Friday, November 20, 2009

First Real Estate Trip

Today I went on a real estate outing with Fernando our house agent. We drove west about 25 minutes to a town called Tlacolula which is about a third of the way to Mitla. We stopped in the town to pick up a gentleman who would show us around the property.

The property is just outside of the town towards the southern mountains. The property is 3 hectares square with 2 wells on it. The field is pretty well over grown with wild flowers and thorny brush. At one time the field was used to grow corn.

It wasn't an easy walk but I forced the guys to walk around the property with me. No sense going to see a property if you're not going to see it all. Of course we got covered with thistles and prickly seeds that stuck to all of our clothes. It was a good thing that I had on a long shirt and long pants.

Anyway, we were in the back left hand corner of the property when the guide (I didn't get his name) said that there was a large pool on the property about 10 x 20 feet big. This actually turned out to be 10 meters by 20 meters. The guy said that they used to fish in the pond so I was very excited. So off we went tramping through the brush. On that part of the property there are many little thorny trees. It was quite the job to cross the field without being stabbed to death by all the thorns.

Surprise, surprise! The pond or pool is a man made cement pool with 2 feet wide cement walls. The pool is at least 10 feet deep. In the middle of the pool is a walled in structure that is the well that fed the now empty pool. The pool was used to grow fish for sale and had been used as a swimming pool in the past.

The property would be nice but I think 3 hectares is a bit too much especially at the price. The starting price is US$20 per square meter. There are 10,000 square meters in a hectare so the 3 hectares or 30,000 square meters would cost $600,000. A bit pricey considering we would have to build a house also.

But it was a lot of fun. I think my face got sun burnt while we were traipsing around that field. Tomorrow I am off to see another property just east of Oaxaca in the hills of Etla. This is a smaller property about 2.5 acres (1 hectare) with a US$60,000 price.

Of course Tanya and I promised that we would not actually buy anything while we are here this time. The objective is to just find a location. I think we are going to have a difficult time in not buying. We will see.

1 comment:

Angela Rose Lapierre said...

Wow! 600K without even a house on it...that is quite pricey...I wonder if you will succeed in not buying...

Did you ever have any luck with finding a contact that will be able to give you the soil content if/when you do find the perfect place?

Still no word back on my end from the Mexican delegates...

Love you & Miss you tons
xxx
A