Buying/Selling Real Estate

It seems that most of the lawyer horror stories are related to real estate purchases and sales. There are also other real estate related ripoffs such as the utility bills not being up to date. This makes me think the idea of a real estate closing agent in Nicaragua would be a good thing.

In at least the states of California and Washington, these folks are state licensed. Their use is optional but, in my experience, well worth their cost. Let me explain what they do.

Paul Tiffer started a discussion about the new real estate tax law in a thread at http://www.nicaliving.com/node/20992 which continues to be a hot topic. The more I read/follow the thread the more complicated it seems and the less I really understand. What I want to do here is start a for example thread and see if we can pin down some answers that Joe Average can understand. Do do this, I am going to start with a specific example (which I am making up).

• Joe Average, a US Citizen with Nicaraguan Pensionado residency buys a house in Tola for $100,000.

Hello NL readers, The new tax law from December of 2012 increases the transfer tax on real estate properties. Prices are in US dollars: From 0.01 to 50,000.00 1.00% from 50,000.01 to 100,000.00 2.00% from 100,000.01 to 200.000.00 3.00% from 200.000.01 and up 4.00% In San Juan del Sur and Tola the local government or Municipality charges 1% for the transfer additional of the percentage the national government will charge (from 1% to 4%). According the law, the transfer tax must be paid by the seller. Best Regards, Paul Tiffer Attorney at Law ptiffer@cablenet.com.ni

Hi, I am going down to look at some property near San Juan Del Sur next month. I will be ready to buy it if everything works out. Please recommend a good lawyer there to review and confirm the title info and babysit the sale for me.

Thanks, TJ

Posting this for a favor -- possibly mostly a favor for NL members. A neighbor has 10 manzanas (about 7 hectares) of land in the Tisey reserve. Pretty much flat and all in pine. (Che, are you listening?) He said he isn't asking much. No clue what that means but I don't want to get into the negotiation so I didn't ask for clarification. It's about 2km from CoolTop and he says there is access but I don't think that means you can drive your Honda there.

Before I invested in CoolTop I had bought a 19 manzana parcel of land close to Estelí. I keep thinking someday I will do something with it. The reality is that I will not. I am clearly in no panic to sell it but I feel it could be an opportunity for someone. The basic info is below. PM me if you have interest.

Hello. I am looking for advice and recommendations on the easiest way to get a property sold. I have spoken to some realtors in Remax in Granada but they are not very friendly nor helpful (I do speak spanish as well). I have a house/hotel a block from the central park and as well as two parcels of land of many manzanas, one on carretera a masaya and the other near lake with lake front property. Wondering if anyone has any reccomendations to help me out in selling!

Thank you! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

$15,000 - Aprox. 0.4 manzanas (2/3rds of an acre) 10 minutes’s drive from the center of the city of Masatepe and another 15 kilometers to Masaya. About 15 minutes’ drive in the other direction takes you to the city of Jinotepe. The road to the property is paved and well-maintained. The last 30 yards are gravel and passable year-round with a two-wheel-drive vehicle.

$36,000 – 4 manzanas of land (7 acres) just outside El Rosario in the Department of Carazo, 2.8 kilometers to the Pan American highway and another 1.7 kilometers to the market in the center of Jinotepe.

The front manzana produces shade-grown Arabica coffee. The shade is provided by a thick, tall canopy of old-growth quanacaste (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterolobium_cyclocarpum), guazimo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guazuma_ulmifolia) and chilamate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficus_insipida) plus 6 mandarins and a few other fruit trees such as mamay.

I am Freddy, when visiting my family in Central America I met a wonderful woman from Nicaragua and have been with her ever since. I left Nicaragua to work but Nicaragua never left me. I miss the natural beauty and the bright people everyday. So much so that I am going to live off the land in Nicaragua. My wife has been looking for farms near her house in Masaya for over a month. The locals know that she is married to a US national because word gets around fast, and it has made buying a farm near her family impossible.

As a new home owner I am trying to be proactive regarding what will be my new tax assessment. Last years tax bill was only based on the lot value. ( I have some concerns on that topic also see below ).

OK guys need some help here. I'm in SJDS now and have been for a few weeks. I'm looking for somewhere to hang my hat for a few years with my wife and daughter. After looking in SJDS the rental and RE prices are crazy, seriously you can get a lot more for your buck in the states. With that said I have a few more weeks on this trip and am looking for some insight as to another area to look for reasonable housing and just a good safe place to live for a bit. Any help is much appreciated. Reasonable to me is like a buildable property for $15k USD.

The cost of houses came up in another thread. I considered starting a thread to try to get some country-wide data but decided separate threads, started by people living in different areas would make more sense. This thread is then about Estelí where I have a pretty decent idea what real estate prices look like.

Hi everyone,

New here and looking to purchase a house either close to Marsella beach or in SJDS.

http://bosquesdelmar.com/

My budget is 90K and i have spotted the following listing but not sure if i could find better in SJDS when i visit in January.

Any thoughts or suggestion would be appricated!

This site is very informative and ill keep on reading the old topics...

Cheers,

Frank

I am having trouble finding information on real estate on the East Coast, Puerto Cabezas specifically if any would know of any websites of people to contact it would be most appreciated.