Buying A New Home In Mexico

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

Yesterday we began an organized search for our future home.  We have been visiting different areas of the city and looking at condominiums as well as townhouses.  We chose three areas and three different price levels.   We ended up with the highest on the list and I'll explain why.  

The first neighborhood is filled with 300 homes all in the middle-upper range or about $75.000 U.S.  They are really the construction I would want.  Yards are small but the house in the picture is the one we looked at and it has an extension at an additional cost.  The yard would be nice.  The finishings are incredible.  All marble countertops in the kitchen, baths, laundry and bar area, primer and two coats of paint on the inside, complete and modern bath fixtures (low-style toilets, and bowl sinks in all three baths.  But, the big but, it is only a few blocks away from the northwest side of the periferico to Saltillo.   Although it is closer to medical facilities it is a similar drive from our current home to downtown Monterrey but with much more traffic.

The second was much larger at 105 square meters, but there are 600 homes in this community and all side by side.  Much roomier, nicer amenities but not much space between houses.  The one we liked has more yard space, was a corner lot, but next to it was the gated neighborhood perimeter street that ends the neighborhood.  Next to it was a sketchy neighborhood with loud music.  No thanks.

We moved up the hill and closer to the mountainside known as Cumbres.  We have found the type of neighborhood we want, the size of the house, and the community.  The tendency in Mexico is gated communities with lots of houses crammed into it, a community pool and clubhouse.  The first sells for $43,000.  The second starts at $77,000 and the third at $99,000.  

So what's the difference?  Gated communities imply that the homeowners have to form their own neighborhood association to determine maintenance and upkeep costs.  Those will always continue to rise.  Also, making sure people pay the monthly fees and follow the rules.   Let's get real for a second, piss off a Mexican and you will live in hell for a long time to come.  Here, it's pretty much live and let live.  So as we toured the first neighborhood where a majority of the houses were sold, the homes were one-car garage space.  Already there were taco trucks and trailers on the street (owners do that for a living outside the neighborhood but park their units at their house).  Because the houses only have space for one car the street is full of cars.  

What we liked was a not so new concept where the developer purchases a stretch of land and builds 20 houses with one street, ten on each side.  This one is 170 square meters and is a two-story with a third-floor terrace.   Excellent quality and there are no maintenance fees, pools or parks to maintain.  Only twenty neighbors and the only upkeep is the front automatic gate and its opener.  

We started early in the morning and we finished just around 4 p.m. in time to visit relatives in the area.  After, we went downtown to a folkloric dance performance which we really enjoyed. It was outdoors in front of the history museum with the cityscape behind the stage.  The weather is slowly improving and as the sun went down there was a nice breeze.  My kind of show, it lasted only an hour.

Just need to put some sod down on the area they dug through.  One less thing on my worry list.

At home, we shored up a post under one corner of the house.  I thought it would be a big project and worried about what they would find under the house.  Everything was fine but the post really need more support.  They broke the sidewalk and dug down.  We found matching tile.  They closed it up and it looks great.

Next came the roof.  During that severe hurricane we had, we got a small but worrisome leak coming down the post of the living room ceiling fan.  We knew it was time although we did a patch job three years ago.  The tile came off, scraped the roof, patched areas with cement and then cleaning.  After, a sealer was applied, fibrous cloth material and then the rubberized roof.  We have had some rains and everything is good.  The tile installer comes next week and begins the job of putting the tile back on. 

While I was up there inspecting the work, I took some shots of the yard both front and back.

One last thing was to finish up my projects on the trailer.  Pesky water leak.  Not sure if I mentioned it, but after a year of tracking it down it was found.  It was a 1.5 inch of trim under the refrigerator vent that wasn't sealed.  The plastic vent that fits into the roof was not sealed from the factory on one end.  I had never thought to take the cover off although I had felt around it with my hands and it seemed to be good.  11 years, drop after drop.

I reinsulated, put in a piece of "some kind of board" from Home Depot, closed it up and put on the trim.   The most difficult part will be putting the epoxy (if I can find it) to eliminate the small delamination on the front.  I wanted to put in down through the area I was working in but the front cap is glued to the metal framing and the tube would not pass.  

For the bathroom, I purchased some trim that comes in a roll.  It's called Cover Your Crack Insta Trim.  We ordered it online from the manufacturer.  It's not cheap but it's easy, fast and looks, I think, pretty professional.  

Our trailer is not a Tiffin motorhome and is actually on the low-end of the totem pole.  But it works and we attempt to keep it in shape.  It has taken us all over North America and lets hope some more.  However, there are some cheap things in it.  One, in the picture below, there was no trim of any kind.  Just a clear seam of caulk that no matter what we did, it got dirty over time. 

You can see the trim here around the kitchen area.  It looks much better than that dirty seam it had for all those years.  

Here's the living room cabinet with the trim.  Much better.  

One more thing to do (well there's an ever-ongoing list) is to replace the fan switch in the bathroom.  The electrician will be coming next week.  It took forever to find it and I ordered it from E Trailer.  They are a bit higher than Amazon but I just couldn't locate it anywhere else.  So it was 8 bucks plus a 5 dollar import fee with shipping.

It looks like we will be heading to the Emerald Coast this November and then over to San Miguel de Allende.  Contessa sent us a lead for house sitting there so let's see what happens.

If you're still here reading, thanks for tuning in.