Costs Associated With Move to Playa Del Carmen

http://www.playa.info/

this is a real estate site

It all depends on the ages of you family about health insurance. If you are under 65 rates will be around $100 to $150 plus or minus for basic plans. Private plans are available too. Google Mexico Family health plans and all the information you need will come up. Rent of course depends on neighborhood. Again google long term rentals for PDC again pictures of the properties and smiling faces of real estate agents will come up. I would think you can get what you want for $1200 to $2000. I have no idea if you have special health concerns. If you do you may want to consider closeness to a hospital. As far as PDC. If you can not speak Spanish. Learn. Easiest and fastest program is Rocketlanguages.com. In just a month you will easily ask and answer basic questions. Avoid Pimsleur and Fluenz. You will enjoy the area but if you like on the ocean but close to a big city things to do consider Conception, Valparaiso, Santiago Chile. I am moving there in September.

Thank you for the information. I speak Spanish pretty well. My wife is fluent since she is from Colombia. My little boy is more or less bilingual.

sanluisdavid wrote:

Thank you for the information. I speak Spanish pretty well. My wife is fluent since she is from Colombia. My little boy is more or less bilingual.

Since language is not a problem:

I wish I could tell you there's an easy way.
In both my locations in Mexico, Zacatecas (7 years) and Coatepec (3 months), I had the help of locals.  The owner of a hostel in Zacatecas and an expat in Coatepec.  In one instance during our stay in Zacatecas, a guy on a street corner overheard us talking about looking for a place and we lucked into a nice apartment for 4 years.

If you have decide on Playa del Carmen, consider a looksee visit.  Stay at a smaller hotel and chat up the manager and reception.  With a bit of luck, they'll put you in touch with a reliable person to show you around.

Yeah, I think we are going to try to do this in phases. This upcoming Summer we already made travel plans elsewhere but are going to squeeze in 3 night/4 day trip to PDC. I imagine this will be the hottest, most humid, and least exciting time of the year to go there. So that will give us a good idea of how it will be in the off season. The apartments for rent on Airbnb are super cheap at that time of the year. There are quite a few under $100 a night in the downtown area that will suit our needs for such a short stay. If all looks good, will try for a good solid month next Summer with the kids and mother in law from Colombia. Rent a place that would be about the same quality and size that we would want to buy or rent long term if we relocate there and see how the dynamics of everything works out. Get everyone's opinion on the lifestyle. Then if all is good, dive in. I have heard from a few folks already that health insurance for the family would be about $150/month or so. I can see from the property listings that a place for us to live would cost about $250K for what we are looking for. Or rent for like $900-1000. Property taxes are like $400/year compared to $4,500/year here in California. HOA's $125 vs $425. And the list goes on and on in regards to potential savings from our current budget. I contacted a bunch of schools today and the cost of private school for my little son will run about $150-275/month USD. That seems like a big cost, but the quality of the private schools look great and they he will be completely 100% bilingual when it is all said and done.

I wouldnt buy any real estate until I had been down there for awhile.  You need to learn about squatters right, ejido land and homestead land.  you also need to learn about title insurance and what areas have active judges being bought off so locals can take deeds from gringos.  Tulum town is a homestead village with some properties being sold by the wrong person.  Tulum beach is indian land and can have 2 or 3 owners selling the same lot.  One Mexican bought a judge and was able to kick an american off his resort and steal it from him, this has happened a couple of times. rent for awhile and keep in mind there are a lot of lawsuits by renters being made to pay for the developers unpaid bills.

Property swindles happen to Mexicans too in all parts of the country.  To what extent I don't know.  Finding a reputable broker is a must.  How you do that requires time and making contacts who have done business over a long period of time.  No guarantees but the vast majority of buyers feel secure in their purchases.

Any recommendations for reputable broker?

you need to talk to people when you get down there.  The important person is the notary public.  keep in mind you will not actually be able to own real estate within 26 miles of a coast or international border.  you will either own stock in a corporation or a bank will hold the deed in trust for you, this is called a Fideicomiso.  I think I heard that this was going to change but not sure if it has or not.  real estate agents are a N. american invention that mecico puts up with.

I don't mind that I would not actually "own" the property there, and that it would need to be in a bank trust. Here in the States people who "own" property, have to pay the government 10 times as much in property taxes for that privilege. And if they don't, they lose the property they supposedly own.

You actually do own the property, except for having it in an agent's name.  You are free to do with it what any Mexican property owner can do with property and the agent can interfere.

In mexico one just needs to buy off the judge and the federales will just put your stuff out into the street.  Unless the Mexican constitution has changed in the last couple of years post 12 is incorrect, it really doesnt even make sense. 

some facts...
http://www.banderasnews.com/1310/re-tro … comiso.htm

David
lots of people go to Mexico and do just fine but it is best to go in eyes wide open.  There are a lot of law suits regarding condos right now, if the developer didnt pay his suppliers the suppliers will go after you.

also you can try Mahahual it is about 3 hrs from playa its a very nice and safe town cheaper than playa and we have many expat so I recommend you to go visit there,look around. las rentas son mas baratas y todo esta serca

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to check it out!