend down there right now scoping things out for me said that there is some development on a island to the west he is looking while he is down there I think he will do more diving then research though.

have a good one!
if reputable rental company's post here I will have a look at them

You can find good deals in the island, right now is a buyer market. But you need to remember, you will have to hold on to that property for a good few years. The resale is not there right now, but there is a big rental market, locals and foreign. Local rent is low, depending on the area and the house, you cannot compare to the US rental prices.
I will suggest doing your homework and have patience. Things move a lot slower in the island. It took us almost 3 months to complete the purchase of our rental property. At the end we got a good deal, have the house rented and producing 10% of the cost monthy. Better return than having the money in the bank right now.
We figured 2 houses will cover about 1/2 or retirement income.

You mean 110% of cost Adlin?

Our property manager takes care of everything for us. She manages all the listings, ( it's on 6 different sites) the check in and check out, the cleaning crew and all the correspondance with the guests. She will also take care of the other things that need to be done like the occasional terminator, maintenance people, etc. If I decide I need new lamps for the living room she will go shopping for me and text me pictures for my approval before she purchases. We pay a flat monthly rate no matter how many rentals or extra work we need her to do. She bills us for anything she had to pay for such as contractors and cleaning supplies.

We found her by contacting a property management company in San Juan. They didn't service our area but referred us to her. Puerto Rican businesses don't have a big presence online so you definitely have to do a lot of legwork yourself.

Rey,

I think is about 10%\yr. we paid $45k for the house and it rent for $450/mo. Taking into consideration maintenance expenses my take is about 10%.