Transferring money into Argentina to buy a flat

[D.B. Cooper]

I used Casa Puente years ago when I bought my place here.
You might have to show the source of the $$$ you're planing to transfer. I did.
Casa Puente has been around over 100 years. They were fantastic. I transfer the $$ from my NYC bank account.
I had to do it in two installments. When the money arrived we did the closing right in their office in downtown BA.
I showed up with my escribano, the seller arrived with members of her family. A rep from the Puente Co. was also there at the table.
I'll never forget when the money came. Two guys pushing a small coffee cart with a bill counter and the stacks of US dollars.
After everybody counted the money. I pushed the stacks across the table to the seller and she gave me the keys to my place.
We both signed some papers and that was it. And I've been here ever since. Very happy the way everything turned out.
No regrets. Grateful for the way everything turned out.

 

[elgordito]

I used Casa Puente years ago when I bought my place here.
You might have to show the source of the $$$ you're planing to transfer. I did.
Casa Puente has been around over 100 years. They were fantastic. I transfer the $$ from my NYC bank account.
I had to do it in two installments. When the money arrived we did the closing right in their office in downtown BA.
I showed up with my escribano, the seller arrived with members of her family. A rep from the Puente Co. was also there at the table.
I'll never forget when the money came. Two guys pushing a small coffee cart with a bill counter and the stacks of US dollars.
After everybody counted the money. I pushed the stacks across the table to the seller and she gave me the keys to my place.
We both signed some papers and that was it. And I've been here ever since. Very happy the way everything turned out.
No regrets. Grateful for the way everything turned out.

Sounds like a drug deal haha, i'd definitely be taking a selfie with the cash if I end up doing that! TBH this sounds like a better option than going through a cueva, as I'm assuming there were no exchange rates involved? So you just transferred USD to their account and they gave you USD cash? Sorry for the questions but again do you remember how much you paid in fees? Thanks!

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Yes I transferred USD from my NYC bank to their account and I got USD in cash here in BA. I had to pay Casa Puente 1.5% of the total and the escribano got about 2.% I don't remember the exact amount. I don't remember if I paid anything to the Foglia, the RE Agency. I don't know if you speak Spanish but I hope you have a good escribano. They'll check out the prop. make sure that there are no tenants living there or that there are liens on the place.
Good luck.

 

[elgordito]

Thank you so much for the advice! The fees seem fairly reasonable. Yes I speak pretty decent Spanish so hopefully I'll be able to navigate the process. I've been looking for 'reputable' escribanos online but I reckon it'll take a visit to their office to actually get a feel of whether they're trustworthy enough (after the quarantine ends obviously haha). Anyone happen to have any recommendations?

 

[elgordito]

An update for anyone interested: I got in touch with Casa Puente and they charge a total of 1% to essentially transfer USD from overseas to Argentina. Seems pretty decent and certainly less than what my cueva charges (I asked and they said it'd be around 2%).

 

[samsam]

@elgordito do you know if it's fully electronic or must it be done with some physical bills like another person commented (the comment about carting the bills over to him).

 

[Aztangogirl]

Thank you so much for the advice! The fees seem fairly reasonable. Yes I speak pretty decent Spanish so hopefully I'll be able to navigate the process. I've been looking for 'reputable' escribanos online but I reckon it'll take a visit to their office to actually get a feel of whether they're trustworthy enough (after the quarantine ends obviously haha). Anyone happen to have any recommendations?

I used Juan Martin Olivera. Esmeralda 892. He was great. [email protected]

 

[jeff1234]

An update for anyone interested: I got in touch with Casa Puente and they charge a total of 1% to essentially transfer USD from overseas to Argentina. Seems pretty decent and certainly less than what my cueva charges (I asked and they said it'd be around 2%).

What will it cost to transfer money out of Argentina if you sell the property? Also, fees can be imbedded in the exchange rate offerred.

 

[perry]

Transferring money out of Argentina is much more expensive than bringing it in . To bring it in at times they pay you for this benefit .To take money out the cost can range from 2 to 4 percent in blue . If done officially its less than 0.5% .

 

[elgordito]

@elgordito do you know if it's fully electronic or must it be done with some physical bills like another person commented (the comment about carting the bills over to him).

Another update: they told me it could be only done electronically (i.e. I need to have a USD bank account here in Argentina for them to transfer the USD into), so it seems that they must've changed the policy regarding handing over hundreds of thousands in USD cash. My account at Banco ciudad is only in pesos and has a monthly limit iirc of around 50k pesos, I'll try and figure something out.

This is from their email regarding the details of the actual transfer: 'Tendría que transferir desde su cuenta en el exterior a nuestra cuenta en el BONY ( Bank of New York ) para luego aportarla a su cuenta comitente de Puente. El dinero se aportaría en moneda Dólar Cable dado que llega desde el exterior, por lo que deberá pasar por una operación de compra y venta de títulos argentinos para convertirlos en Dólares MEP y así poder transferirlos a su cuenta local. En ningún momento se pesificarian los dólares, solo deberías ponerlos en el circuito local para poder retirarlos. Esto lo hacemos, usualmente, mediante la compra y venta del AY24, aunque no es la única opción.'

Side note: It turns out that the owner of one of the apartments that I'm interested in actually has an account in the US, which would make things infinitely easier. Assuming I can get him to lower the price a bit more I'm probably gonna go for this option just to avoid the hassle and fees of getting the money into the country.