The "What Am I Going to do With My Stuff?" Factor

This is another issue few consider. First, what am I going to do with my stuff if I move to a foreign country? Second, can I take it all with me?

Since Mexico is virtually "right next door" to America, many American expats see this as simply moving to another state in America. I mean, if moving from New York to California is possible, why can’t moving from Wisconsin to Mexico be the same?

The frightening truth is you can pack up your house in Montana and move to Guanajuato. I always ask the potential expat, "Why in God's name would you want to do that?” but that is just my personal view.

Each expat we know who has brought all his "stuff" to Mexico with him, has told us that he would never, ever do it if he had to do it all over again. I think that says a lot. At a considerably high cost, you can pack up all your furniture and personal belongings, and move to Mexico. It is a nightmare. Each person has told us he would never do it again if he had a second chance.

What we did was sell everything. We sold it all in an Estate Sale and brought the money with us to Mexico to begin our new lives with money in the bank. I cannot say what percentage of expats here does this. Many we have encountered recently have resorted to this rather than bringing it all with them. It is what we advise.

How this issue will affect your buying a house goes something like this:

You decide to come down to Mexico, store all your earthly goods in a storage facility in America, and will send for it all once you decide on a permanent place in Mexico. You rent first with the notion that you will take your time to find a place to buy. Wrong.

We've seen this mess too many times to count. You know you are forking over a king's ransom in storage fees in America. That is going to affect your house-buying decision heavily. You will not take your time. You will not let the infatuation of living in Mexico wear off. You will feel pushed into buying property in Mexico so you can get your household items out of storage and shipped down to your new house.

This is a huge danger, one that potential American expats grossly underestimate. How do you know that you are really going to like living in Mexico? How do you know you are going to like living in the neighborhood where your new house is located? How do you know you can sell the house if you decide you hate it?

Apart from moving here, renting a place, and trying out different regions of Mexico and even different Barrios (neighborhoods) in specific cites, I do not know how you can deal with this issue. You have to let the infatuation wear off before taking the plunge to buy.

But, this I do know. If you slap all your belongings into a storage facility in the U.S. and then come here, you will be strongly tempted to decide to buy property more quickly so you can get your furniture out of hock.

This is The "What am I going to do with my stuff?" Factor that will heavily influence your decision to rent or to buy first.

The Convenience Factor

Another issue you have to consider when deciding whether to rent or to buy first is The Convenience Factor. If you impulse buy the first house that you fall in love with, you need to know something.

Depending on where you live in Mexico, you may have quite a surprise in store for you in terms of convenience.

Where we live, Guanajuato, life is vastly different from life almost anywhere in the United States. Guanajuato is more like a small town in northern Italy or Spain. It was not constructed with the idea of cars and parking in the minds of its builders.

In America, when you want to "run to the store" for a carton of milk, you can just hop into the car and have your trip over and done with in less than 20 minutes. There is a driveway in which to park your car and maybe even a garage with an automatic door opener. There is parking in front of the 7-11. This is what modern America has become.

In Mexico, in many places where real estate is currently very affordable, and thus attractive to Americans, you will rarely find this convenience. To "run to the store" for a carton of milk is a major event which takes up to an hour or more.

In the areas of Mexico that seem to be attracting the current onslaught of American Gringos, you will not be able simply "to run down to anywhere". First, there is virtually no parking.

In Guanajuato, we have a newer Barrio called San Javier. There, many houses have driveways in which to park your car. In the rest of the city, the houses are built on the street. You open your front door and you are on the street. If there just happens to be parking on the street in front of your house, then you put you car there—if you're lucky—and never, ever move it for as long as you both shall live. To do so means the space will be taken and the new car inhabiting YOUR spot will be there conceivably for years.

I am not making that up.

Parking is just that rare in areas where real estate prices are the most tempting for potential American expats. If you breezed down here for a week and fell in love with a little place, you may or may not have a place to park your car. And, most Americans bring their cars into Mexico when they move here.

Let's say you buy that lovely little Mexican bungalow. Lo and behold, there is a place on the street in front of the house where you can park your gigantic SUV. So, you are here, moved in with all your stuff, and you decide to "run down to the store" for something. The chances of that parking space being there when you return is next to nothing. The chances of there being a parking place at the store where you are going to "run down to" also approximates zero. Unless you plan on always shopping at the one and only Supermarket that may exist in your little Mexican town, you will find no parking places anywhere close to the store.

You cannot just "run down to the store" to grab something quick. It doesn't work that way in the towns where you can still get a good deal on some property. If we want to "run down to the store", we have to walk, take the bus, or a cab. To get back, if we are too tired to carry the groceries, we have to take the bus or take a cab.

We know many retired and expatriate couples here in Guanajuato who have cars. No self-respecting American would ever be caught without his or her automobile—right?

One couple has to pay up to $60.00 a month to park their car in one of the few parking lots here. You have to pay to park in all the lots in town. All are very expensive. To go anywhere in their car, they have to walk, take a bus, or a cab to the parking lot. This one happens to be too far away to walk, so they have to take a cab each time to get to the lot. Then, they have to go where it is they want to go, come back, repark their car, and cab home.

WHAT SENSE DOES THAT MAKE?

We know another couple that moved here recently with their huge van. Though they sold all their household goods in the U.S. so they could buy new stuff here, they still brought their automobile. They asked us, "We want to drive down to the Internet Café and use the Internet. Where can we park?"

This was too pathetic to laugh at. They thought they could just hop into the ole van and "run down to somewhere" in this town.

In reality, you could do this. If you wanted to "run downtown" to do something, here is how it would work:

1. You would drive to one of the paid parking lots, usually located miles from anywhere you might want to go.

2. You would park, then conceivably have to walk as far to the store you needed to "run down to" as it would have been had you simply walked there from your house.

3. You would have to walk back to the parking lot where you parked, carrying your purchases.

4. You would have to pay a really high parking tab.

5. Then, you would have to drive back to your house where, more than likely, your parking space in front of your house would be taken with a car that could literally stay there for years.

Once, some Mexican friends asked us to attend a festival with them. Since they have small children, they drove their car to the festival. We parked the car in a paid lot and took longer to walk to the festival from the parking lot than it would have taken had we simply walked to the festival from their house.

This is no exaggeration. It is the very reason we did not bring a car into Mexico when we moved here. What would have been the point?

As I said, depending on where you move in Mexico, this will be the scenario regarding The Convenience Factor. You could move to an area of Mexico where this is not the case. You could move to an area of Mexico where Gringos have traditionally expatriated and, consequently, have driven the real estate prices sky-high. In those areas, The Convenience Factor might not even apply. Those cities will be like modern American cities whose stores have parking lots.

However, if you are looking for a good real estate deal, something that is affordable, then you need to pay attention and consider carefully The Convenience Factor before buying a house.

The Up-Front Money Factor

I cannot begin to tell you how many gringos’ mouths dropped to their knees when I explained the following:

When you see a house here in Mexico, you see all the doors, light fixtures, cabinets, toilets, sinks, appliances, hot water heater, curtain rods, and so on. All those items help give you a picture of what it would be like to live in that house. However, be prepared for a shock. What you see that makes you want to buy that house may not be what you get after you sign on the dotted line.

It is perfectly legal for the seller to strip the house of EVERYTHING in it, after you close, so all you get is the shell of the house. We knew this before moving here. We have friends who did not know this and got taken.

Tony Cohan, author of On Mexican Time: A New Life in San Miguel, wrote of this happening to him and his wife. This was our heads up. Our friends from California clearly did not read his book before they moved to Guanajuato.

Consequently, this happened to them. This is legal and perfectly proper to do in Mexico. Are you prepared for this?

If you didn't know this and bought a house on impulse, would you have the up-front money to replace everything the seller took? As Tony Cohan wrote in his book, this took him and his wife tremendously by surprise. They had to come up with the resources to replace everything the seller took. So did our friends here in Guanajuato.

This is The Up-Front Money Factor you must be ready for when thinking of buying a house in Mexico in cities where the prices are still affordable.