buying property- www.realba.blogspot.com

dropthezero

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Loads of people are coming to Buenos Aires and buying property. Lots of them are getting seriously scammed, overcharged, lied to and worse. Not all, i should add, but a pretty large percentage.

I met these guys just over a year or so ago on a social level and mentioned that i wanted to buy a property. I wasn't sure how to go about it all-how much people charged, fair prices in the different areas, tax etc. You never get a straight answer in Buenos Aires. At the time, they were investigating the rules and regulations as they were looking to buy a second property and helped me out enormously with info. I then asked them to help me actually find a property and offered to pay.

They helped me find my property, introduced me to all their contacts and basically made sure i wasn't cheated in any way at all. They're now doing this as a kind of business and have helped quite a few people buy property here. They REALLY know what they're talking about and will quite happily meet up to discuss the market and the process with anyone who needs more information. The fee they charge is much lower than other agencies and so called specialists and they don't take a cut of the professional fees of their contacts-you pay the lawyers etc the same percentage as they would (as in they don't add on hidden extra fees.) This is not usual here, trust me. I've lived here for almost 2 years and have yet to meet a truly trustworthy local.

I should add that these guys are my friends now but i'm not being biased. They offer a truly great service and will never screw you. They basically ensure that you don't get scammed, they're your insurance against losing serious money.

www.realba.blogspot.com is where you'll find them.

Good luck!
 
Both those links are malfunctioning and mislead you.
I always here this talk about people who are getting seriously scammed, overcharged lied to and such but I never hear it from the acctual people that got scammed and neither do I hear no specific examples.• For purchases of property being sold through a real estate agent we charge 1.5% of the price of the property
• For purchases of property bought directly from the owner we charge 2% of the price of the property. Since those people have such a generous pricetag on their services I don't think I would ever do any business with them. Those people do seem knowledgeable about buying property here but their website lacks a much needed testimonials section, giving people the knowledge that others have successfully done business with them would in my honest opinion attract new customers. Since you are friends with those people maybe you'll pass that piece of advice along to them.
Peace
 
Yeah, i've mentioned those things to them as well but they're happy with how things are going at the moment. They're not in it for serious money, just to help other people avoid the problems that can occur here in buenos aires and to earn a liveable wage for the two of them. If it were me i'd go full out but they don't seem to be interested in making a huge business out of things. 'Personal touch' is what they keep telling me. Anyway, i was just giving them a shout out as i do believe 100% that they know what they're doing and charge very little in comparison to other 'experts'. Meet up with them and make your own mind up-i guess that'd address any doubts. cheers, DTZ

ps don't know what happened to the link- the address is right, something to do external links maybe?
 
Foreigners buying property here must be extremely careful. I don't know anything about the people you mentioned. They may be very honest however I'd urge anyone buying property to be represented by a competent lawyer. Everything in Argentina depends on references. You need an honest friend or two to recommend other reliable people. Doing business here is fraught with hazards.
 
"chris" said:
Foreigners buying property here must be extremely careful. I don't know anything about the people you mentioned. They may be very honest however I'd urge anyone buying property to be represented by a competent lawyer. Everything in Argentina depends on references. You need an honest friend or two to recommend other reliable people. Doing business here is fraught with hazards.
How so? I hear vague rumors of people who've been shortchanged, and equally vague allegations of how unreliable Argentinians are in commercial dealings, but never anything specific.
 
Here are three examples for you "bigbadwolf" One day I bought 3 towels from a guy in the street for 15 pesos if I remember this correctly, later on somebody told me that those guys usually charge 10 pesos. Another day I went to look at a switchblade knife and got quoted a 30 peso price, the next day I went to buy it but then they wanted 35 pesos for it (which I gladly paid by the way). Another time I took a taxi and the taxis meter showed 5 pesos, some cents, the taxidriver used the opportunity to hit the rest button so the thing showed 70 cents, he then said siette pesos I in turn said "Bueno Ocho" and we made the transaction. That makes a whopping 11.5 pesos I have been swindled out of by dishonest Argentinians.
Be very carefull here, this is a dangerous place. "Edit" The statement "That makes a whopping 11.5 pesos I have been swindled out of by dishonest Argentinians." may not be true since I do believe that guy that sold me them towels was an immigrant himself from one of Argentinas neighboring countries. A more accurate statement would be: That makes a whopping 11.5 pesos I have been swindled out of by dishonest people in Argentina.
 
Things i was told to watch out for after i bought included; the escribano increasing his percentage from the usual 1-2% to over 3%, escribanos charging stamp duty on property purchases when they don't apply (and almost certainly pocketing the 2.5% charge), agents increasing the price (significantly) the minute they find out a foreigner is interested, escribanos 'recommended' by a real estate agent being in cahoots with the agent and selling property they legally can't sell, banks charging more than their usual 1.5-2% charge to bring money into the country and more that i can't remember.

I hired an english speaking lawyer to help me last year. He didn't actually do any real work to be honest, charged me 1.5% of the value of the property and also creamed another 1% off the top by saying the escribano charged 0.5% more than he really did and charging 0.5% extra for the money transfer but, all in all, i'm happy with the purchase. It could have been worse, an extra 1% isn't soooo bad and i can live with that. I wasn't charged any phantom taxes, just overcharged a little. If i were to do things over again, i'd try to find someone really trustworthy to help me find the property and through the purchase procedure and not have to deal personally with the agents ( who i found to be unscrupulous in the extreme) or with a lawyer that doesn't do much for his fee,. I was lucky to find a decently valued property and don't feel as though i were overcharged for it. I did view a couple that i'd seen in the newspaper that were mysteriously $10,000 more than advertised the minute i stepped through the door but i managed to steer clear of that, fortunately.

Forewarned is forearmed

elpanada, if you haven't had any dealings with major business transactions or property purchases then you don't know what you're talking about. Every day life here is easy and chances are the worst that'll happen to you is that the taxi driver will take a long route home or you'll get short-changed in a shop. Things that happen anywhere. It's when you get involved in any kind of business where you have to be really careful. Argentina is ranked absymally low in transparency international's corruption index and in every company's risk analysis for a reason.
 
"mrb" said:
Things i was told to watch out for after i bought included; the escribano increasing his percentage from the usual 1-2% to over 3%, escribanos charging stamp duty on property purchases when they don't apply (and almost certainly pocketing the 2.5% charge), agents increasing the price (significantly) the minute they find out a foreigner is interested, escribanos 'recommended' by a real estate agent being in cahoots with the agent and selling property they legally can't sell, banks charging more than their usual 1.5-2% charge to bring money into the country and more that i can't remember.



I hired an english speaking lawyer to help me last year. He didn't actually do any real work to be honest, charged me 1.5% of the value of the property and also creamed another 1% off the top by saying the escribano charged 0.5% more than he really did and charging 0.5% extra for the money transfer but, all in all, i'm happy with the purchase. It could have been worse, an extra 1% isn't soooo bad and i can live with that. I wasn't charged any phantom taxes, just overcharged a little. If i were to do things over again, i'd try to find someone really trustworthy to help me find the property and through the purchase procedure and not have to deal personally with the agents ( who i found to be unscrupulous in the extreme) or with a lawyer that doesn't do much for his fee,. I was lucky to find a decently valued property and don't feel as though i were overcharged for it. I did view a couple that i'd seen in the newspaper that were mysteriously $10,000 more than advertised the minute i stepped through the door but i managed to steer clear of that, fortunately.



Forewarned is forearmed



elpanada, if you haven't had any dealings with major business transactions or property purchases then you don't know what you're talking about. Every day life here is easy and chances are the worst that'll happen to you is that the taxi driver will take a long route home or you'll get short-changed in a shop. Things that happen anywhere. It's when you get involved in any kind of business where you have to be really careful. Argentina is ranked absymally low in transparency international's corruption index and in every company's risk analysis for a reason.
I've had plenty of those, just not here and I won't either if my only options are A. Getting ripped off or B. Dealing with people such as the ones at www.realba.blogspot.com and getting charged 1.5-2% of my money which is completely ridicilous.According to yourself you ended up paying 2% more for your purchase than you should have, judging by how you chose to be rude to a complete stranger like you did I do Not! think that it happend cause this is such a difficult place but rather cause you are a schmuck.
 
Personally, i don't think that 1.5% is particularly bad value if the person knows what they're talking about and especially if it saves you more than that overall. My 1.5% to the lawyer ended up being 2.5% but it could have been a hell of a lot worse had i decided to go it alone. It's your choice whether you wish to pay for professional advice or not. I know that i wouldn't move to, for example, France and decide to buy a property without paying someone experienced who knows what they're talking about to help me with the purchase. Different culture, different rules, different business practices. It's called being sensible.

There's a guy called michael koh who has a property consultancy here and who wrote a long article on buying property and the business world in Argentina. You can find it on this site. I'd suggest reading it before you make any more uninformed comments.

I also don't think that calling you inexperienced with Argentina and its business environment is rude. Calling me a 'schmuck' is.

I wish you good luck with whatever venture you undertake in Argentina. Don't say you haven't been warned.
 
"mrb" said:
Personally, i don't think that 1.5% is particularly bad value if the person knows what they're talking about and especially if it saves you more than that overall. My 1.5% to the lawyer ended up being 2.5% but it could have been a hell of a lot worse had i decided to go it alone. It's your choice whether you wish to pay for professional advice or not. I know that i wouldn't move to, for example, France and decide to buy a property without paying someone experienced who knows what they're talking about to help me with the purchase. Different culture, different rules, different business practices. It's called being sensible.



There's a guy called michael koh who has a property consultancy here and who wrote a long article on buying property and the business world in Argentina. You can find it on this site. I'd suggest reading it before you make any more uninformed comments.



I also don't think that calling you inexperienced with Argentina and its business environment is rude. Calling me a 'schmuck' is.



I wish you good luck with whatever venture you undertake in Argentina. Don't say you haven't been warned.

1.5-2%!!! Is just crazy nothing less. Where I come from that is what a realestate agent takes from the seller for selling his property while the buyer practicly doesn't pay a dime. One thing would be if you were to pay a realestate agent here in Argentina 1.5-2% for his services but to pay that to some what? Consultants? that's insane and since the realestate agency is going to charge you 2-3% then that's all in all 3.5-5% just to deal with those parties. If you sincerely believe that you need to forfeit over 3.5-5% of your money in order to do business here then I suggest that you consider investing your money in other parts of the world since 3.5-5% is no small margin. I know plenty of people here that know their shit, and if I'll want professional advice I will not have to deal people that want 1.5-2% of my money. " My 1.5% to the lawyer ended up being 2.5% but it could have been a hell of a lot worse had i decided to go it alone. " " I also don't think that calling you inexperienced with Argentina and
its business environment is rude. Calling me a 'schmuck' is. "


What do you expect? Here you are publicly questioning your ability to take care of your own matters without paying huge abnormal fees while being rude to others.You also never called me " inexperienced with Argentina and its business environment " your exact words were and I quote " elpanada, if you haven't had any dealings with major business
transactions or property purchases then you don't know what you're
talking about. ". Those words imply much more than that I am " inexperienced with Argentina and its business environment ". Cheers
 
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