Hola amigos

Greetings all

This is my first post here.... So I will give you some background on myself.  I'm 45, live in Canada and have 2 kids.  My gf and I have been taking the kids (she has 2 as well)  to all inclusives for the past few years. But now as they get older and we have to play full adult prices it is getting quite expensive.  The lackluster Canadian dollar isn't helping either. So we are looking at buying a condo that we can use from time to time during the year and then rent it out to friends. I have been back and forth to the Puerto Plata area for 25 years (my father lived in long Beach) I will admit its been a few years since I have been there but we are coming down for a Xmas vacation and I plan on doing some tours of some condo complexes and compiling as much information possible. We wouldn't be looking at buying anything till the summer of 2018 at the earliest.

My question for you is what are the pitfalls first time buyers have when looking at properties in the DR?   Is the real estate market process considerably different from that in Canada?  I'm really not looking at this as an investment property, just a lovely place that I can take my family to over the next 20 years or so... Then who knows, retire their permanently. (though I'm going to need to work on my Spanish a lot)

Thanks for any advice.