Job Discussion Forums

[countzero]

Hello,

Does anyone have any information about the requirements for Americans citizens purchasing a home in Argentina? I imagine it's not possible with a tourist visa...anyone here have any experience with this?
Thanks,

kelly

[matttheboy]

I've sent you a private message. as that was your first post you may not know how to access it...there's a link in blue to the right of 'dave's esl cafe' that says 'log in to check private messages'. click it.

If any one else needs info about this then my chilean girlfriend and i and in the process of setting up a consultancy business for foreigners purchasing property in buenos aires. We have great experience of the whole process. It can be incredibly frustrating as a foreigner having people trying to rip you off at every turn. We'll make sure this won't happen. We're looking to start after christmas but if anyone has any questions then get in touch via PM. Below is a list of the things we'll do for you.

What we do

Explain in detail the entire real estate purchasing procedure

Scour the newspapers and internet for properties that fulfil your requirements

Show you around the area (walking) where you are interested in purchasing and take down contact details of properties on sale

Contact the advertisers and make appointments to visit the properties

Accompany you on the visits

Help negotiate the price of the sale

Help you obtain a tax number (a CDI, without which you cannot purchase a property)

Help you open a bank account

Introduce you to an honest and trustworthy escribano (a lawyer who specialises in real estate law and who will write the contract for the purchase)

Help you open a bank account to facilitate the purchase

Give you advice on where to buy furnishings and fittings

Introduce you to excellent and trustworthy plumbers, electricians and decorators

Introduce you to an accountant who will help prepare your yearly financial documents and tax bill

Accompany you to the telephone, gas and electricity companies to put your name on your utility bills and set up direct debits from your bank account. This is a truly tedious and time consuming process.
We will make sure you have all the correct documentation for every situation so you won�t have to return to wait in a queue for another few hours

How much we charge

For purchases of under US$100,000 we charge 1.25% of the price of the property
For purchases of over US$100,000 we charge 1% of the price of the property

We ask for a deposit of AR$300 which will be returned after your successful purchase. This deposit is to ensure that you are seriously interested in purchasing property here in Buenos Aires. As you will see if you ask for our assistance, we only work with serious people.

[matttheboy]

as mentioned in my previous post my girlfriend and i and starting out as real estate consultants. We're not doing anything big or fancy, we're just going to help people through what can be a bit of a nightmare and make their lives easier. As it is only the two of us who will be working on this we'll be keeping things small and low-key so that we can give our clients the best attention possible. We won't be taking on more clients than we can cope with as we don't believe in over stretching ourselves as this would lower our quality of service.

If anyone wants any further details then feel free to PM me or write to us at the address listed on this page

http://realba.blogspot.com/

cheers,

matt

[ATTORNEY]

Hi Kelly, in addition to matts info....and as far as I know:

1. Foreigners CAN buy property in Argentina, regardless of their immigration status (tourists, temporary residence, permanent, etc. EVEN those who reside in the country illegaly can buy it). The "escribano" (its a notary public that executes the purchase contract and takes care that everything is OK and legally done) do not check your immigration status when buying property.

2. You need to get your tax identification number (CDI in Argentina, I think TIN in the US) at the AFIP (local IRS).

3. Find yourself a trustworthy ESCRIBANO (notary public) he is the one who in charge of controling the legality of the whole process. (eventually I can recommend you some).

4. If you bring the money with you (not a bank wire)...I think that up to u$s 10.000 dont need to be declared at Customs....so I know some people make 3 trips for example and bring u$s 30.000 and then they make the purchase with cash (to avoid banks intervention). It is very normal here to buy property in cash, in fact many sellers do not accept other payment possibilities. It is very normal that the purchase contract states a lower price than the real price paid, they do this to avoid paying taxes, but of course its ilegal.

5. The worse that can happen after you bought your property is that you could be asked by AFIP (IRS) how did you get the money used to buy the property.....if you made 3 trips, you will show that you brought the money with you (never more than u$s 10.000). If you are thinking in investing considerable ammounts (more than u$s 50.000)...then just wire the funds...it will go firts through Banco Central...and after that it will appear in your account.

Good Luck!!!

[jasonphos]

Hey Redley and everyone else,

I've really been investigating housing in B.A. the last few weeks. I guess I should tell you guys my story:

I spent 6 months in B.A. from December 2001 until June, 2002. I got married to an Argentinean while I was there, and we've been itching to move back ever since. Well, we've finally got all of our ducks in a row - We got her U.S. citizenship, so we can come back to the U.S. whenever we want with no hassles; we've got my permanent visa - yah, it's time...

The only thing I don't know about is a job - If I have to, I'll teach english, although I'm hopeful that I can find something within my profession, which is Software Development. I've also got some very good possibitilies to work remote for some U.S. companies, doing offshore programming. I give it a 50% chance that this will take off. If it doesn't, I'm just going to hit the local job market. If all else fails, I�ll teach English, or do call center work�

Ok, anyways, this problem of getting money to your bank account in Argentina - A lot of people make it sound like a difficult problem, what with the suggestion to actually make several trips, taking in U.S.$10,000 each time! Is that really better than wiring the funds in? I'm looking in the U.S.$50k to U.S.$70k price range, and I had just assumed that I would wire the money in...

We'll be arriving in late June of this year, so just about 5 more months. I have really benefited from the posts here in the ESL caf� - you guys have reminded me of things I already knew, taught me some new things - Like exposure to the housing and banking situation - and provided me with a perspective from my peers - that is to say, fellow English speaking foreigners who are living in Argentina. I hope I'll get to know some of you, and be able to contribute to this board that which I've taken out of it so far.

Sincerely,

Jason

[matttheboy]

It all depends on why you're wiring the money to Argentina. If you're buying a property then you obviously need the money (literally as 99% of property purchases are in cash, no matter how much money is involved...) and getting the money in through a normal bank is no problem at all.

If you just want to have the money in an argentine bank account to use as you would in the States then forget about it. No one in their right mind would leave that kind of money in a bank account here; it'd be in dollar bills and sitting in a safety deposit box somewhere.

Also, if you wire that money in 'legally', as in through a government regulated bank, then the government will convert it to pesos and then back to dollars (assuming you want the money to be held in dollars). You'd also have to pay asset tax (0.05-0.075% with the first AR$103000 tax free for residents). It's not much but it's a hassle to pay (you need an accountant to do your tax return).

There are other ways to get the money in but you'd be sitting with a large amount of cash that couldn't go through a bank or someone would want to know where it came from.

So, if you're buying property don't worry about it, it's easy to bring the money in. if you're not buying property then keep the money as far away from here as possible and use your ATM card to take money out as and when you need it.

As for your job prospects it depends on your Spanish. If it's half decent you really shouldn't have much of a problem getting a well paid job in IT. I may have some contacts in that area.

[jasonphos]

Hey Mat,

Thanks for the advice. I've got no plans to wire money for anything other than the house purchase, so no worries there I guess I'll just have to resign myself to taking a hit on the conversion from dollars to pesos to dollars.

As for contacts in the IT industry - If I strike out on getting my remote programming going, then I'll send you a PM. I won't know until June.

My spanish is excellent, if I do say so myself. I really made a concerted effort to learn it while I was there, plus my in-laws have been visiting us for 3-4 months every year.... They just left us a month ago on their last visit

Jason

[matttheboy]

Just looking at my figures again and i realised that i put 0.05% as the tax you have to pay on assets held in argentina. It should read 0.005%-0.0075% (as in half to three quarters of 1%).

[guillebaires]

[matttheboy]

Yep, you're right...bloody numbers...maths has never been my strong point...!!

[waterdance]

The only tricky think that I hear is making sure that the title is clear. A lot of people try to sell you property that they don't own. Hire an attorney to research the property to make sure the seller actually has the title to the property.

[matttheboy]

Very true about the title search-it happens more often than you'd think that someone tries to sell a property they're not legally entitled to sell. Most of the time it's a case of a family member trying to screw his kids, brothers or sisters out of money or that a property is held in the name of a company and the 'seller' is not legally authorised to sell. A good escribano will find any problems like this and advise you how to proceed.

This is only one of many potential problems you might have when buying property here. The process is actually very, very simple if you know what you're doing. The biggest problem is misinformation-you'll get estate agents telling you one thing, lawyers another, accountants another. We had one estate agent tell a client that you can buy property without a tax number, only with a passport. Apparently they'd even managed to do this (god knows what kind of escribano would do this...) but this means the process is incomplete and you're a) not registered with the tax office and b) not paying the tax you're supposed to be paying on a yearly basis. This will cause major problems when you try to sell. It's essentially illegal. And let's not even mention how the majority of foreign non-residents are bringing their money into the country...

Once you know for sure how to get things done then it's not too hard. You just need people you can really trust to guide you through if you haven't done it before.

Cheers,

Matt