First let me start off with a disclaimer by saying I am writing this to be more informative than "salesy"--yes my purpose is to inform you about something and hopefully some sales will come of it later but I am doing it more for your information and general entertainment purposes.  Some of you reading this will find it very important to you and some may just find it interesting.  Either way I want to share with you the story of how I found a home near the beach for less than the price of a new sport utility vehicle.  If you are a person that has $150,000usd or more to spend on a condo or a home then the project I am going to tell you about is not for you.  The only exception would be someone wanting to buy several homes for investment.  Also, for your reference a 2008 Chevy suburban is around $45,000usd right now I looked it up.  The other thing I should preface this entire article with is that I am a regular guy while in my mid 30's decided I was tired of the rat race that is the USA and I decided to move to Mexico while I was still young enough to enjoy it.  I had been here many times each year since the early 90's and just made the choice to move to Mexico full time in early 2004.

Now The Story

My business partner and I met while working for the same real estate company.  I will not name the company but they only sell beachfront lots, no homes no condos or anything else, just lots on the beach.  I was there for nearly 3 years which gave me good experience and I made some money.  The problem was their prices were very inflated making it difficult to sell to any educated buyer.  I wanted something new and one Saturday my buddy and I wanted to get out of Playa Del Carmen for a day of exploring.  We ventured down to Akumal, Tulum, and Chemuyil.  We went to the beach, explored several cenotes, etc. and basically just had fun and made a day of it.  After checking out the little town of Chemuyil, Mexico (you must try Leo's Pizza at least once) we found something very interesting to both of us.  Just barely to the South of CHemuyil next to the highway we found a private subdivision of finished homes.  There are 234 homes there to be exact. The entire subdivision has power, city water, sewer and phone lines.  We drove through the entire place several times and looked at the homes. I would say 90% of these houses were vacant and never lived in.  These are all 2 bedroom 1 bathroom government built homes about 660 square feet all exactly alike in size, floorplan, etc.  Each on its own lot measuring 7.7 meters by 18 meters (3.2 feet in a meter fyi).  Again, the strange thing was that this place was like a ghost town.  The next day we returned to see if we could find someone to talk to and find out about these homes.  This time we had a third person with us whose first language is Spanish to help us out just in case we needed it.  If you are wondering about the timeline this happened in February 2007.

It seemed that out of the 234 homes only about 20 or so were occupied and out of those only maybe 12 or 15 were occupied full time.  We finally found someone home and found out that everything was controlled by the government in Chetumal (state capital of Quintana Roo).  We got a phone number and started trying to get an appointment with someone there to see if we could buy some of these homes.  Our original idea was to purchase 4 or 5 homes, each of us live in one and fix the other 2 up and sell them for a profit.  Then buy 2 or 4 more, and so on.  After 2 trips

to Chetumal and many phone calls and a lot of frustration it did not seem like we would be able to buy anything at all.  Finally on the third visit we brought our attorney and actually made some progress.  We were told that the state had NO interest whatsoever in selling 4 or 5 or even 10 homes. 

They explained to us that this project was something they wanted to be rid of because in 6 years they had only sold 45 homes.  Many of the Mexican nationals that wanted to buy these homes either did not qualify for their loan program or found that the distance from town was too far.  Basically the project had failed and had been dropped, the government was losing money and the homes were sitting vacant to rot.  Now I do not know what you are thinking but at this point we "smelled" opportunity here.

We asked for another meeting and also asked if the powers that be would be open to a proposal from a couple of "gringos" to buy the entire project and take it off their hands.  Amazingly they said YES so we got to work.  We made a proposal to them and after several rounds of changes and compromises they agreed and sent the proposal to their legal department.  Without making this a lot longer let me say that dealing with governmental agencies is not easy but you can do it if you are very very patient and follow THEIR process to the letter.  Keep in mind now we are into the summer of 2007 (talk about learning patience we were going CRAZY).  Finally in August of 2007 we were told we had the contract and now it had to go back to OUR attorney to make sure we could meet all the requirements.  The contracts were not actually finished until the end of October and then FINALLY after nearly nine months, the first week of November 2007 we had LEGAL signed/sealed possession of 188 2 bedroom 1 bathroom homes in a private subdivision in the Riviera Maya.  Sometimes I still do not believe we were able to do this.  It was one of those ideas that when you start it you keep thinking to yourself "someone else is probably already doing this."  Nine months later I knew why no one else had done it.  The good news for everyone is since I cannot live in 188 homes I have to sell them.

The Secret

Ok, now to the part that benefits YOU.  Actually there are many secrets to buying/owning real estate in Mexico but really they are not secrets you just have to find a trustworthy information source and spend some time doing your homework. 

Remember I told you about the new chevy suburban for $45k?  Well what if I told you it is possible to purchase outright a home that is in the Riviera Maya and LESS than an 8 minute walk from one of the most beautiful and rarely used beaches in the world? and I told you it was LESS than the new Chevy suburban?  You probably would say I am smoking something right?  Well, it is true--you CAN buy a home for $39,900usd + $5000usd for closing costs which equals $44,900usd ($100 less than the chevy).  The beach across the street is a protected state park and turtle sanctuary called Xcacelito (ish-ka-sell-eeto) and cannot be developed by anyone.  Also only minutes away from Xel-ha, Hidden Worlds, and many other great cenotes (fresh water systems where you can swim pronounced SEE-NO-TAY).

Xcacel Beach (shown below I took this photo about 2 weeks ago).

Since November of 2007 we have sold 32 out of the available 188 homes.  At this price it is not really rocket science to sell these homes.  You can get title to these, I already have mine.  Here is an image of my actual title to my house.  Since I purchased multiple homes I am leaving it in the corporation name but people buying only one home would need a Fideicomiso (bank trust) that we do for you.  It is part of the closing costs.  If you wanted to buy multiple homes you could title it in a Mexican corporation like I did.

This is a fantastic area because you are in the heart of the Riviera Maya only 10 minutes from Tulum and about 27 minutes from Playa Del Carmen.  You are close enough to the action if you want it but far enough away to have lots of piece and quiet if that is what you want.  The thing is that I furnished my house with everything I wanted including the installation of AC for around $50,000usd.  Now let me ask a silly question--where can you find a home this close to the beach with city utilities and clean title (in Mexico or USA) that you can own and move in for $50,000usd??  If anyone can tell me I would like to know because I do not think you will find it.

A side note here that if you come out to the subdivision you will see that several people have already started making additions, adding on and improving their homes.  One guy has built a 3 story house and he can see the ocean from up there.  The beautiful thing about a Mexico real estate investment like this one is that it did not cost you too much to get in so then you should have extra money to fix the house up the way you want.

The last "secret" to consider from a pure investment standpoint is in December Reuters had an article that was taken from a press release by the Mexican government.  It seems now there are 3 companies bidding on the construction and operation of a brand new international airport for the Riviera Maya.  According to the article they are supposed to announce the winning bid in the next 2 or 3 months.  After that the construction should begin.  Even if it takes 2 years to build an airport and start landing planes do you have any idea what a home 15 minutes from an international airport is worth?  More than the chevy suburban I promise you.  If you bought one or more of these homes and did absolutely NOTHING but sit on them until the aiport was finished they would be worth probably double what you paid easy.

Whether you are on a savvy investor, on a fixed income, limited budget, looking for a super affordable 2nd home or vacation home if $50k sounds like a good deal to you then you should definitely check out these Mexico real estate homes for sale.

If any of you are doubting this please see my title and receipt from the public registry here so you know it is all legitimate and legal.  Title is here and receipt for public registry is here

Bill Mabra, Editor Riviera Maya Real Estate News