Sorry - its a long post
Yes - getting to know the area you choose to move to is important.
We cruised for years trying to find some place in the Caribbean we wanted to retire to.
For some reason we decided on Cozumel Mexico
its got about 100,000 people but 30,000 are expats
so many expats from Texas there, there is a development named Corpus Christy
a good portion of the locals speak English.
after we stopped cruising we would go down there twice a year and talk with the expats , locals and business owners.
In the end,
An older YT business owner from Texas hooked us up with a real estate broker ( agents in the states) , contacts , banks, etc . He also helped us get local prices, instead of gringo prices.
I was his first customer years ago .
Just walked off a cruise ship, saw some bummy looking dude holding a sign for a cigar bar shop with free margaritas and walked on in.
Got to know him and his family over the years and he was like , you might as well just move here , so we were like fukk it.
Hardly any violence on the island, the pandemic has hit it hard though, but they are not acting up, yet ... still keeping an eye out on that .
and hell, he said pick a spot wherever you want , its that safe.
so we finally have a spot picked out and in the process to buy, and its actually 5 blocks from the dude I am talking about.
its not touristy and very local, it helps to speak a little Spanish where we picked.
I asked him why didn't he move to the ritzy part of the island , he was like if I wanted to move around more YT people , he would have just moved to another neighborhood in Texas.
Plus, we wanted the local experience as well.
Hope to finish sometime this summer. Hoping to go sign in July/August
We picked a spot that was being renovated, the person that owns it bought it and gutted it and before they got a chance to get started , they got a job on the mainland and decided to sell
we got it for local prices . it'll take a few years to reno and i do not think we are going to rent it out ( the wife is being funny)
But it took us years to do this , build a network of people and learn the layout of the area.
i mean you can do it faster than us ( it took us a decade ) , but you have to have some people there working with you for it to go smooth.
And no flexxing . period. hell I Iook homeless sometimes, I lost 75 pounds and scared to buy new clothes ( may get big again), HA!
A buddy of mine that stays at all inclusives, was in the DR , and said one time there was this middle aged CAC couple from Florida flossing hard down there . looking like Mr. & Mrs T on shopping excursions.
One day the concierge, just told them that for their own safety , they could not leave the resort for the rest of their stay ( 2 weeks) , the wolves got the scent & their taxi driver had been offered money to "drop them off" somewhere special . But he was a legit dude and let the hotel know. the resort offered to move them to another part of the island to a sister resort , but they just went home.
cels circle jerking themselves...
