The process of buying real estate in Panama, as with any country you are unfamiliar with, can seem a bit confusing and intimidating for the average person. When approaching the idea of buying real estate in Panama, uncertainty can often times be the biggest issue in deterring a buyer from picking up a great piece of real estate in Panama. One of the first issues of uncertainty many foreign buyers face is when they are presented with the price, and have difficulty determining if the price for the piece of real estate in Panama is fair. Even for locals, it can be difficult to determine the actual asking market price for the property of real estate in Panama. What happens in some cases, a buyer will see two seemingly identical pieces of property sitting adjacent to each other with a different asking price that could vary about one-hundred and fifty percent from each other. This could be for several reasons, but the point is that just like with any process involving real estate, the buyer needs to do some research when purchasing a piece of real estate in Panama.
The best way to make sure you don’t pay way too much for a piece of real estate in Panama is to get an appraisal of the piece of property. If you can’t find a previous appraisal done relatively recent on the property in question, it’s not hard to get one done yourself. The cost of an appraisal is relatively inexpensive, especially considering the amount of money you may save just by simply getting an appraisal done on the piece of real estate in Panama.
It is important to note that appraisals on pieces of real estate in Panama are not necessarily perfect, or fool proof. Like any business, there are some less than reputable appraisers out there that do not deliver the most accurate of results to potential buyers of real estate in Panama. A couple examples of reputable sources for appraisals are Panamerican de Avaluos and Zubieta y Zubieta.
If you don’t trust the appraisal you received, or don’t want to deal with the whole process altogether, you can choose to purchase you property with bank financing. It may seem like the process of going through all the paper work and the procedures with the bank is unnecessary, or too tedious and time consuming, but often times it can assure a proper sale price. This is because a bank will not finance a property for more than it is actually worth.
These are just a few important things to learn about purchasing real estate in Panama, but read other articles on this site to learn more about real estate in Panama.