Q
Question7
New Member
Have found myself in an interesting situation and am looking for some advice.
I have been in Nicaragua for about a year now, prior to that I had extended stays in Costa Rica and Panama.
During this year in Nicaragua I have been seeing the same girl. We were enjoying a beer the other night when she receives a call from her aunt, who has lived in Costa Rica for at least 20 years. The aunt explains that she owns property in Nicaragua and, considering she does not live in Nicaragua and has no desire to ever move back, she offered to give the property to her niece....assuming that she pays the transaction fees and what not.
Well she turns to me asking what I think she should say, I tell her she should say yes.
Anyways, things get said in Latin America much more than things get done. I just assumed the aunt had decided it on a whim and made the phone call, and that I would hear nothing more about it. A few days later her aunt calls her again saying that she has to come to Nicaragua in a month to visit her father...which I assume was prompted by the heart attack which he had recently suffered...and asked her to get all the paper work ready before she gets there if possible as she will only be passing through our town as she makes her way closer to Honduras to see the grandpa.
This made me a bit more interested and I started calling the lawyers that I had used in the past, employing them to seek out information for me. Basically, I wanted to see if the aunt was indeed the owner of the plot of land which she says she is. Anyways, the 3 lawyers came back stating that, according to the records she is the owner and the title is nice and clean. Only transfer was from the women's grandmother to her before the grand mothers death.
Each lawyer gave me pretty much the same figure in regards to how much the whole process will cost...very inexpensive. But knowing how much money she has in the bank I may help her out a bit as, if managed correctly, this property could improve the quality of her life, even if it she just sells it and uses the money wisely.
This all being said....as someone who has made most of his money off of investing (at 25, not a lot of experience admittedly) I have learned to approach everything with a healthy distrust/skepticism. I've been trying to think of ways in which the aunt, or someone associated with the aunt, could profit off of this transaction. She only needs to provide her signature and no money will be transferred between the two parties, so I still haven't thought of anything. Then again, I have minimal real estate experience.
Perhaps I am just paranoid, but baring a pure act of altruism, why would she not just sell the property? Perhaps she just doesn't realize that is an option.
My spanish is good and I have been reading what I can, but the Spanish legal terms can be tough.
Anyone have any comments, any potential situation they can foresee, or perhaps have heard of a scam that begins like this.
Thanks for reading.
I have been in Nicaragua for about a year now, prior to that I had extended stays in Costa Rica and Panama.
During this year in Nicaragua I have been seeing the same girl. We were enjoying a beer the other night when she receives a call from her aunt, who has lived in Costa Rica for at least 20 years. The aunt explains that she owns property in Nicaragua and, considering she does not live in Nicaragua and has no desire to ever move back, she offered to give the property to her niece....assuming that she pays the transaction fees and what not.
Well she turns to me asking what I think she should say, I tell her she should say yes.
Anyways, things get said in Latin America much more than things get done. I just assumed the aunt had decided it on a whim and made the phone call, and that I would hear nothing more about it. A few days later her aunt calls her again saying that she has to come to Nicaragua in a month to visit her father...which I assume was prompted by the heart attack which he had recently suffered...and asked her to get all the paper work ready before she gets there if possible as she will only be passing through our town as she makes her way closer to Honduras to see the grandpa.
This made me a bit more interested and I started calling the lawyers that I had used in the past, employing them to seek out information for me. Basically, I wanted to see if the aunt was indeed the owner of the plot of land which she says she is. Anyways, the 3 lawyers came back stating that, according to the records she is the owner and the title is nice and clean. Only transfer was from the women's grandmother to her before the grand mothers death.
Each lawyer gave me pretty much the same figure in regards to how much the whole process will cost...very inexpensive. But knowing how much money she has in the bank I may help her out a bit as, if managed correctly, this property could improve the quality of her life, even if it she just sells it and uses the money wisely.
This all being said....as someone who has made most of his money off of investing (at 25, not a lot of experience admittedly) I have learned to approach everything with a healthy distrust/skepticism. I've been trying to think of ways in which the aunt, or someone associated with the aunt, could profit off of this transaction. She only needs to provide her signature and no money will be transferred between the two parties, so I still haven't thought of anything. Then again, I have minimal real estate experience.
Perhaps I am just paranoid, but baring a pure act of altruism, why would she not just sell the property? Perhaps she just doesn't realize that is an option.
My spanish is good and I have been reading what I can, but the Spanish legal terms can be tough.
Anyone have any comments, any potential situation they can foresee, or perhaps have heard of a scam that begins like this.
Thanks for reading.
