Thread: Can you get into gated communities w/o an agent?

My husband and I would like to look at houses when we come down to Panama, but wonder if we need to be with a realtor to get into some of the areas we are interested in like Coronado, Altos de Maria, Los Molinas in Boquete....etc. We have been trying to make a few contacts via the internet, but so far we haven't had real good results. Will they let me in the large gated communities w/o a realtor?

Not usually, unless your Spanish and charm are top-notch.

It is really tough to find one motivated realtor who will stay with you to tour all the places you want to tour, but it can be done. I suggest you post your question on one of the Yahoo! boards to see if you can get some personal recommendations there; the agents I know really concentrate just on PC. There is at least one real estate office in Coronado, and I met the woman manager there, but for the life of me cannot remember her name right now... sorry. But, you will probably end up with 2 or 3 agents: one for Boquete (lots of them there), one for Coronado, one for Altos. And you will probably find it difficult to set much up in advance over the internet -- that's just the way things work here. Try phoning them -- that will usually work better.

We have been helped by a number of realtors in Panama. One company is http://www.livinginpanamacity.com/ They have an office in Coronado and ALL of them have been extremely helpful and gone "the extra mile" We've dealt with Charla Armstrong, Jim and Darnel both in PC and in Coronado when we were there in Dec and January. I give top marks for motivation.

We've also dealt with Diana Bishop at Panama Realtor.com Panama Real Estate - Panama Realtor Definitely above and beyond the call of service ! Drove out from PC to the Decameron where we were staying in early 2008 and spent a day taking us all over the place.

dgonzalezruiz@semusarealty.com I was lucky enough to find a fantastic real estate lady in Panama on my second try. She goes above and beyond and yes it is better to go with a real estate person to check out gated communities. Try Dora Gonzalez-Ruiz