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Villas Coco del Mar One Year Later. . .

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Sadly, There's Not Much Progress Last year, I wrote a piece about a promising new beachfront development near Las Tablas. It's the Villas Coco del Mar, and at the time we bumped out there on a very difficult dirt road, there was not much to be seen. Rolling hills, beautiful views, and a long stairway down to the beach. . . Last weekend we decided to pay Coco del Mar another visit. Sadly, not much has changed in 10 months since I wrote about it last. The road out to it is just as bad as it was …

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Readers Ask: How do you find a Rental Home in Las Tablas, Panama?

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One of the questions I'm seeing most often these days has to do with finding a place to live in Panama -- specifically in Las Tablas. We've had the pleasure of meeting several couples recently who are thinking of moving to Las Tablas, but finding a place to live here seems like a daunting task. Here's a fairly typical email: We are very excited to come to Las Tablas to look for our future home.The biggest thing we are puzzled about (there are many) is how on earth do you go about finding a …

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Adventures in International Real Estate Closings

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It's been a busy couple of weeks for Future Expat. When we came to Las Tablas, Panama, we had sold all our household goods. Because the real estate market was still terrible, we opted to rent out our Florida house. A year later, the market had picked up and it seemed like a good time to sell. So we put the house on the market and within 10 days we had multiple offers. We accepted the one that looked the best. Fast forward through the normal sales process. . . lots of papers to sign, …

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Las Tablas, Panama: Looking for a Gated Community?

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Recently I received an email that asked: "It looks like there are some new gated communities but we can't find any info on them other than some YouTube videos with very little information. Are there any websites with sales listings?" Good luck with that! I guess it doesn't matter how often I say it, I need to keep repeating: the real estate market here in Las Tablas is nothing like what you're used to in North America. Those of us who've been here a while just laugh when we hear the …

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Rent Before You Buy Overseas. . . Or Maybe Not

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I always advise readers to rent first -- for at least six months to a year -- in a new country. It's what we're doing ourselves. When you rent first, you give yourself time to settle in and assure yourself that you're where you want to be. You also save yourself the potential agony of buying what you think will be your dream home and finding instead that it's the stuff of nightmares. But there's always the contrarian point of view. . . Guest Post by Lee Harrison If you've done any …

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5 Ways to Find a Home (to Rent or Buy) in a New Country

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If you're from the US, Canada or western Europe, you're used to a highly organized real estate market. You have agencies to help with buying, selling and renting. In the US, multiple listing services are the norm where you can deal with any agent and have access to the full spectrum of available property for sale. Not so much in Latin America. So how do you find a place to live when you've landed in Panama, Uruguay, Mexico or another Latin American country? Word of Mouth Unless you want to pay …

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