All About Real Estate

A few minutes ago I watched the first flight of the day leave the aeroporto across the bay as it climbed above the string of lights along the zona hoteles. (You will have to pardon my dropping the odd local Spanish term into the written word; these words drip inevitably into one’s speech the longer one lives with them; and, this is the way all languages gradually shift and develop; interesting to observe it happening within oneself and one’s partner!) But I digress. It’s shortly after 7 AM here; that would be shortly after 8 Toronto time. It’s Sunday, however, so not too likely that many of you will be up and at your day by now. Watching the planes leave, Mark and I often have a sense of sorrow on behalf of those on-board, leaving their holiday and heading back to the great white frozen north.

Things are, that is to say, I am calmer now than when I sent my last post your way. Our buyers have accepted the counter-offer that Mark pushed for (I would have taken their initial proposal) and baring any difficulties re their getting financing (not likely) all conditions should be satisfied by this coming Friday. I’ve been assiduously trolling the net for rental places in the Annex. There are lots of apartments in high rises; on streets with lots of traffic; a few in houses without a great deal of light available. We have narrowed the offerings to three possibilities: 1) (my favourite) the second and third floors of a house on Major about a block south of Bloor: excellent location, at tree level, a large living room and loft bedroom, and walk-outs to balconies at the front and to a deck at the back. 2) (clearly Mark’s choice) a 9^th floor condo at the corner of St George and Lowther: architecturally interesting older building, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, on the south-west corner so not facing either street, views over the city, an elevator, underground parking, and a block from the subway. 3) (the favourite of neither of us but a possibility) the ground floor apartment in a Victorian house on Lowther close to Avenue Road: good location though not as good as the other two; only one bathroom; probably no parking. Actually I guess we can scrap this one.

We don’t look like ideal tenants for any of these places as we aren’t moving until about the middle of March and obviously any sensible landlord wants one to move in immediately or sooner. I have contacted the agents advertising each spot to see if we could tie up one of them. Each has promised to ask the owners if they would be willing; so far, no response. Something will happen and we’ll get a place, but I am hoping for Major St.

In the meantime it’s Puerto Vallarta all the way. I don’t think that I have mentioned in these pages that Mark and I are buying a condo in the building where we are currently renting. Lots of you know about it though, so you can tune out right about now. For the first few days of our stay here we couldn’t get the internet to work in our apartment, though it was fine in the lobby. Up and down we would go during the day to check emails, until the resident techie guy sold us our very own modem and brought us up to speed. While working my way through my vast (ahem) correspondence one morning, I paused to chat with a lady who was tidying up the leftovers from a sale held of donated goods. This event occurs yearly to buy Christmas presents for the employees’ kids. She volunteered the information that she had lived in the building for 17 years but was planning to move to Palm Springs to be near her daughter and grandchildren – and that she wanted to sell her unit.

Now these were words that flew directly to my heart as I was in the first throes of puppy love with not just Vallarta (a constant) but with this building as well. I told her that Mark and I had thought from time to time of buying a place here though our capital was currently tied up in our places at home. I suggested that perhaps we could come and see her place anyway. Certainly, she said, come anytime this afternoon as I am leaving tomorrow. We came; we saw; it conquered. The lady, Susanne, was most accommodating: she could be very flexible with us about terms as we continued to try to sell either Orillia or Croydon Rd. Her price was good, her unit lovely, and we went for it. Mark, such a good lad, said that he would not have sprung on it given our current financial encumbrances, but he thought we could handle it, AND, he knew it would make me happy. He was oh, so right.

So we tell Susanne we are interested. She leaves town and her buddy, Mercedes, comes on the scene. Mercedes is another long-time Vallarta resident, currently living in an almost entirely open air house that she built along the highway near Misaloya (about 20Km from here). Mercedes is fluent in Spanish, has had lots of real estate dealings here over the years, has an ace lawyer, Oscar, and, has been give power of attorney by Susanne. Mercedes comes to see us and proceeds to mediate, via emails, an offer for the unit that works for both parties. The deal: we make a small deposit now and another one on April 1/14. We take possession on July 1/14. If by then we do not have the necessary at hand, we enter into a “land-contract” with Susanne, whereby we pay her so much per month on what is essentially a mortgage that she has taken back at 3% annual interest. By the end of 2014 if we still do not have the jack, the land contract can be renegotiated.

We went with Mercedes to Oscar’s office. He speaks no English but is an affable fellow and clearly a friend of Mercedes. She interprets. She also is engaged by him to translate the contract documents into English for our perusal. Susanne, who is in her early 80s and not in very good health is currently sharing facilities with her daughter in Palm Springs and apparently the arrangement is not working out too well. Irritations on both sides. She is keen to get cash from us more quickly as she wishes to rent a place of her own. Understandable. Now that Mercedes knows that we are in the way of a sale in Toronto, she is making noises about throwing something Susanne’s way. We probably will do something for her though the money will come from our line of credit in the short term. Sometime this week we will accompany Mercedes back to Oscar’s office for the actual signing of documents regarding the sale. There will be happiness on all sides when it becomes clear that we will be able to purchase unit 804 of the Vista Del Sol outright on July 1.

Though we have had many different versions of the weather here during the summer (mainly hot, humid, with rainy nights), our current plan is to come back here on July 1 to take possession, arrange bank accounts and so on, the steps befitting resident landowners/cliff-dwellers. We will find out for ourselves the horrors or the pleasures of summertime a la Vallarta. We might bring the three grandkids with: they will spend the days in the pool or in the ocean out front.

So enough of the real estate report already! It’s a gorgeous day and I’m reading an excellent book by Canadian Guy Vanderhaeghe called A Good Man. He seems to dwell in the late 19^th century in his novels and he uses somewhat arcane (like that) words that tickle the linguistic palate. All the best.

PS. I've just started another blog at www.puertovallartaphotos.blogspot.com to post some of our pictures.