Questions Re Purchasing An Apartment In Ba

[on the brink]

I would try to talk to the portero of any property I was interested in and get the scoop on the neighbors. Nobody is more familiar with goings on like them. Some buildings have feuds among residents that have lasted generations. One lousy neighbor can make for a pretty miserable living experience for many.

Excellent advice. I recently bought my dream apartment, which unfortunately came complete with The Neighbor From Hell. Apparently, the whole building knows and hates her with a passion, as she screams at her family night and day. Had I asked the portero I would probably still had bought the apartment, but could have negotiated a lower price.

So, by all means, ask the portero. Also the neighbors above and below the apartment, and anyone else you can talk to.

 

[Ries]

This is argentina.
If somebody tells you, definitely, 8%, that means you should figure 10%.
Which is what it really will come out to be, in the end, especially if you need to make extra trips down from the USA , which you will, and when the various hidden costs that always come up show themselves.

And, unless you are buying a new place, you need to add in at least another 10% for repairs that will have gone undone for decades.
Buying new has it advantages- but most of the new buildings are built very poorly, and are astonishingly ugly, inside and out. You gain some piece of mind, but at the expense of most of the things that I value about living here.
I know a lot of architects here- and I was with one recently, who teaches at several universities here, when we met a couple of his old students- not more than 5 years graduated. They were bragging about how they designed close to ten new apartment buildings last year. Probably due to family developer connections. They were nice kids, but, had minimum experience, and, obviously, were spending minimum time on each building. This is par for the course for new 7 to 10 story buildings. Crappy design, cheap materials, poor soundproofing, bad insulation, the cheapest fria calor and kitchen and bath fixtures.

On the other hand, if you buy a beautiful, 100 year old departmento in a classic building, you will almost certainly need to redo the kitchen and baths, upgrade wiring, and, of course, buy all new light fixtures and appliances, because the seller will strip it.
In the end, you get a much better, quieter, better insulated home, but you have to supervise remodelling.

neither choice is without drawbacks.

I would also recommend trying for a building with one unit per floor. Means much less hassles with neighbors.

 

[on the brink]

Excellent advice from Ries.

I would add, in my view, the best apartments are those from the thirties and forties. They are strong, solid buildings, with perfectly proportioned rooms. No narrow hallways or tiny bedrooms.

 

[steveinbsas]

It might actually be possible to keep the cost of buying to about six percent if you cut out the real estate agent and buy directly from the owner.

I know an expat who has both bought and sold properties on this site: https://www.soloduenos.com

You can also avoid the monthly espenses del consorcio if you buy a PH.

You can use use the filters on sites like zonaprop and argenprop (among others) to find listings for sale by owners as well as PH apartments for sale.

 

[Ries]

It might actually be possible to keep the cost of buying to about six percent if you cut out the real estate agent and buy directly from the owner.

I know an expat who has both bought and sold properties on this site: https://www.soloduenos.com

You can also avoid the monthly espenses del consorcio if you buy a PH.

You can use use the filters on sites like zonaprop and argenprop (among others) to find listings for sale by owners as well as PH apartments for sale.

Steve is correct- IF you can afford to take several, possibly up to six months, to search, make offers, and go thru with the purchase. And, of course, you must be living here full time during those six months. Which costs something. If you have family here you can stay with, while you search, this could work. Personally, I consider taking that kind of time to save money to be a cost, in and of itself- but I still work for a living, so my time has some value. (sometimes not much, but still).
However, if you are retired, and your number one goal is to save money, and you are willing to compromise on time, location, and quality of the building, you could certainly save a bunch of money.

PH will save you espenses, yes. It will also mean you are solely responsible for building repairs and improvements.
Again, its a tradeoff.
In my building of five units, we all share the inevitable repairs of facades, public spaces, elevators, 100 year old electrical systems, etc, which are then amortized over the year, since the administrator is making time payments to the contractors.
Most likely, this is going to be much bigger amounts, with shorter times to pay, if you, alone, need to pay for a new roof or a new electrical service, or Metrogas decides you need all new gas plumbing from the meter onwards. (which happens regularly in older buildings)

You pays your money, you takes your chances, and your personal appetite for risk, and balance between paying money versus doing research and work yourself, must be taken into consideration.
The procedures, and laws, regarding buying property here are ever changing- just learning what is actually applicable in 2018 will be an education in itself.