All Forum Posts by: Brianne H.

The low credit score is not what would be my first concern. I know of 2 people close to me that had terrible scores a few years ago, one was a recently divorced single mom with 2 young kids (most bills were joint with ex husband, who hid the bills and didn't pay them), and the other was trying to put herself through school for 1 year with 3 part time jobs and lapsed on the non-essential bills. They both have paid everything perfectly on time since that time, but it took about 3 years for their scores to go from the 500s (or less) to the low 700's now. 

My bigger concern would be the income - a recently opened bar? 3/4 of restaurants fail within a few years of opening - how good is business at the bar? Assuming business from the bar is good and it's not in danger of closing, what percentage of her income comes from that job? As for the property management job - how likely is it she will keep that job when she moves out? Not only that, but her current rent is about $200 less that her new rent would be, plus she gets a sizable discount I imagine. If she's paying all her bills now, that's great, but if you take her, her expenses will jump significantly, and is she in a good position to be able to handle the extra expenses?

Hi Benjamin, thanks for your reply. This is definitely an area that I want to learn more about. The person I was talking to owns 3 condos in Cabo, and said similar things that you mentioned - his first one was paid off in about 6-7 years, and his rents increase every year and he often has a wait list for the properties. I believe he mentioned that his were rented to vacationers for a few months at a time so he had low vacancy, but he also mentioned that he could make more money by doing short term/weekly/nightly rentals. 

I'm interested in finding out more about the costs of owning and renting in Mexico - what are the property taxes like? What income taxes are applicable for a Canadian (and a Brit who is a permanent resident in Canada) foreigner who owns property there? How easy is it to find a reputable management company and what's the going rate for that? How easy is it to find an ideal rental property, and what do you look for in a vacation rental that may be different from a rental somewhere else? What sort of vacancy rates do you see in your experience? How easy or difficult is it to obtain financing? From what I read, for foreigners purchasing in Mexico, they want 30% down and the mortgage would be through a US bank - is that correct? (Depending on short term or longer term rentals I imagine,) what sort of average rent would I be looking at? 

Sorry I have a lot of questions! I appreciate any info you can give me. Thank you

I recently met someone who has 3 condos in Mexico, who rents them as vacation rentals, usually to snowbirds who come for a few months at a time. I'm curious if anyone else also has vacation rental properties in Mexico or other places, and what their experiences have been? I'm interested in learning more about them and would like more opinions, particularly about how they acquired the property(ies) and what the financial aspects look like. Thank you!