{"id":3555,"date":"2011-05-26T21:49:08","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T03:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/temp-blog\/?p=3555"},"modified":"2011-05-30T13:06:02","modified_gmt":"2011-05-30T19:06:02","slug":"owning-and-investing-in-mexico-real-estate-%e2%80%93-monthly-expenses-and-other-regular-payments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/owning-and-investing-in-mexico-real-estate-%e2%80%93-monthly-expenses-and-other-regular-payments\/","title":{"rendered":"Owning and Investing in Mexico Real Estate \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Monthly Expenses (and Other Regular Payments)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are about to buy Mexico real estate<\/a> , whether for a vacation property, retirement, or purely investment purposes, it’s important to consider what expenses you will need to cover on a regular basis for your Mexico property<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 While monthly and annual expenses, like the properties themselves, tend to be inexpensive, it’s still important, for the sake of your budget, or analyzing the potential return on your investment, to have a firm grasp of what these expenses are and how much to expect.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Here we will list the most typical expenses and make a brief comment on amounts, all though specific amounts must be checked for each area, community, development, etc.\u00c2\u00a0 Not all of these will apply to you, but you can use this as a sort of a checklist.<\/p>\n

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Monthly Expenses<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Monthly HOI Fees<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c These vary considerably depending on location, property type, services in the complex, and what’s included.\u00c2\u00a0 They are usually very reasonable since they replace other expenses, and eliminate the necessity to take care of it yourself, or hire someone else to take care of it.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 They can be as low as $100; in one case they were $800, but that would include airconditioning, the maintenance of a luxury resort grounds (pools, tennis court, huge green areas, etc.), cleaning and virtually all expenses, in a luxury complex that guaranteed buyers a nice return on their investment.\u00c2\u00a0 Typically they are much closer to $100.<\/p>\n

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Property Management Company<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c If you are not buying in a complex that includes property management and maintenance, you may wish to hire one to keep things simpler for you, especially if you are away from your property most of the time, and you are planning on income from Mexico vacation rentals.<\/p>\n

Rental Pool Fees<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c A rental pool may be offered by the complex you are buying in, by a property management company or as a separately contracted service.\u00c2\u00a0 These are usually a percentage of the rental amount.<\/p>\n

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Utilities<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Utilities are often fairly small expenses.\u00c2\u00a0 Electricity and water bills come bi-monthly.\u00c2\u00a0 Water tends to be very low \u00e2\u20ac\u201c about $10-15.\u00c2\u00a0 Electricity is subsidized and very cheap for the first 200 KWH per month.\u00c2\u00a0 If you stay within this amount, your bill will be about the same as water.\u00c2\u00a0 Above that the rates are slightly higher than back home.\u00c2\u00a0 Air conditioning pushes usage and the bill up significantly during the summer months.\u00c2\u00a0 Gas is not a monthly bill.\u00c2\u00a0 You will either have a small, moveable tank which a truck will come by, pick up and drop off full, or a stationary tank that can last anywhere between 3 months and a year.\u00c2\u00a0 Gas prices are fairly low.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 A standard movable tank that lasts most people about a month costs about $18.<\/p>\n

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Maintenance \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/strong> Otherwise, you will want to hire a gardener, as well as a handyman who can be on call for any maintenance issues.\u00c2\u00a0 Hired help in Mexico is very affordable \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it’s not difficult, for example, to find a gardener, for example, who will work for $5 per hour; the only downside is that in this case\u00c2\u00a0 you need to find the person for yourself and ensure that the work is well-done; recommendations from other expats can help a great deal.<\/p>\n

Cleaning<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c As with other hired work, a fair wage in Mexico tends to be very affordable.\u00c2\u00a0 $500-600\/month for a full time cleaning lady, who will also cook and run errands is reasonable.<\/p>\n

Mortgage Payments<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c This is an obvious one, but if you are considering a property as an investment for income, make sure you consider how much you will have to pay every month.\u00c2\u00a0 Banks usually offer a variety of plans, and, in some cases, a longer mortgage term with lower monthly payments may be advantageous.<\/p>\n

Property Insurance<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c If you bought through a mortgage, then this is mandatory.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you already have your own insurance, they will automatically set up insurance with your mortgage contract.\u00c2\u00a0 The payments are usually included in a monthly payment package, making administration easier, and they will notify at the time of applying for the mortgage how much these will be.<\/p>\n

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Annual Expenses<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Property Taxes – <\/strong> Property taxes tend to be low, based on a property value amount determined by the municipality, which is usually noticeably lower than what you paid.<\/p>\n

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Bank Trust Fee<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c If you are buying property on the coast or near the border, Mexican law requires that a bank holds the property with you as the first beneficiary; this arrangement gives you all the rights of ownership.\u00c2\u00a0 The bank trust has a cost for set up when you buy the property, and has a reasonable annual fee.<\/p>\n

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This list will give you a firm grasp of what expenses you need to consider.\u00c2\u00a0 Remember that many of them exclude the others (for example, if you pay an HOI fee, you won’t be paying either property management or maintenance.)\u00c2\u00a0 If you are relocating to Mexico, you will definitely find your overall total significantly lower than back home.\u00c2\u00a0 If you are buying as an investment, be sure to count for all relevant costs to ensure that you can plan your income from the property more accurately.<\/p>\n

Thomas Lloyd <\/strong>graduated from Purdue University Krannert School of Management with a degree in Management\/Financial Option Investments. He has been living, investing, and working professionally in Mexico for over 15 years. In the summer of 2009, he received the first federally applied Mexico Real Estate Degree <\/strong>and Mexico Professional Real Estate License<\/strong> S.E.P. #5978657. He is the current president of TOPmexicorealestate, you can contact him at <\/em>(512) 879-6546<\/span><\/strong> <\/span>
\n<\/strong>
\n“Mexico\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Leading Network of Specialists for Finding and Purchasing Mexican Properties Safely<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are about to buy Mexico real estate , whether for a vacation property, retirement, or purely investment purposes, it’s important to consider what expenses you will need to cover on a regular basis for your Mexico property.\u00c2\u00a0 While monthly and annual expenses, like the properties themselves, tend to be inexpensive, it’s still important, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[742,271,778,254,79],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-bb-kits","7":"category-mexico-cost-of-living-living-in-mexico","8":"category-how-to-make-money-on-a-mexico-real-estate-investment","9":"category-mexico-investment-property","10":"category-mexico-property-tips","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3555"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3565,"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3555\/revisions\/3565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.topmexicorealestate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}