Mortgages?

nledec

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How does purchasing a home in BA work?
I've been reading that real estate purchases are basically done in cash and that mortgages don't really exist...True? Any kind of loans available to purchase homes/apts?
 
It is true what you have heard. There are private mortgage loans with crazy interest rates though ( and I personally don´t trust those sharks )
 
There is absolutely no mortgages to non residents in Argentina. Its all in cash even for locals.
 
My friend in Pilar tells me the maximum you can get is ten years. Assuming from what has been said it must be on a basis of personal loan. (unsecured? and probably at a very high rate)
So I supose they will have no problems here with sub prime mortgages then!
 
You bring cash. There are two types of payment, "black" money which is usually 20-30% of the house and "white" money which is the remainder. It is an interesting process. The mortgages that are here usually require about 50% down with a high interested rate.
 
Not only are deals done in cash, but they are done with shrink wrapped bricks of US $100 bills, electronic counting machines, and exchanges that are right out of Miami Vice, although they do take place in a nice room in a bank, instead of in a speed boat or a neon lit strip club.

Money talks. All else walks.

I might add that the cause of the current unpleasantness in the USA seems to be the too easy availability of mortgages. Somewhere in the middle, between the US of two years ago, and Argentina today, seems to be the right solution to me.
 
Ries said:
Not only are deals done in cash, but they are done with shrink wrapped bricks of US $100 bills, electronic counting machines, and exchanges that are right out of Miami Vice, although they do take place in a nice room in a bank, instead of in a speed boat or a neon lit strip club.

This made me think of my deal, so here is a quote from my blog:(
We arrive at the bank and as usual there are big queues, nobody to ask and no sign of the builders. People were taking numbers from a roll and a big display indicated which number was being served. I was assuming that we would be dealt with separately so I was taking a chance and not getting a number.
As is normal here the builders arrived ten minutes late and introduced us to the escribano, who had been standing by us for some time.
We were lead to the back of the bank and through an Iron Gate that looked more like a Mexican Jail than an office entrance. Inside was no more luxurious, we were offered tubular steel seats around a Formica table, the walls were plain white with no adornment, and behind us was a huge safe. On the door of the safe was the usual notice (in Spanish) that the safe is time locked and that the staff does not have access.

As for electronic counting, forget it. All hand counted and then stuffed in his trousers.
 
My wife did the closing on our place, so I didnt see it in person, but she assures me it did indeed feature a fancy electronic counting machine.
And since both the sellers and we were using the same bank, no cash actually left the bank- it was a 100% "white" deal, and the cash got rolled in, counted, shoved across the table like something out of a Dean Martin gambling in Vegas movie, then put back on a cart, and rolled back into the same safe it came out of.
Only it was now the sellers money, not ours.

The all cash thing actually makes more sense if its about sneaking around taxes and fees- but even in totally above board, all taxes paid on full price deals, the actual transaction takes place in cash.

Our experience was a bit classier, as we had a very good lawyer/escribano combination, who set everything up, and expedited in a quick and efficient manner- but the basic idea is the same no matter what.
 
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