Should we buy or should we rent

joec wrote:JimW - Join the crowd. Chapala is always looking for more $$$. We had to have our house measured too and the same thing happened. We thought it was about 3,400 sq ft, turns out it is 4,672 sq ft. We'll just hafta suck it up and pay the back taxes before closing.

John, according to our realtor, Chapala started including all finished, uncovered living space, ie, pool/patio area in construction size, sometime in 2011-2012. Now @ time of sale will backdate to the time of your home purchase.

Jim W wrote:

joec wrote:JimW - Join the crowd. Chapala is always looking for more $$$. We had to have our house measured too and the same thing happened. We thought it was about 3,400 sq ft, turns out it is 4,672 sq ft. We'll just hafta suck it up and pay the back taxes before closing.

John, according to our realtor, Chapala started including all finished, uncovered living space, ie, pool/patio area in construction size, sometime in 2011-2012. Now @ time of sale will backdate to the time of your home purchase.

I think you're correct as that is what Noe told us.

Ohhhhhhhhhh down here Rent first. You just have no idea what will happen month to month let alone buying a property that might not sell for years . It use to be great to buy...fun to decorate and fix up but in all honesty with the capital gains tax...ect...you will lose money when you do or if you sell at all. Rent short term if you can with an option to renew at intervals...give it a try here but be aware of where you are and what might happen. Gated communities do offer a lot more security...but also could be near the weekend eventos. It is all an adventure...you will love it but look first buy later.

joec wrote:

Jim W wrote:

joec wrote:JimW - Join the crowd. Chapala is always looking for more $$$. We had to have our house measured too and the same thing happened. We thought it was about 3,400 sq ft, turns out it is 4,672 sq ft. We'll just hafta suck it up and pay the back taxes before closing.

John, according to our realtor, Chapala started including all finished, uncovered living space, ie, pool/patio area in construction size, sometime in 2011-2012. Now @ time of sale will backdate to the time of your home purchase.

I think you're correct as that is what Noe told us.

I continue to find it disturbing that this area is so out of touch with what is going on in other parts of Mexico.
When we applied for our building permit in 2004 in Nayarit, uncovered living space was included in the calculation...that included the eaves.
And, the building permit was priced per square metre of construction.
Makes me wonder WTF is going on here.

I believes patios and pools were included before 2011. We bought the house without measuring in 2001, the agency advertised it as 450m2, one day a few years later I noticed that the Hacienda papers stated 610m2 so I ask Chapala to remeasure it. I measure the house under roof and figured the house should be 350 something meter, when they came to remeasure the house, they included pool, palapa, pump house and I do not know what else and came up with 450m2...except or the palapa and the pump house none of the aditions made were under roof.
In Chiapas we bought a house on a lot that said the lot was 260m2, before I bought I had an ingeneer measure the property as I wanted to make sure I could remodel the house the way I wanted to. The lot was 300 m2 plus. I went to see a notary who told me the property had been there several hundred years, houses were split and so on and as all houses had been there for ever, there was no point worrying about it, so we dropped subject. He told me the corner of his office was really o his neighbor´s land and that the whole town was that way..
In Chapala I get the feeling that the city take every oportunity to grab money.

Actually, my feeling, and I don't have a crystal ball, is that now is a great time to be buying. I know that in the Raquet Club alone at least 3 houses have sold in the last couple of weeks. There are more, but those are private sales, no info.

Here's the caveat, in order to determine if the house you want IS the house for you try doing a rent to buy option, in other words offer to rent the place for 1 year, after that you should know darned well if this is the house you want and also if any problems which have arisen during that time are fixable, and if you can personally handle the costs to remedy the issues. You will also know if the neighbors are a real pain, or the area is really noisy etc.

This puts you firmly in the drivers seat, and makes final negotiation with the owner far easier. As in, you said that xyz was working perfectly, well guess what, it isn't. Who's going to pick up the tab for that?

Good Luck. We learned this the hard way BTW. Bought a house we loved, then discovered no end of structural problems. Luckily, my husband is an engineer, and after 13 years of fixing it up, it's in great shape. Also we got to learn who would overcharge and who did good but reasonable work. Now we know!

We have a song in France that says, le temps d´apprendre a vivre , il est deja trop tard..
By the time you have learned how to live, it is already too late...