Dark Side of Cuenca Real Estate - A Cautionary Tale with Susan
Vložit
- čas přidán 13. 06. 2024
- Thanks a bunch to Susan for sharing this cautionary tale. She's provided so many learnings for future expats considering buying property in Cuenca or investing in general.
=== YapaTree Properties ===
- Contact Jason: jason@yapatree.com or +593999475705
- YapaTree: yapatree.com/
- Rent or Buy Cuenca Properties: yapatree.com/cuenca-ecuador-r...
- Real Estate Trips: yapatree.com/cuenca-real-esta...
- Buyers Agent: yapatree.com/cuenca-buyers-ag...
- Cuenca events: yapatree.com/cuenca-events/
Susan certainly has a story to tell, and her positive attitude is an inspiration in itself!
It has been exactly a year since our first trip to Ecuador--specifically Cuenca. After years of contemplating expat life, when we finally did it, we jumped quickly. YapaTree showed us rentals and units for sale during that visit. Super helpful! We first rented in El Centro and once settled were off with them again to get serious regarding a condo purchase. We moved in last February. Cuenca was the right choice for us as was YapaTree!
Susan's deed stories reminded us of our explorations regarding where we had thought we would end up--Portugal. Getting a clear deed there and use of the property as a living accommodation can be very tricky, expensive and time consuming. New condos are not a problem generally, but if its a fixer-upper, barn conversion, or old family home--watch out!
Susan is fantastic. Couldn't agree more.
Appreciate the kind words Tom! We should do a positive real estate story soon with your lovely condo :)
Such a great video and so informative. There are so many Ecuador real estate videos that just are sunshine and butterflies instead of truth and cautionary. Thanks
Thanks Bert. It's very important to us that our customers are informed and educated. The hope is that videos like this help show the risks involved in a property transaction, without fearmongering. It's a balance.
The disparities in wealth between North Americans and locals is always going to create an incentive to exploit new comers. Similar risks are present in North America when investing in real estate, but spiraling real estate prices in North America means that even poor investments will usually yield some profit. Those assumptions about real estate being the best form of investment do not apply when the market here is so different and the rule of law is so weak.
Thanks for your input John. It is a very different market with different risks. It's still by far the favored type of investment by locals - but they have lots of learnings that expats don't.
Honestly even if you’re familiar with an area even in your own home country …. It’s not a bad idea to rent in a place you’ve not lived in full time for a year or two before plunking down cash on a property. That said what she went through with all of this is quite a lot more than I’d ever expect!
Thanks Derek. We do agree that renting in the area may have better equiped Susan to catch some issues. But, each piece of land is unique and has it's own challenges. So it's very doubtful that renting somewhere (even very close by) is the silver bullet to catch all of the issues Susan went through.
We believe that more due diligence on the targetted property (either by yourself if you know what you're looking for or a trusted partner) is the best way forward in land buying scenarios. This takes a lot of time and effort, even for locals that know what they are doing.
When the realtor is not there , Bring a translator knock on the door talk to the sellers. Talk to the people who lives on the same street. Talk to the owner of the Tiny convenient store on the same street talk to the people who lives across the street. Talk to anybody and everybody get all the Info you can.
Information is power! In Susan's case, finding any neighbors would be a challenge as it's relatively remote and many owners aren't there full time. It's generally signficantly more challenging finding appropriate prices for land. Even for locals.
Great video…would love to hear a similar cautionary tale from a renter…perhaps the capital risked is less but the transaction is no less critical.
Good suggestion Jan. We'll schedule this topic into our calendar.
man. talk about a wake up call. good job.
Thanks Samurai. Ecuador has lots of challenges, but buying land is up there as one of the most risky for newcomers.
If you are interested in another cautionary tale I would love to tell you about our experience having a 'luxury house' built in a coastal urbanization in a so called 'gated community'. I would love to know of an attorney who would be willing to take our case. The owner of the community is from Quito. I don't know if it matters if our attorney is from the coast or not. Thank you.
What a terrible story that Susan shared! I think your advice to rent for a while before buying is really good. Still don’t know who to trust once we move there. It seems like that’s what it all boils down to: trust 😖
It's a horrible sequence of events Susan went through. You're correct, it's very difficult to know who to trust here. We've worked with many agents here as part of various deals etc. Our list of trusted real estate agents vs non-trusted is extremely one-sided unfortunately. We're trying to restore balance.
Excellent content, another great interview. Loved your interview with Dra. Maite! Both interviews providing very useful information for the Gringo community. Am impressed Susan is so optimistic. As a ten year Cuenca renter, I can say it’s been a nightmare post Covid with the corrupt (a word you gratefully used) landlord/“realtor” situation. Surely there are laws protecting renters who have signed lease contracts. Would like to know the ‘Pueblo’ Ministry name and contact info that governs rental transactions and protects from abusive landlords.
Thanks Sharon. Appreciate that. I like your suggestion too, we should cover this topic in a video. I'll add to our schedule.
It is very disappointing when you are trying to do business here, it seems that the moment people know you are a foreigner all they see is an opportunity to rip somebody off. The saddest part is that I’m Ecuadorian living in the states for over 40 years and every year I come back and I have to any type of business or fixing a problem in my mom’s house I’m reluctant to ask just one person because I know they want to charge me more because they know I live in the states. Thankfully I have good friends who live here and I always ask for their advice before I do anything. But I have to say there are still good honest people who won’t rip you off.
I agree it can be very disheartening.
I did a video on the "gringo tax" a little while ago. I prefer to refer to it as the 'out of town' tax as it applies to a much wider cross section than gringos. Hope it's of value:
czcams.com/video/DBEb6NBli8o/video.htmlsi=PxrlD2z9t9TkEWdD
There are certainly honest people here too, but they can be tougher to find - partly due to business hiding behind the defamation laws whenever anything negative or constructive about their business is mentioned.
This type of stories also happen to Ecuadorians. There is even a case of a priest scaming an old lady to take her house away from her. It has happened to me that the seller wants to cheat and do 2 deeds. They say let's do a Promise of Sell, then the final deed. Some Ecuadorians are ignorant and don't believe the SRI, the bank will ask for a origin of the funds they received.
Scammers don't discriminate. Gringos just happen to be amongst the most vulnerable to them.
Sorry to hear you had a negative experience. I'd be interested in learning more. But, the promissory note process is a valid procedure. Of course, it depends what special conditions etc are included in it.
The way to secure someone to have ownership of something before the owner passing is to transfer ownership with usufruct rights. This protects the original owner and allow the heir to gain full access later on.
Is Susan staying on the farm? or moving into town? How far out of /cuenca is she?
Staying close by. It's approx 30 mins from Cuenca. Beautiful spot.
whos books?
Susan's :) But she's in the process of offloading a bunch of them.
"Land just felt safer" shows a horrible understanding of investment. I guess she assumed all land is economically equal.
A key takeaway from the video is that it's very difficult for expats to know what is the true land value. It's a persistent issue we see and it allows unscrupulous agents to take advantage.
Many Ecuadorians also strongly favor land investments as they are perceived as safer - mainly due to a deep distrust of banks.