Getting the right advice

The first thing you should do once you’ve decided to purchase a property in the Caribbean, after patting yourself on the back for making such a fine choice, is to find yourself a decent lawyer to advise you and assist you in the completion of the deal. You can expect a good property lawyer to do a number of things on your behalf to ensure a smooth and hassle-free transaction.

Firstly, they will make sure that the property in question is a safe and secure investment with no associated debts. Secondly, they will arrange the connection of utilities such as water, electricity, and gas, and help you to set up any standing orders or direct debits that may be required. They will also be responsible for providing you with details of the specific legal and government fees associated with the completion of the purchase.

As well as hiring a good solicitor, it is important to seek independent financial advice from a qualified professional before completing making any property investments abroad. They may well be able to point out ways in which you could seriously reduce the cost of the whole transaction.

One way in which people can often save a lot of money is by using a currency brokerage service, rather than a bank, to transfer the funds from the country in which you are resident to the Dominican Republic. While these transfer services can take a comparatively long time to go through, they can offer substantial savings over more speedy exchanges, especially on transactions involving large amounts of money. Some of these services offer savings to their customers by grouping your own currency purchase in with a number of others in order to negotiate a more favourable exchange rate and lower commission fees than you might expect to receive if you were making smaller, individual, purchases. Other brokerage services seek to save you money by effectively betting with your money against predicted fluctuations in global exchange rates, allowing you to fix the exchange rate of your host currency over a period of time in which the dollar amount that you receive at the end of the transaction can go up or down. As with share speculation, gambling on currency movements can be a risky business, but if you call it right, you could end up saving a substantial sum of money. However, if you make an erroneous prediction, you could end up having to quickly, and therefore expensively, transfer extra money to cover the deficit.

Whatever your personal circumstances and preferences may be, if you make sure and get good, independent legal and financial advice to help you understand the complex issues that surround buying property abroad, it may well save you a lot of money and hassle.