Some friends have requested that I share the details of our non-kiting Baja experience so here it is, the good, the bad, and the Mexi.  Jason had been looking at lots for sale in La Ventana, B.C.S. for the past few years, but I made him promise not to buy anything without me seeing it first.  It seemed that every year we didn’t purchase a piece, the price would double and we’d be even more discouraged.  Last March, I finally joined Jason for my first trip south of the border.  

View of the bay of La Ventana.

When we first showed up, I thought to myself  ”This is it??”  The place was a ghost town since it was late in the season and still pretty undeveloped.  It didn’t take more than a day or two to fall in love with the town and the lifestyle is what ended up selling me on La Ventana.   No cell phones, friendly locals, catching fish in the morning and kiting in the afternoon, and lots of sun.  
I caught a leopard grouper for dinner that night.

Once we’d decided that we both wanted to buy property, the search began.  There are a few realty companies in La Ventana including Sol Y Mar properties and Diamante Real Estate.  We got the tour of available lots from waterfront in La Ventana to the panoramic views of El Sargento to the quiet seclusion of the Hot Springs.  In the end, we couldn’t stomach paying the fees associated with using a real estate agent so we met with local individuals instead.  
The view from El Sargento.

The end of the windy season is the perfect time to buy down there since the crowd is thinning out and the chances of locals selling their property drops big time.  And so do the prices! The head honcho in town, YoYo (of YoYo’s Campground) showed us a lot that we fell in love with immediately.  It’s towards the town entrance, before you get to any of the hotels, and a quick walk to the beach.  The big selling point for us were the 30 foot Cardone cacti littering the property.  Since they are only found in such density in a small pocket of La Ventana, it is one of the few lots that can boast such large cactus and it makes for a magical setting.  
Our cactus-lined driveway. 

Once we’d decided on the lot, it was simply a matter of a few hundred dollars down-payment, a scribbled “contract” on a piece of scrap paper, and a handshake.  Not to mention a week of sleepless nights and knots in our stomachs. It must be noted that Jason and I speak very minimal Spanish, and even less a year ago.  This made for a lot of sign language!  
The tallest Cardone cactus on the lot.

Since our flight took off before the deal could be finalized, we entrusted Dave Webb (owner of Casa Verde) with Power of Attorney so that he could sign off on the property deal for us.  He recommended we use his friend, Jesus, who owns Baja Investment Solutions in La Paz.  He facilitated the full money transaction, which involved two large wire transfers, and all the paperwork with the seller.  The Mexican government has a law that says Americans are not allowed to legally own property within the “Restricted Zone” which is anywhere within 50 miles of the beach.  The entire Baja Peninsula falls within this restricted zone unfortunately.  However, the way they get around this is by using a Fideocomiso in which a Mexican bank holds the title to your property in trust.  They cannot do anything with your title without your permission.  To get this set up, it costs about $6,700 regardless of the size of your property or how much you paid for it.  We opted to have Jesus complete all the legal paperwork for us which was a breeze.  He and his employees all speak perfect English and we’d get e-mails from them requesting our signature or some form to fill out but it honestly couldn’t have been any easier.  And the total sum of the Fideocomiso is due in small chunks so it doesn’t seem so bad at the time.  Within 6 months, we had the title to our property in hand!

The van we drove down with a boat on top and a loaded Jeep in tow.

This last January, we made the not-so-scary-afterall drive from Seattle to La Ventana, Mexico.  It took us 5 long days in all, one of which was spent at a mechanic’s shop as our jeep was being fixed up.  We didn’t want to bring much cash with us in case something happened to our car along the way so we arranged for our friend who was flying down to bring the bulk of our building funds.  We spent almost a week tormenting ourselves as we were trying to decide whether we should hire out laborers ourselves or just go with a local contractor.  In the end, we opted to go with the local contractor, Marcello, who has a wonderful reputation and has built many of our friends houses.  I know that we saved a lot of money in the long run by using him and we actually exceeded our building goals!  If we had tried to act as contractors ourselves, we would have made many pricey mistakes along the way.So, we gave Marcello a downpayment on the project to fund materials and within a few hours, the cement blocks were delivered and the back-hoe was digging our foundation!

Breaking Ground!

I’m obviously just skimming the surface of our experience so if you have any specific questions, feel free to e-mail us at Jason@gokiting.com. Since this has already gotten so long-winded, I’ll wait for the next post to discuss the details of building in Mexico. Stay Tuned!