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A Public Notary is a government-appointed lawyer similar to a judge, who processes and certifies all real estates transactions including drawing up and reviewing all official documents to ensure the proper transfer of the property. The Notary is in place of each party having their own real estate lawyer. The buyer chooses the Notary.

The official documents which are required by law in order to transfer the ownership of property in Mexico include : the deed, a no-lien certificate based on a complete title search from the Public Property Registry, a statement from the municipality regarding property assessments, utility bills, an appraisal of the property and other pertinent taxes that might be due.

The buyer pays the transfer of acquisition tax (ISABI) and all other closing costs including the Notary’s fees and expenses. The total of these costs vary from 5% to 7%. The seller is responsible for paying his capital gains tax and the broker’s commission.

The buying process varies from deal to deal. It usually takes between 2 and 4 weeks. If using a bank loan it can take up to 3 months, and it is a different procedure.

You can use wire transfers or you can hire an Escrow Service to manage the money portion of the transaction on behalf of the buyer and seller.

Absolutely. If you’re buying 100km from the borders or 50km to the beach a bank trust (fideicomiso) issued which is entirely safe and accepted in Mexico. In fact in many ways this is preferable because the transfer ability of this kind of legal structure is much less difficult in some cases than owning the property as a physical person. You pay a yearly sum to the bank of approximately 500-600 dollars.