Non-Resident American Buying Apartment - Need Some Advice

[Rich One]

Yes it is

Well a PH here is very different from a Penthouse in the US ! What is your property a Penthouse?

 

[Stevied]

Thanks for the help everyone. There are a couple of real estate companies in BA that specialize in how to do this, as I have subsequently found out. Both Orion Propriedades and Reynolds Propriedades know how to do this - they are very knowledgeable.

 

[Stevied]

Well a PH here is very different from a Penthouse in the US ! What is your property a Penthouse?

Yes, I know - and not all PH's are the same.

 

[D.B. Cooper]

FYI : PH may mean Penthouse in the US, But in this part of the world PH stands for Piso Horizontal.
i.e. Usually a ground level flat. Nothing to do with a Penthouse.

 

[Stevied]

Yes, I know what a PH is - I actually think that stands for propiedad horizontal, rather than piso horizontal, but no matter. I'm not sure why people thought I was thinking it was a penthouse, but I do understand the difference.....and I don't think all PH's are on one floor - to me, it's a general term for a house-like apartment, which usually has its own ground floor entrance, and a building that is typically 1 to 3 floors, which may be split up into just a few separate apartments.

 

[Patagone]

I think that if, as you said "[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]We want to do this transaction above the table", you CANNOT use a cueva!!! Cuevas are for the underground . . . You should be able to wire dollars to a local bank, and that's it. According to the newspapers, the day before yesterday they changed the banking regulations. Before, if you wired dollars to Argentina, they would get exchanged to pesos and then to dollars again. Ridiculous but true and the whole thing would cost you 5% or more on banking fees. At worst, have your wife fly to BA, open the bank account, and have her return to NY and then just wire the money. The fee in the US for international wires is around $45. The receiving bank in Argentina may charge you a fee too, which would not be surprising.[/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]By the way, you will be a very strange creature in BA; honesty is not an Argentine trait. You should have a t-shirt printed with "No Uso Cuevas" and I am certain people will look at you with amazement![/background]

The buying above the table is different from the way you get the money in. If you use a cueva's foreign account (you wire money to Abu Dhabi or Hong Kong etc and they give you the cash here minus 2-6%), then the only under the table is that you (actually the cueva) did not declare the funds coming in, but you never brought hem in anyways.
At that point it is still you rmoney and you have not bought anything under the table.

At the escribania you can pay the full price and have the full price on the papers, then everythinmg is as above the table as it can be. But they will look at you strange, as normally all escribanias have two sets of papers:
1) with the agreed price which you have to pay there, in cash. After the money is counted, these documents are shredded and in comes the 2nd set:
2) with a much lower price, meaning both the seller and the buyer will pay less taxes.

Of course the escribania charges their % over the higher amount anyways.

 

[Stevied]

The buying above the table is different from the way you get the money in. If you use a cueva's foreign account (you wire money to Abu Dhabi or Hong Kong etc and they give you the cash here minus 2-6%), then the only under the table is that you (actually the cueva) did not declare the funds coming in, but you never brought hem in anyways.
At that point it is still you rmoney and you have not bought anything under the table.

At the escribania you can pay the full price and have the full price on the papers, then everythinmg is as above the table as it can be. But they will look at you strange, as normally all escribanias have two sets of papers:
1) with the agreed price which you have to pay there, in cash. After the money is counted, these documents are shredded and in comes the 2nd set:
2) with a much lower price, meaning both the seller and the buyer will pay less taxes.

Of course the escribania charges their % over the higher amount anyways.

Yes, thanks Patagone, that is exactly the way I am going to do this - although I am using a bank instead of a cueva, but process is the same, and fee will be on the lower end of what you quote. I have to provide documents to show the provenance of the funds, but it's a rather easy process. You would be surprised, however, at the number of folks I dealt with (various escribanos, and several banks) who, while trying to be helpful, actually were not familiar with the method to do this. I finally found a couple of folks who had actually do this for foreign buyers of real estate, and they confirmed the process and made some introductions to the various banks that are experienced in this.

 

[Patagone]

Yes, thanks Patagone, that is exactly the way I am going to do this - although I am using a bank instead of a cueva, but process is the same, and fee will be on the lower end of what you quote. I have to provide documents to show the provenance of the funds, but it's a rather easy process. Y

That is interesting and strange at the same time. So your Arg bank cannot accept USD directly (i.e., you cannot transfer to Arg), but they can accept USD on a non-arg account and give you the cash here? That makes them a cueva, seems quite strange and shady for a bank. If it works, it will be the cheapest way to get US cash here, care to share the name of the bank?

Cheers

 

[Tomas Fransson]

A few questions for D.B. Cooper, regarding money transfers through Puente in BA:

1) Casa Puente gave you (or more correctly, the seller of the apartment) dollars in cash?
2) Were there any steps involved in the transfer that you didn't mention?

 

[calray]

When I bought my place in 2004 I was able to open an account with Banco Piano for the sole purpose of transfering dollars from the U.S.