Any advise?

We take possession of our new to us house on June 15th. but will not be arriving until early November. Can anyone recommend a business to keep an eye on it for us? We would like the bills paid and any required services performed. We are also interested in property insurance. Any advise would be appreciated.

I know someone who does property management. Her name is MarCia. She is a gringa who manages about 6 properties. She seems very thorough and efficient. We rented our last house from her. Here is her e-mail address:

marciadellago@gmail.com

PS...I like your hat. Where in Canada are you moving from?

Open an account at Bancomer and sign up for auto bill pay, they can pay electric and phone which leaves gas but if nobody is there, a tank of gas should last until you return.

Thanks for the advise. Is there any other benefit to a Bancomer account?
I'll also get in touch with MarCia about looking after the place.
Bob... I thought you'd like the hat. We're coming from Fort San. It's on Echo Lake just outside of Fort Qu'appelle in Saskatchewan.

I use Chapala Realty and have been very pleased with them. they take care of everything including paying home owners fees and keeping my gas filled. They even pay the vehicle taxes for me. Talk to Othilla @376 766 1152

Bartdude wrote:We're coming from Fort San. It's on Echo Lake just outside of Fort Qu'appelle in Saskatchewan.

Ouch....that sounds like a great cold place to be "from". We'll have to get together when we move down permanent next year. We're coming from Vancouver. Land of continuous rain......

The advantages to a Bancomer account is free (except for IVA) ATM transactions, help in English either through Beto in the main Ajijic branch and the very nice ladies at the Preferred Customer facility on the Libriamento by the Pemex just north of Walmart where there's also an ATM machine with good parking right in front.

Bartdude wrote:We take possession of our new to us house on June 15th. but will not be arriving until early November. Can anyone recommend a business to keep an eye on it for us? We would like the bills paid and any required services performed. We are also interested in property insurance. Any advise would be appreciated.

Some advice Bartdude from one who has owned a home in Ajijic since 2001 and also owns a home in Chiapas some 1500 kilometers to the southeast spending about six months a year in each place:

* Many property managers at Lakeside are serious flakes, greatly overcommitted and generally incompetent; preying on naive homeowners for fees unearned by even a modicum of true performance. A local joke and travesty. The profession of "also ran" incompetents. Since you will be asking someone to oversee your unrented and unused property for months before you even move in, the chances of your actually hiring a competent and dedicated property manager are significantly reduced or, to be honest, nil.
* Install a movement and entry sensitive alarm system constantly monitored 24/7 by a local Chapala based security firm which will commit to call you if the system is compomised, will come to your door if the alarm is triggered and will bring in the cops if warranted. When these loud and screachinbg alarm systems go off the miscreants invading your property will be so freaked out they will soil not only their underwear but the road in any direction they flee. We have a very good and consistently reliable Chapala-based alarm I will recommend to you but only by PM.
* Inform your new neighbors that you have purchased the property but will not be moving in for a few months and give them your telephone number whereever you will be living in the interim asking that they call you if anyone unauthorized enters and leaves your property.

Since you are not making your initial move into the home until November and, thus, have no significant assets stored there, what are you concerned about if you have a good alarm system? The local cholos are not likely to mess with you if you truly alarm your property with a monthly monitoring fee of around $400 Pesos at most; especially if you have proper walls and gated window and door gated security. There are too many foreign morons around you at Lakeside who are easy pickings. Burglars always seek the easy road to late night pickings. Put up the alarm system and appropriate signage and/or walls and barbed wire if necessary and worry about something important such as getting out of the Frozen Tundra at the first opportunity.

As for your other issues, paying utility and tax bills and such, you can do that on line at your own initiiative or set up a local bank account at any number of banks and they will pay you utility and some other recurriing bills for you automatically each billing period. This is a common practice in Mexico and any major bank offers this service.

There are any number of nsurance companies that will underwrite your homeowners insurance package but maybe that is not something you need at this point except for, perhaps, liability and catastrophic coverage. We insure two homes in Mexico but that is probably an extravagance. A reasonably priced homeowner´s insurance covering catastrophic events, burglary and liability might cost you in the neighborhood of $5,000 Pesos a year and God knows if they would pay in the event of a loss.

Bartdude,

Maybe after you get moved here you can join in on the softball here, lots of Canadians play.

I have been looking at several web sites on moving to Mexico , and I am wondering if paying for a information tour is worth the money. The tours seem to be pricy.

rjsmith wrote:I have been looking at several web sites on moving to Mexico , and I am wondering if paying for a information tour is worth the money. The tours seem to be pricy.

Save your money on those tours. Hit the public library and find the section on Mexico. Then check the date of publication. We read a book back in the early 2000's that suggested we needed to bring everything with a cord on it, and any appliances we liked. Not true by 2004, when we actually did the deed and discovered a world of appliance stores from the local hardware to Home Depot.

Be sure to check the books or the web on year around temperatures. That killed our notion of moving to the beaches. Whew. Others may thrive in heat and humidity.

Rolly Brook is a member on here who has a wealth of information on his website: www.rollybrook.com on the many aspects of living in Mexico and has also co-authored a book on moving to Mexico with Carol Schmidt.

If you visit and look at property with realtors, take whatever they say with a large dose of salts. However, they will haul you all over for a look-see. Bear in mind that there are no disclosure laws in Mexico. Rent, don't buy for at least a while.

Beyond that, look up the cost of living threads on here. Lots of information. Then ask the board about specific concerns.
Good luck.

gringal thank you very much for your input

Hensley wrote:Bartdude,

Maybe after you get moved here you can join in on the softball here, lots of Canadians play.

Can I play against Pedro....if so, be there

Bartdude wrote:We take possession of our new to us house on June 15th. but will not be arriving until early November. Can anyone recommend a business to keep an eye on it for us? We would like the bills paid and any required services performed. We are also interested in property insurance. Any advise would be appreciated.

Open a bank account @ HSBC or Bancomer...set up monthly pay for CFE and Telco.

Our landlord has all her bills (CFE, TelMex, satelite, etc.) paid by Lloyds.

....There's one fly in that cookie batter: They just pay. They don't question the bill. I like to look at mine first.

rjsmith wrote:I have been looking at several web sites on moving to Mexico , and I am wondering if paying for a information tour is worth the money. The tours seem to be pricy.

In my opinion, you can do a ton of research over the web before your first trip. I would recommend striking up on-line friendships on the forums and on your first trip go and meet some of the people. Then get a map and explore. That's the fun part, seeing things for the first time. It seems to me that the informational tours are a large expenditure that you don't have to incur.

And they're usually selling something!

ferret wrote:AMEN to that info Gringal.
Are the bills available online before the "paper" bill gets to a banking institution that would pay without looking?

Don't know the answer to that. I get bill, online and even paper when the mailgods are working. I cast beady eyes on bill. I pay bill.
Not that I don't trust the banks to look out for me.

You can view your CFE bill online before it's delivered.

I would like visit for two months. If mexico is a cash society,how do you pay without carrying all the cash needed for the trip. Can you transfer through a bank, traveler checks .help

We used Veronica at Roma and were very, very happy. Similar situation--we needed someone to take care of house for the ten months between buying and moving.

Definitely you would be better off with a "property manager" who could review the bills, keep an eye on the property, and communicate with you regularly.
Eager y Asociados used to have someone who provided that service and she was excellent; not sure the service is available anymore or to non-clients.