Thread: Report on house hunt in Las Tablas.

At first glance it appears that nothing is for sale in Las Tablas and the surrounding areas. That is a smoke screen. The more expensive homes have signs alerting you that they are for sale. The inexpensive homes are sold by word of mouth etc. The owners are not interested in paying an agent 5% to sell it for them. They may use what I call a "shade tree" real estate agent and that person will not want a notice to be put on the home either because they are afraid they will lose their commission to a drive by "buyer". We put the word out in our neighborhood and posted notices etc. We have been getting a steady stream of calls and even people knocking on our doors asking us to see a home for sale. In fact, we have already made an offer on one that has been accepted. Not as hard as I thought. At first I believed there was nothing for sale. But, once the smoke screen was lifted I found out I was wrong. My conclusion is that a home right in Las Tablas can be found for 40 thousand or so. A home in an exterior barrio, only a few minutes from town, can be found for 30 thousand or so. Many of these homes have city water and sewer and have asphalt roads. They are all concrete construction including interior walls with metal roofs. Very functional construction. Taxes are low to none. Usually these homes need upgrades. Such as new tile etc. Sometimes new roof sections and other small things.
You can buy a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home, for the price of a good new car. A little patience can pay off. Of course, you can always buy a lot and build an expensive Gringo style place. My thinking is that selling something like this will be difficult in the future so you should plan on living there for awhile. An inexpensive home in a good location will retain its value and have an actual resellable value in the future. I never want to be "stuck" with a property again. Been there, done that.

Thanks for all the insight and great photos you post to this forum.