A question I receive on occasion is where to start when buying a house. So I thought I’d write a little about beginning your property search in this part of Mexico, the Zihuatanejo area.

I really try not to recommend realtors to people. My wife Ali and I have our own opinions on realtors and my preference is each potential buyer, or seller, chooses the realtor that they feel most comfortable with. We have met with pretty much every realtor here, and that’s probably a good beginning point, to meet or talk with as many realtors as possible. There’s only a handful of them in Zihua, and I’ve listed their names below. Occasionally people ask us to put them in touch with a realtor and we haven’t had that go well yet.
Which brings me to this point.

Don’t take it personally when realtors don’t get back to you. I doubt I will ever get used to the laid back nature of realtors, attorneys, and other professionals here, where a 1pm meeting could mean 1, 1:15pm, or 2 o’clock, and an email may not receive a response for a week or two. That’s just the way it is. If you have a question about a property or want to talk to a realtor, calling is your best bet, followed by a whatsapp message, with email being a little better than mailing them an actual letter.

But remember, this is your home purchase and you should control how it goes, so there is nothing that prevents you from working with several, all, or none of the area realtors. Do what’s best for you. Which brings me to the next point.

Each realtor wants you to buy one of their listed properties. It’s in their best interest, as they’ll take the full commission versus split the commission with another realtor. I don’t fault the realtors at all for this. I’m sure realtors here field a lot of calls from people entertaining the thought of buying a home in Mexico, and that can be time consuming and a bit frustrating for the realtor. And the home buying process is not nearly as smooth here as it is in the US and Canada. The closing process takes 3 to 6 months.

So realtors probably deserve the full commission, which is 5 to 6%. This system did work in our favor when the realtor on our second home purchase here talked the seller out of considering an offer from another realtor’s client. The other potential buyer, with a different realtor representing them, would have meant a split commission.

You really have to let go of any expectations versus what you are accustomed to in the United States or Canada. For most people using a realtor is ultimately a lot easier. Here are a handful of realtors in the area that you can check their listings directly online. The first thing you may notice is that taking nice, high quality photos is not a point of emphasis.

There is Lucy Bello at Zihuabello, Douglas Hudson with Costa Grande Real Estate, then Tim Sullivan with Ixtapa Zihuatanejo Real Estate, Grupo Pia, Coldwell Banker, and L&O Real Estate.

This may not be easily doable, but if possible the best course of action is probably to find a local attorney that would be willing to be the go-between, who will work with all of the realtors on your behalf, and get paid by splitting the commission with the realtor. You want someone that will work for your best interests throughout the process. And an attorney that isn’t connected to any particular property could work in your favor. The attorney can then also help with writing the sales contract, any employee liquidation, and working with the notary on finalizing the transfer of ownership.

So if you are not in Zihua then using local real estate websites is a good start. But the longer you are here on the ground committed to your search the better. Everyone in Zihua knows someone that is selling a property, and often they are not advertised sales. We probably looked at a dozen properties that were not listed. By just driving around you’ll see all sorts of “For Sale” signs, and many of them are owner direct sales.

My last couple suggestions are the following: Keep an open mind to different properties. You may think you want to be right on the beach, but then you look at a property that has a great view from a bit further out. And the more you think about it the more you realize that if you were here 6 months out of the year you may only go to the beach once or twice a week. Or you may want to be far from town and then realize there is a great condo near town and you start to envision yourself walking through the market every day buying fresh fish or veggies.

And lastly be patient. Most properties do not sell quickly here. On the condo we bought: We first looked at the property in April 2016, yet didn’t commit with a deposit to buy until December of that year. We first noticed the house on Dec 2, 2018 when we began looking at buying a second property. It was a cool looking house, but I don’t even think it was for sale then. We didn’t officially look at the house until January of 2020. Our first offer was in March and was rejected. We walked away for several months, continued to consider other options, before revisiting and making a second offer in June of 2020. That offer was accepted.

Hope this helps anyone out there that is thinking of buying. Good luck finding the perfect place to enjoy in Zihua.