Mennonite homes

Bob:

Mayan Seaside - not sure where this is. Building materials, kitchen/bath fixtures are readily available in various hardware stores on the mainland. Of course, the variety is much less than in the USA or Canada. Although supply is getting much better than say 6 years ago, if you know you need it, and the store has it buy it. If you wait until you need it, the item may not be there.

The other thing is that with the very humid weather some items do not store well. For example bags of cement will get too much moisture and after some time will become useless to use.

Theft is a very big problem in Central America. Construction sites are a prime target if they are not watched over 24x7x365. The theft may come from within the workers you hire, or from locals. For this reason we did not start building on site, until we arrived in country. I was on site twice a day, and often did surprise visits at night. We had planned on having the chain link fence up before construction started, but that company did not put it as a priority. They didn't want to work in the rain.

Permits were not required were we built, until the year we came. As with much of this type of fee there is no written schedule of fees. Thus lending the fees charged to be fattened up. Always get receipts for everything.

Like everything the costs estimates vary with the location, size, and specifications. You can purchase precast septic tanks that can then be delivered. We built our own as we are on a farm. When we came down for 'vacation' we spent a lot of time going to different hardware stores, grocery stores, etc to see the price of things, and what was available.

Thus far we have decided to build with materials and equipment readily available here. This means you can get workers that have done the task with those materials before. I have educated our workers on the way I want things done. I built up our farm slowly. That way I could monitor the functionality, and durability of what we built. With each new structure I have altered things a bit.

When we build our long term home, I know we will build out of poured concrete, import good windows, and insulate walls and roof well. This will reduce the cost of cooling and dehydrating the home. Coming from the prairies in Canada with a 10% humidity to a 90%+ humidity it is surprising the toll that humidity takes on structures, equipment, and animals. A home built as we now plan it will make life here less expensive, and more comfortable.

From our research around Central America, we expected and planned for an 8 foot fence around our 'house and workshop area'. What we did not plan for was more than a barb wire fence around our farm. We quickly learned that fences like that are not respected. Cutting them to get in and blaming someone else was always the trespassers first response. Many just passed through the fence and stole fruit, chickens etc at will. Therefore we ended up building a chain link fence around most of our property or barb wire with field fence.

We put signs on the fence which were all stolen within a couple of weeks. Animals like chickens, sheep, goats are considered take away food. What this means is that they can come onto the farm and easily take away these animals to barbecue. I spoke to more than a few local people that gave up on sheep because of this problem.

We therefore opted to get Kangal (Anatolian Shepherd Dogs) to assist with the discouraging the take away food business. That has worked well for a couple of years, though recently 3 of our pups were poisoned, and an adult was shot twice. Two of the pups died. One needs to have people on the property for most of the time.

Home invasions have become more prevalent in Belize (across the whole country). Therefore plan your security against this. There of course is no guaranteed way to protect yourself, but you can do things to make you and your property a harder target so they go elsewhere.

re: Has the experience made you reconsider your decision to have a family farm and/or build a permanent home there?

We still like it here. Our hope is that now that Christmas has passed they will be less aggressive to get our carry-out-food. We like the climate, our farm, and friends we have met here. We are just fine with the limited choice on restaurants, the stores, etc. We like the simpler life.

Going back to Canada - specifically Alberta where government has destroyed the economy, and think it is their right to take businesses away - no, do not want to go back there any time soon.

I haven't decided exactly where in Belize I want to end up so this inquiry is not targeted to a specific district at the current time.

What is the availability of "fixer-uppers" in various areas in Belize. I would be interested in finding a home that may need some serious work but has a sound structure and already has the basics (water, septic, electric, etc) in place.  I can do most of the work but want to be sure that any materials and work put into fixing up the structure would increase the value above what is put into it.

There's an excellent candidate for a fixer in Copper Bank owned by an American couple. It's waterfront and all concrete is in place. Has a concrete wall surrounding the property. I think they'd be willing to sell for a low price to a serious buyer.

Hello,
Could you give me any more info about the place around Copper Bank area?
Barbara

Greetings Barbara.  I did not see the property listed where I saw it listed last June. Here is the owners email address in case you want to contact him. He might have sold it because it was a great deal for someone who wanted to finish the house: ***

Lazyhazel
Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.
Barbara

You're welcome. We were going to look at it when we were looking at properties last August. We ended up buying property near Sarteneja. Also, check out www.lindavistabelize.com for another home option. It's where we'll get our house from when it's time. Prices are in BZD. Good luck with your search.

RE: (where a plot can be bought around one third acre,and a 24ft by 40ft, plus veranda house coming in  at under USD 100,000.total.)

Just wondering were you've seen a plot for sale for USD 100,000 as you describe?

Hi Barbara, Here’s a link to that house in Copper bank https://www.belizeproperty.com/copper-b … rozal.html There are actually a lot of existing homes for sale in Belize, finding the listings can be tricky though.

That one is under contact and not the same house that I saw listed last year. Either it sold or the owner got tired of listing it. I found that looking online for properties is a crap shoot. Your best bet is to narrow your search down to one or two areas, then spend two weeks on the ground with a good agent who knows what's actually available. Nine out of ten properties we saw listed online had sold long before we were in country looking and a lot of the ads were click bait to get you to contact the agent. Personally, I don't trust agents that do business that way. Seems a little dishonest. Also, things move very slow in Belize. We paid for our land almost six months ago and it still isn't 100% approved by the government. They "reevaluated" the land, determined that the price was too low and now we owe another $1K. Very frustrating. We feel taken advantage of, but that's what you have to go through to get land in Belize. Anyone else run into this? Your thoughts...

How can I contact someone thru the private email system if I don have their email?

A very valid question and one of the main reasons I do not use this forum more often.

For a private message:
click their names.
Then click the button:
Send a private message,
Simple. Good luck!

Exactly.  btw, how do you like Sarteneja?  i bought property over there, a few rows back from the seawall