Getting dollars into Argentina to purchase real estate

[Neirobiologist]

When I purchased the apartment in which I had been living for three years, the payment was easy. The seller lived in New Jersey, so I processed a transfer from my Massachusetts account to her New Jersey account before closing day. The seller confirmed the money was in her account at closing. My escribana had the documents prepared and I paid her fee in pesos. The entire transaction took no more than fifteen minutes.

If you are fortunate to find a property owner with a US bank account, the process is simplified.

Tell me please, what is the insurance document, that garantees you that after the seller gets the money on bank in USA, than the seller will sign the contract in Argentina? What if you send money and smth would happend to this transaction?

 

[lunar]

Tell me please, what is the insurance document, that garantees you that after the seller gets the money on bank in USA, than the seller will sign the contract in Argentina? What if you send money and smth would happend to this transaction?

This transaction is not secured in any way, and wire transfers cannot be reversed. I assume that the escribano will not finalize the deal unless a mutual agreement is reached. If the seller decides to back out after the transfer, it will greatly complicate things.

 

[jantango]

What if?????? When it's right, everything falls into place. As of today, I've been living in the apartment for 21 years.

 

[matthiasccm]

I found another company that does the same process with stocks and bonds that Banco Piano does (though only for dollars), but without the above-mentioned regulation conflict. Not only do they charge only 1% instead of 5%, the broker is a noted economist, professor, and a close personal friend of my brother-in-law. He's a financial wizard that I trust 100%, and without him I'd be renting now instead of owning a home.

The company is Inviu, and the broker is Franco Tealdi (fluent in English btw). And unlike Banco Piano, he can move money in both directions, helpful for those needing to move dollars out of Argentina. Franco specializes in wealth management, and I highly recommend him to anyone needing to move money or optimize their resources.

Franco Tealdi:
[email protected]
Franco Tealdi Twitter 54 9 351 266-1022 WhatsApp [his preferred method]


Good luck and best wishes...

This is very interesting information. A few questions for you:

- It sounds like the transferring of USD into your account is straightforward - the rates are attractive, but then what happens? They transfer it from Inviu into your domestic bank account presumably.
- As we know, what is declared officially vs not means that you can then relatively frictionlessly transfer the declared value in USD via the bank.
- But what about the excess, eg non-declared amount which usually the seller wants done off the books and wants USD cash.
- Can you withdraw whatever sum you want in USD cash from your Argentinian bank without limits? I've heard that there are hard limits on the amount of USD you can physically withdraw at your local bank?

 

[Utopos]

I hope this answers your questions:

I have two Inviu accounts --- one in the U.S. and the other in Argentina. To receive dollars (or pesos, you specify the desired currency when initiating the process), first a wire transfer is deposited into the U.S. Inviu account from my U.S. bank. Inviu then buys bonds, transfers them to my Argentina account and sells the bonds. The proceeds are then deposited into my appropriate Argentine Inviu account (dollars or pesos). To access dollars, they must finally be transferred into a normal Argentine dollar bank account from the Inviu account, as Inviu is a brokerage house not a bank.

Banco Piano does the same procedure, the difference being (other than 5% vs 1% fee) is that with Inviu I can buy and sell the bonds myself if I wish, though I let Franco Tealdi handle that. I'm no expert. He is.

There was minor difference between the actual price I paid for my house and that which the seller wished to be on the final documents. My escribano handled the paperwork to do that. It was not a problem, but I suspect it might have some tax implications should I sell.

To the best of my knowledge, if you have dollars in a dollar account, you can withdraw all you wish. They are yours. Local branches might not have a sufficient supply on hand, however. so for large amounts I suggest using the main bank.

 

[matthiasccm]

I hope this answers your questions:

I have two Inviu accounts --- one in the U.S. and the other in Argentina. To receive dollars (or pesos, you specify the desired currency when initiating the process), first a wire transfer is deposited into the U.S. Inviu account from my U.S. bank. Inviu then buys bonds, transfers them to my Argentina account and sells the bonds. The proceeds are then deposited into my appropriate Argentine Inviu account (dollars or pesos). To access dollars, they must finally be transferred into a normal Argentine dollar bank account from the Inviu account, as Inviu is a brokerage house not a bank.

Banco Piano does the same procedure, the difference being (other than 5% vs 1% fee) is that with Inviu I can buy and sell the bonds myself if I wish, though I let Franco Tealdi handle that. I'm no expert. He is.

There was minor difference between the actual price I paid for my house and that which the seller wished to be on the final documents. My escribano handled the paperwork to do that. It was not a problem, but I suspect it might have some tax implications should I sell.

To the best of my knowledge, if you have dollars in a dollar account, you can withdraw all you wish. They are yours. Local branches might not have a sufficient supply on hand, however. so for large amounts I suggest using the main bank.

Again, extremely helpful! Thank you for taking the time to spell this out.

My chief concern currently is the feasibility / ease of withdrawing $250k USD cash from whichever Argentinian bank I end up choosing. My understanding from Argentinian friends is that I should be weary of banks allowing me to withdraw that sum of money in cash and that there are stringent, low limits in place to prevent large withdrawals. Is this misplaced fear on their part or have you found that banks are perfectly willing to give you all of your USD in cash at once, assuming it’s a larger bank and branch? Are there any precautions you’d recommend I take in advance?

 

[earlyretirement]

Tell me please, what is the insurance document, that garantees you that after the seller gets the money on bank in USA, than the seller will sign the contract in Argentina? What if you send money and smth would happend to this transaction?

Well you as the BUYER get to select the Escribano to be used for the transaction. Obviously you definitely have to have a skilled and ethical Escribano but in all the times that I've purchased when I've wired abroad to a foreign owner to a foreign bank account the buyer and seller signed the escritura ahead of time. The Escribano held the keys and agreed not to hand them over until a secondary document was signed saying the funds were received.

On the title deed it said it wasn't valid until the funds were confirmed as received with the 2nd document being signed. I've never had any issues at all proceeding this way.

 

[Utopos]

Again, extremely helpful! Thank you for taking the time to spell this out.

My chief concern currently is the feasibility / ease of withdrawing $250k USD cash from whichever Argentinian bank I end up choosing. My understanding from Argentinian friends is that I should be weary of banks allowing me to withdraw that sum of money in cash and that there are stringent, low limits in place to prevent large withdrawals. Is this misplaced fear on their part or have you found that banks are perfectly willing to give you all of your USD in cash at once, assuming it’s a larger bank and branch? Are there any precautions you’d recommend I take in advance?

Speaking from personal experience, their fear is misplaced (though it may be different for Argentinos with dollar accounts --- I'm a foreigner with permanent residence). If you are able to legally deposit dollars into an Argentine bank dollar account, you can withdraw any amount you want. As I have already said, the only issue would be a local branch that may not keep large amounts of dollars on hand unless requested in advance. Main branch, no such issue.

 

[earlyretirement]

Speaking from personal experience, their fear is misplaced (though it may be different for Argentinos with dollar accounts --- I'm a foreigner with permanent residence). If you are able to legally deposit dollars into an Argentine bank dollar account, you can withdraw any amount you want. As I have already said, the only issue would be a local branch that may not keep large amounts of dollars on hand unless requested in advance. Main branch, no such issue.

I wouldn't necessarily say that you shouldn't have any fear of wiring large sums of money INTO Argentina. If there were some big event like a formal devaluation, I personally wouldn't want to do anything at all with the banking system there. I was down there during the last correlito and it was utter chaos. They were limiting the amount people could withdraw from their own accounts.

What I'd feel comfortable doing is wiring funds abroad to another seller's account OUTSIDE of Argentina but with how unstable and chaotic the financial system is right now, I wouldn't want to wire funds into Argentina.

 

[Utopos]

Sorry this is a bit late...

My statement quoted above concerned withdrawing dollars already in an Argentine bank, not about transferring them into the country (which is the tricky part). If you have dollars in a dollar account, you have full access to them. For large amounts, I would contact the bank ahead of time but there is no withdrawal limit to the very best of my knowledge. I used Banco Piano and had no problem whatsoever taking $250k U.S.cash. My worries were all about getting back home safely