What To Ask Before You Buy

First, a checklist to consider whether you’re renting or buying:

1. What is the drive time from the nearest airport?

2. What is your access and right-of-way? That is, how do you get to your house or property? Must you cross another person’s property? If so, are you certain your neighbor can’t ever restrict your access?

3. Is the property accessible year-round, including during winter and/or in the rainy season? Not all roads are accessible year-round in a given region depending on the season. Does it snow heavily? Will ice block your path for weeks a year? In the tropics, streams that barely flow or don’t at all during the dry season can be raging torrents when the annual rains start. Ask about the road condition in all seasons.

4. How far away is the nearest medical care facility? How far is the nearest hospital?

5. Is there enough water and water pressure? Is there hot water? Check beneath the sinks (in every bathroom) to see if the plumbing provides for both hot and cold water… don’t take for granted that a blue handle and a red handle actually indicate the temperature of their waters—both might be fed from the same cold-water line.

6. What distance are you from day-to-day services (grocery stores, dry cleaners, pharmacies, banks, etc.)? Consider this (and proximity to medical care facilities) in terms of time rather than distance. Ten miles on a rough dirt road in the rainy season can translate to an hour or more of travel time.

7. Will you need a car living in this place? Does your budget allow for a car? Where will you park?

8. What’s included with the property? In many countries when you buy a home, you buy bare, stripped walls and empty rooms—no lighting fixtures, no appliances.

Here is a checklist if you’re buying into a private development:

1. How will security be provided?

2. Is there a timed building requirement—do you have a deadline to construct if you’re buying a lot within a development? What is it? Does it fit with your retirement time frame, plan, and budget?

3. What construction and design standards are in place? If you’re buying into a private development, you want building covenants.

4. What is the current, existing infrastructure? Understand what’s planned but understand as well that you’re buying only what you see. Promised infrastructure doesn’t always materialize. Ask specifically about waste management, phone service, and internet.

5. Likewise, understand what amenities exist and what is promised but recognize that you’re buying (and be sure that you’re paying for) only what exists. If there’s no marina when you buy, there may never be a marina, no matter what the developer’s nice brochures and pretty drawings indicate.

6. What are the plans for a homeowners’ association? What will the monthly fees be? Are these enough to cover the developer’s responsibilities? You don’t want to pay high HOA fees, of course, but neither do you want to invest in a development where the developer has so underestimated his costs that the HOA fees don’t cover them. The result can be that essential maintenance and services (for example, security) are reduced.

7. Is the development company financially sound? Does it have a track record? What else has it built?

8. What kind of title guarantee can be provided?

Another checklist if you’re buying land with the intention of building your own home:

1. Will you be in the country during construction? If not, how will you build from thousands of miles away? Who will oversee the work for you?

2. What’s your timeline and budget? What are your contingency plans if the project takes longer and costs more than you’re planning? (It will; take our word for it.)

3. What kind of title comes with the land? There are many different kinds of title. While freehold is certainly the most secure, it’s not always available in every market. Lack of freehold title is not necessarily a cause for concern, but it is something you want to understand in whatever market you’re buying in. Educate yourself on the kinds of titles you might encounter in a given country and know which are legitimate. For example, rights-of-possession (ROP) property in Panama does not come with a title that you can trust. ROP simply gives you the right to reside on the land, it doesn’t mean you actually own it. Ejido land in Mexico likewise does not come with a true title because it’s not meant to be sold; it belongs to the people. If you buy it, you and the agent have both broken the law (unknowingly or not) and the land could be confiscated back to its rightful owners—the government. You may have heard sensational stories about expat land being confiscated in various countries—you can be sure that in every case the foreigner “bought” land that wasn’t legally to be sold (again, whether he knew it or not); he never owned it, he only thought he did. Sooner or later, the other shoe will likely drop…

Finally, another checklist if your plan is to live in the place only part of the year:

1. Who will look after the property while you’re away? At what expense?

2. Will you be able to rent the place out while you’re elsewhere? If so, you could earn enough in rental income during the months you’re living somewhere else to cover the property’s annual carrying costs.