Is buying property in Guatemala when you live in the USA a good idea?

Question

Is buying property in Guatemala when you live in the USA a good idea?

Answer 1

It's a great idea if you have family over there or friends that can take care of the paperwork for you. I am considering buying property also but I think im going to have to wait till I hit 18. Good luck though

Answer 2

I don't think it's a good Idea for American citizens to own property in Mexico/Centra or South America unless you are realy rich and can afford the best lawyers in thoughs countries.

It's way to easy for some local Rich guys to steal the property legaly; just do some searching on the Net for horror stories of Americans getting there real estate ripped off by the locals.

About 10 years ago a bunch of Americans got their vacation homes in Cobo taken because the orginal Mexican developer never paid off the construction loan.

Even though the developer sold the indiviule homes and the same bank even made loans to the Americans to buy the vacation homes. That bank still forcolsed on all the American based home loans, using the orginal construction loans' non payment as the exuse.  O and the Developer was a cousin of one of the Banks chief officers. Yes the Americans fought in court, the artical was about how it had been 3-4 years before the American home owners lost in court.......

Answer 3

Guatemala has  a stable government.   So as long as you have no squatters living in the property, and pay your taxes you ownership will not be challenged.

Management of the property could be an issue depending on who does it.  

No one will take care of the pig like the pig's owner.