AirBnB in Mexico beach town

[Anthony Murphy]

Still new to this real estate buying and selling and being an investor but have always loved going to Mexico and it’s beach towns.

Wondering has anyone been successful in using airBnB or short term rentals in Mexico

Thanks for you time and replies

[Mike Lambert]

I have been investing in Mexico for the last few years and many people have done it successfully for much longer. I'm amazed at the amount of wrong information that people put here without any knowledge of the subject or experience investing there. For that reason, I've written many replies to posts on the subject and shared my knowledge and I've received great feedback on that so I've keeping on doing it. @Anthony Murphy you can check these out through my profile if you want.

@Account Closed

The government doesn't own the land in Mexico. What you're probably referring to is the Forbidden Zone. There is an old law in Mexico that prohibits foreigners to own property (land and buildings) within 50 kilometres of the coastline and 100 kilometres of the international borders. This is not because the government owns the land; it's because they wanted to prevent an invasion. So, anyone can own property in their own name outside of the forbidden zone and Mexican citizens and corporations can and do own land in the Forbidden Zone, as does the government like in any country. Yet, Americans and other foreigners own a massive amount of property in Mexico and most of it is actually in the Forbidden Zone (like myself in Playa del Carmen for example). How is this possible? Because foreigners can own property in the Forbidden Zone either through a Mexican corporation or a Fideicomiso. You'd use the corporation if you own several properties so most people go for the Fideicomiso, which is very simple. What is the Fideicomiso? For all intents and purposes, you're the owner and you have all the rights and obligations of the owner. To respect the law, the name on the property title is that of the bank of your own choosing. The bank has no rights or obligations related to the property. You just pay around $500 to have their name on the title. So, again, for all intents and purposes, this is the same as owning property in your own name. If anything is different, the Fideicomiso is actually even better from an asset protection point of view since your creditors will not find your name in the property registry. And owning property through a Mexican corporation is similar as owning property through an LLC in the US.

You acknowledged that Mexico is a great country for holidays. Tourism is booming there and it's indeed one of the most visited countries in the world and tourism numbers keep growing. As to whether it's a good place to do business, you're generalizing based on one bad personal experience that you had??? Everybody had a bad experience somewhere! I've had only great experiences doing business in Mexico repeatedly. How ever, don't take my word for it. If it was such a bad place for doing business, would this https://www.vallartadaily.com/... and this https://www.vallartadaily.com/... happen? The reality is that American and foreign companies are investing massively in Mexico, especially in the tourism sector.

@Neil Henderson

I love your honesty and the fact that you acknowledge that you're talking about your own preferences and acknowledge that others might have different preferences. Yet, I'm left wondering what your point is. I'm not sure how it's helping @Anthony Murphy and answering his question. Are we not here on BiggerPockets to help and encourage each other rather than being party poopers?

If your point is to indicate that investing in Mexico is riskier than investing in the US for an American, you're obviously 100% right. It's always less risky to invest in your own backyard. I'm Canadian and it's more risky for me to invest in Mexico. Those who know me well know I'm a rather risk averse person so why do I invest in Mexico? Because my return is much higher than I could get in Canada or in the US and, thanks to my knowledge and connections, I know the risks I'm taking and I've mitigated them properly in the first place.