[gringotim]

In Canada & the U.S, when buying real estate, each party normally uses their own Notary/Lawyer, but in Mexico, given the legal duty of a Notario, can you both use the same one, or does each get their own?. A seller is suggesting we use the one he used when he purchased from the developer in 2009.

 

[RVGRINGO]

Actually, only one notaria is used for the closing, and the buyer has the right to choose the notaria. However, you may feel that it is more convenient to use the one who last registered the property, if you find that you are comfortable with that office and the individual notario. It is you choice as the buyer. Unlike in the US or Canada, neither of you are being represented. It is not an adversarial situation with lawyers involved on opposing sides. It is a simple transaction, but with strict management by a very specialized attorney, the Notario, appointed by the state, to insure that everything is done correctly. The notaria does not handle the funds. You and the seller make arrangements, possibly through a real estate agency, for the transfer of funds at the appropriate time. When that is confirmed and acknowledged, the closing will be finalized. Some weeks later, the buyer will receive the registered deed (escritura) from the notaria, unless a bank trust (fideicomiso) is involved for a property near a coast or border.

 

[gringotim]

Ya, thats pretty much what I have heard, just wanted some input from all you expert expats on here, :tea:Mucho Gracias

Actually, only one notaria is used for the closing, and the buyer has the right to choose the notaria. However, you may feel that it is more convenient to use the one who last registered the property, if you find that you are comfortable with that office and the individual notario. It is you choice as the buyer. Unlike in the US or Canada, neither of you are being represented. It is not an adversarial situation with lawyers involved on opposing sides. It is a simple transaction, but with strict management by a very specialized attorney, the Notario, appointed by the state, to insure that everything is done correctly. The notaria does not handle the funds. You and the seller make arrangements, possibly through a real estate agency, for the transfer of funds at the appropriate time. When that is confirmed and acknowledged, the closing will be finalized. Some weeks later, the buyer will receive the registered deed (escritura) from the notaria, unless a bank trust (fideicomiso) is involved for a property near a coast or border.

 

[AlanMexicali]

"Some weeks later the buyer will recieve the registered title"
Actually everytime we did a purchse it was almost exactly 6 months later. The Notorio/a has a numbered ledger from the state with the escrituras he has done and when that ledger is full he then takes it into the registars office to register all in that official ledger. The registars office keeps his numbered ledger and then prints out all the official registered escrituras which sometimes takes awhile: first to fill up the ledger with about 10 escrituras, then for the escrituras to be registered and printed out from the notario´s ledger. Escrituras are usually 10 to 15 legal sized front and back pages long. Good Grief! If you have never seen one compared to a property title from NOB you will be in shock. You get possesion of the property the day you transfered the money so don´t worry about it taking a long time.

 

[horseshoe846]

We rented for a year. During that year we stuck with the same realtor - son of the owner - big name franchise. We looked at tons of houses - maybe 100. We widened our price window at some point (not all that much actually) - and he then showed us the house we have been in for four years. He was the agent for both us and the seller. They had had the house on the market for 3 years. He knew we were serious buyers. They came down about 20% from their asking price.

I mentioned all that because we totally trusted our agent. He was helpful in a lot of ways. He had a notary he liked working with. We went with that notary - the office actually had 2 notaries (father and son). We had very little interaction with the notary himself but rather with a lawyer under his employ. She was great.

 

[circle110]

My experience matches that of Rvgringo and AlanMexicali, less so that of Horseshoe846 because realtors were never involved.

It was all done by one Notario, selected by the buyer, in this case me. Every one of my friends in Guanajuato had a recommendation for Notario and it turned out that it was 100% for the same guy so obviously I went with him. It was smooth as silk and he had a cutting sense of humor that made the whole process actually fun. I had him do my will as well some 6 months later and some good gallows humor a la mexicana was welcome at that time too.

I received the official escrituras closer to 6 months later like AlanMexicali says. But I think that's probably more a function of how things are going at the central office in CDMX at the time of the purchase than anything else.

 

[citlali]

It took us 6 months as well for both the house in Chiapas and in Jalisco, I think it is pretty standard.

 

[Howler]

Thank you!!

RUGreat information in all the posts here... thanks, one & all. My experience with a notario was that my wife & I decided to buy a double lot next to my cuñados in Mtz. de la Torre (Veracruz). The property had been for sale for several years with a partial construction started, which we felt we could incorporate into a finished product we had in mind. We found & met with the seller, then got our money together according to an agreed price and selected a notario downtown.

Thank goodness we did this crucial step - when the notario got us all together, he found & indicated to the seller how one of the lots was actually in the name of her ("out-of-town") daughter, with whom she had a long-running feud of some sort. Even better, he said all the things to her that we would like to have said, and more, about the mess she tried to cause with her dishonesty. Anyway, the notario saved us from a whole lot of trouble & possible heartache in a transaction that said "RUN!!" all over it.

Sadly, some 10 years on, when we visit there has been a nice house built on the lot since then - but nobody has lived in it or occupied it. It is not quite finished, but nice-looking, nonetheless. When we asked several years ago what was going on with the house, we were told there were problems with the "papeles y escrituras"... hmmmm - sounds like the seller finally found a victim & bled him dry. Sad.

I'll be making use of this and a lot of other great information & advice y'all have shared here on the forums when we finally get ready to make our move to settle down there with you in Mexico! Thanks again... :thumb:

 

[circle110]

Howler, I'm so glad you did things wisely and found out in time! I like reading stories like this on the forum; they are nice to read and they also provide possible advice/warnings for other people that find the forum in the future.

We had a somewhat similar "red-flag" incident with an architect. I did a preliminary design for a house on our Guanajuato property and then brought in an architect to dial in the design, make the blueprints, create a budget and manage construction. He prepared the drawings and wrote a budget. He then said he needed ALL of the money up front. I said, no, we will make a deposit for initial materials and then pay weekly. He said no way, all up front or nothing. I walked away and he was shocked.

I found out later that he had recently bought a very expensive, brand new, fully loaded monster truck and was behind on his payments to the point of repossession. He thought he'd found a ****** sucker to pay off his truck for him.

Some friends told me that friends of theirs had paid a different architect 100% up front and that the architect then used their money to finish his own house and then never even started on theirs. 4 years later they were still in court with the guy and had not yet received even one peso of their money back.

 

[TundraGreen]

RUGreat information in all the posts here... thanks, one & all. My experience with a notario was that my wife & I decided to buy a double lot next to my cuñados in Mtz. de la Torre (Veracruz). The property had been for sale for several years with a partial construction started, which we felt we could incorporate into a finished product we had in mind. We found & met with the seller, then got our money together according to an agreed price and selected a notario downtown.

Thank goodness we did this crucial step - when the notario got us all together, he found & indicated to the seller how one of the lots was actually in the name of her ("out-of-town") daughter, with whom she had a long-running feud of some sort. Even better, he said all the things to her that we would like to have said, and more, about the mess she tried to cause with her dishonesty. Anyway, the notario saved us from a whole lot of trouble & possible heartache in a transaction that said "RUN!!" all over it.

Sadly, some 10 years on, when we visit there has been a nice house built on the lot since then - but nobody has lived in it or occupied it. It is not quite finished, but nice-looking, nonetheless. When we asked several years ago what was going on with the house, we were told there were problems with the "papeles y escrituras"... hmmmm - sounds like the seller finally found a victim & bled him dry. Sad.

I'll be making use of this and a lot of other great information & advice y'all have shared here on the forums when we finally get ready to make our move to settle down there with you in Mexico! Thanks again... :thumb:

Notarios definitely serve a useful function. When I bought my house I talked to the guy who was "selling" it. We agreed on a price and I picked a Notario who went to work on the CompraVenta. It turned out that the "seller" didn't own it. The owners were his mother and four cousins (who inherited their shares from the "seller"s uncle. However, they were all in agreement that the man I was talking to was acting as an agent for his mother and four cousins, so everything was hunky-dory in the end.

Normally, the buyer and seller get together and trade money for the signatures on the escritura. Because there were 5 sellers in this case, no one could get there at the same time. So the cousins and mother all came in and signed the escritura and provided copies of their ID. The Notario held the escritura. When all five had signed I transferred money to the mother's account. When she confirmed that she had the money, the seller gave me the keys and the Notario gave me a copy of the signed escritura and submitted it for processing to the government. In this case, the Notario acted sort of like an escrow although she didn't touch the money.