Is the title clean? Who am I
dealing with?
There was a hotel owner back in San Marcos who, while quite sheisty himself, taught me a lot about how all this works when I started looking at land in earnest. I'm not afraid to name him. His name is Rigoberto, or as my friend Jenny nicknamed him, Rigobusiness. Rigobusiness owned land, houses, tiendas and would sell dial-up modems if he found a good deal on them. His hotel where I stayed advertised wireless internet. A couple I knew staying there paid for an entire month or more based on the fact that there was internet that would allow them to work and make money. When they showed up, they found the internet worked extremely slowly or not at all a lot of the time. They wanted to leave the hotel and even had everything about the internet in a contract but if they left, Rigobusiness only agreed to give back a fraction of the money he would've owed. Besides utilizing Dale Carnegie tactics, which work better in business deals at the sale stage rather than when trying to recover money due to a breach in contract, it seemed like their only option was to go to court. I say to hell with going to court in Guatemala against a Guatemalteco. This should be avoided at all costs. Fuck Rigobusiness, I'm not dealing with him and hopefully not anyone else like him. That said, his hotel was really well done and quiet and the two of us are still buddies.
My scout is Santiago and the land owner was Don Ilario. Santiago is like an angel who fell into my lap. Most gringoes seem to have their 'guy'. Santiago is 'my guy'. He is the Andres to my Terry, the Nicolas to my Shad. He showed me this land as one he has known for a while is really nice. Other gringoes have looked and shown interest but no one ever got it together and made with the cash. I realized where Santiago lived and he said "I want you to buy this land, I want you to be my neighbor." He'd be just below in the village, about five minutes away, and I'll be welcome for tortillas and meals. How can I trust Santiago, besides the neighbor thing? Santiago is the lead builder on Shad's bamboo hotel. Walter, the leader of the other crew, has more bamboo experience, but Santiago is really in charge. Charlie is the architect on Shad's hotel and he picked Santiago and his group.
Little things happen like once I was standing on the rock viewpoint at my place's edge before the deal quite went through. A kid came up and we got to chatting and I mentioned the land. He said something like, "Oh, you're buying the land of Don Ilario?". Everyone knows it's his land. No second or third person can come out of nowhere and say 'hey, that's actually my land, Ilario can't sell it unless I approve' or something worse. The paper's are good. I went to dinner at Santiago's house New Year's Eve and it was quite good. I was speaking to Santiago's father, another Andres, who seemed happy at the whole deal. A real nice guy, he concluded "Don Ilario's been a friend of mine for 35 years". Ilario might run for mayor at the next election. Why would he want to get into any issues behind this land? Why would Santiago, a successful builder and trusted land scout, want to get into any issues behind this land and jeopardize his reputation and Charlie's confidence, especially over a plot only five minutes from his own? The commision is certainly not enough for that. The deal done, Santiago is still a great help and has expressed his interest in working for me. That'll be discussed down the line. I'll hire him if chooses to drop some of his other obligations and take care of my place, or I'll hire someone else and we'll remain friends and he'll still help me out. Meanwhile, I've been threatened (not really) by Shad that, right now, Santiago's responibility is to have his bamboo hotel finished by this May. After that, Santiago is up for grabs and he does come with Shad's recommendation, which is weighty. Serendipitously, Santiago was born about a month after me. All in all, I went on the fact that this deal had Charlie's stamp on it and Ilario is a longtime, respected member of the Tzununa community. He'll be a neighbor, too, just further down the hill. Because this deal has been so smooth, I may have been a little light on all the manner of horrible headache that can accompany a land deal or the acheievement of building permit, power or water thereafter. Suffice it to say things can be sufficiently bogged down in bullshit and added expense. I guess if there's one thing to take away, it's that a good, trusted land scout will help all these other things fall into place.
Is the price right?
If you do enough looking and asking, you get a feel for the real going rate of land. Then, you add or substact based on assets or drawbacks and their added expenses. I got a really nice price per cuerda. Responsibilty for this lies with Santiago as well.
How's the view?
View is important. If you're here on the lake, you should have one. It's nice and different throughout the day and each day of the year. Tourists love it. There are amazing views, awesome views, cool views, and views. Mine is amazing. When I first wrote this, I wrote awesome but a couple weeks later, ready to post this and having more time up there, I have to change it to truly amazing.
___________
There you have my primer on Atitlan real estate. If anyone is interested in a piece land here, hit me up in private, I'll consult. I'm a land scout too now. I'll plant fruit trees, bamboo and cypress and keep an eye on it until you come down.
There was a hotel owner back in San Marcos who, while quite sheisty himself, taught me a lot about how all this works when I started looking at land in earnest. I'm not afraid to name him. His name is Rigoberto, or as my friend Jenny nicknamed him, Rigobusiness. Rigobusiness owned land, houses, tiendas and would sell dial-up modems if he found a good deal on them. His hotel where I stayed advertised wireless internet. A couple I knew staying there paid for an entire month or more based on the fact that there was internet that would allow them to work and make money. When they showed up, they found the internet worked extremely slowly or not at all a lot of the time. They wanted to leave the hotel and even had everything about the internet in a contract but if they left, Rigobusiness only agreed to give back a fraction of the money he would've owed. Besides utilizing Dale Carnegie tactics, which work better in business deals at the sale stage rather than when trying to recover money due to a breach in contract, it seemed like their only option was to go to court. I say to hell with going to court in Guatemala against a Guatemalteco. This should be avoided at all costs. Fuck Rigobusiness, I'm not dealing with him and hopefully not anyone else like him. That said, his hotel was really well done and quiet and the two of us are still buddies.
My scout is Santiago and the land owner was Don Ilario. Santiago is like an angel who fell into my lap. Most gringoes seem to have their 'guy'. Santiago is 'my guy'. He is the Andres to my Terry, the Nicolas to my Shad. He showed me this land as one he has known for a while is really nice. Other gringoes have looked and shown interest but no one ever got it together and made with the cash. I realized where Santiago lived and he said "I want you to buy this land, I want you to be my neighbor." He'd be just below in the village, about five minutes away, and I'll be welcome for tortillas and meals. How can I trust Santiago, besides the neighbor thing? Santiago is the lead builder on Shad's bamboo hotel. Walter, the leader of the other crew, has more bamboo experience, but Santiago is really in charge. Charlie is the architect on Shad's hotel and he picked Santiago and his group.
Little things happen like once I was standing on the rock viewpoint at my place's edge before the deal quite went through. A kid came up and we got to chatting and I mentioned the land. He said something like, "Oh, you're buying the land of Don Ilario?". Everyone knows it's his land. No second or third person can come out of nowhere and say 'hey, that's actually my land, Ilario can't sell it unless I approve' or something worse. The paper's are good. I went to dinner at Santiago's house New Year's Eve and it was quite good. I was speaking to Santiago's father, another Andres, who seemed happy at the whole deal. A real nice guy, he concluded "Don Ilario's been a friend of mine for 35 years". Ilario might run for mayor at the next election. Why would he want to get into any issues behind this land? Why would Santiago, a successful builder and trusted land scout, want to get into any issues behind this land and jeopardize his reputation and Charlie's confidence, especially over a plot only five minutes from his own? The commision is certainly not enough for that. The deal done, Santiago is still a great help and has expressed his interest in working for me. That'll be discussed down the line. I'll hire him if chooses to drop some of his other obligations and take care of my place, or I'll hire someone else and we'll remain friends and he'll still help me out. Meanwhile, I've been threatened (not really) by Shad that, right now, Santiago's responibility is to have his bamboo hotel finished by this May. After that, Santiago is up for grabs and he does come with Shad's recommendation, which is weighty. Serendipitously, Santiago was born about a month after me. All in all, I went on the fact that this deal had Charlie's stamp on it and Ilario is a longtime, respected member of the Tzununa community. He'll be a neighbor, too, just further down the hill. Because this deal has been so smooth, I may have been a little light on all the manner of horrible headache that can accompany a land deal or the acheievement of building permit, power or water thereafter. Suffice it to say things can be sufficiently bogged down in bullshit and added expense. I guess if there's one thing to take away, it's that a good, trusted land scout will help all these other things fall into place.
Is the price right?
If you do enough looking and asking, you get a feel for the real going rate of land. Then, you add or substact based on assets or drawbacks and their added expenses. I got a really nice price per cuerda. Responsibilty for this lies with Santiago as well.
How's the view?
View is important. If you're here on the lake, you should have one. It's nice and different throughout the day and each day of the year. Tourists love it. There are amazing views, awesome views, cool views, and views. Mine is amazing. When I first wrote this, I wrote awesome but a couple weeks later, ready to post this and having more time up there, I have to change it to truly amazing.
___________
There you have my primer on Atitlan real estate. If anyone is interested in a piece land here, hit me up in private, I'll consult. I'm a land scout too now. I'll plant fruit trees, bamboo and cypress and keep an eye on it until you come down.
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