Help in Buying a Home in Colombia??

Pete in Bogota says on May 6, 2004, 20:33:

Buying a home in Colombia Well it depends what you want to buy a mansion or a normal house. I am American and love Colombia I plan to buy an apartment in July. I it will cost me like 75,000,000 - 100,000,000 pesos Colombianos or in Dollars $30,000 - $40,000.

Now it depends on your citizenship status. If you are a permant resident in the US you can get credit. If you have a good job and you are a permant resident with a real social security card apply for Personal lines of credit. US Bank has an exelent line they gave me $15,000 and I am a student I beleive they go up to like $30,000

So try to get 3 or 4 lines of credit for $10,000 to $30,000 and you will have tons of money. A house in Colombia of 3-4 bedrooms 200,000,000 easily more like for 150,000,000 like $60,000. And you just pay for the personal lines of credits.

The best is if you are a permant resident of the US and citizen of Colombia you could get personal lines of credit and finance a little in Colombia, but remember in the US you pay on a personal line at the most 10% in Collombia I think credit is like 30%.


I wish you luck well at least this is what I am doing.

Keep in touch to see what you do,

Pete

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chiaibanez says on May 7, 2004, 06:06:

thank you and please give me more info I tried suntrust but they asked me if my loan is for education, debt, vacation. How should I aproach this? I am a us citizen also. The home I want to get for starter is only 40,000,000. I would rather buy a home there and pay it off and live there. How can a find companies or people that need a Bilingual person overthere. I am an control systems engineer who is tired of living in the US. I love my country and I got a Bachellor in Business Administration with concentration in MIS here in Central florida. I am fluent in both languages and would love to team up with other busisness partners and live in colombia and do something international. I realize the first thing is to buy the place to live taking advantage of my wellpaying job.

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Pete in Bogota says on May 8, 2004, 00:55:

Credit Info on buying a home in Colombia I worked at US Bank for 3 years and worked almost entirely with personal lines of credit. If depends what is your FICO what you are going to be able to get. But if the house you want costs only 40,000,000 or $16,000 it should be easy. With just 1 or 2personal lines of credit.

I am curious 40,000,000 sounds cheap is the house really small or in a bad area? I plan on buying in North Bogota for security. I am really "American Gringo" and stick out.

I myself plan to buy an apartment in July for around 75,000,00 to 100,000,000 when I return to Colombia finish up my degree at Los Andes. I am a student at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

If you are going to go with SunBank you can't say education or debt because they will want documentation, so you are stuck with vacation. Are you dealing with a morgage banker or a personal banker?

For small amounts of money like under $30,000 I would use a personal line of credit. You know the difference right between a loan. A loan is given once and when it is paid off you are done. But a personal line of credit you can use it over and over for anything and the rates can be cheap.

At US Bank I applied with a good FICO it was like 680 making $45K a year and they gave me a line for $12,500 with an interest rate of 6.9%. You can also transfer fuinds from you personal line of credit to your checking account online free. (Many banks charge a lot to move money) You and I both know in Colombia since it is a third world credit doesn't exits that well and the loan if Colombia will give it to you since you are now a US citizen is going to bo over 30%.

When you mentioned you were looking to form a business venture in Colombia so am I. This is the reason I am going to Los Andes in Bogota again this next year starting in July. I will be studying International Business and imports and export besides looking for business partners and a quality venture.

I beleive there are market niches that can be found and especially if there are a couple people who are fulent in Spanish and English and both the different cultures of Colombia and the USA. I am fluent on both and want to take advantage of the calm peaceful cheap life in Colombia. All you are saying is true and can be done to fina an American company that does business in Colombia who will pay you in dollars is tricky but not impossible like Citibank offered me a job in Bogota after I graduate. You just have to apply to the multinational companies. The only problem is most of these companies waht you to work 2-3 years in the states in like NY or Boston then you can choose to transfer to Bogota.

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