Almost Scammed Buying Land in Dominican Republic

This story is meant to give awareness of the many possibilities that could go wrong in buying real estate overseas without taking time and doing your due diligence.

It all started with being contacted by an agent that said he had land to show us. The agent and his team are the good guys in this almost could have been disaster. For some time, we have been looking for land to purchase, and build a home here in Dominican Republic. We are specific on where we would like to be, so therefore it's going to take some time to find what we are looking for. Not being desperate or overly anxious as recommended by agents and others here with experience.

As like any regular normal procedure, the agent sends details about a potential land for purchase. We find land that meets our requirements with size, price, and location. Then we agree to meet up the following afternoon to look at this land in person. The next day we arrive at the land, and it’s everything that the agent said it would be. 300-meter square, $49k(usd) roughly 3 million Dominican pesos, with room to negotiate. It’s in one of our preferred selected areas, which makes it an easy decision. Feels like we got a winner here. So, now I got to use my poker face and ack as if I’m not all that interested lol, that way I can get the price down lower. There is work to be done, like levelling, which I’m not sure what it will cost. We tell the agent our concerns about the cost of levelling, and that when we find that out, we'll get back to him.

We set up a meeting with a construction company to find out how much to build a home would cost, and an estimated cost for levelling the land. The construction company said around 100 thousand pesos ($1600 usd) for the levelling. Not bad, plus that would be the high-end price. Since we last spoke to the agent, almost a week has gone by with Christmas and the holidays. We contact the agent and told him that we would like to proceed with this land. We offered a lower price based on the work that would need to be done, and the seller agrees to the offer. Ok, perfect what's next? Anyone who's gone through the process of buying or selling real estate is aware that your agent will give you feedback on who you are doing business with. Our agent tells us that the seller is a woman, and by her name, it sounds like she’s Dominican. According to our agent's research, the seller had the property for only a few months. That's odd to me, but I think, hey maybe she got it as a gift or inheritance.

The seller accepted the offer, but later says that she has a potential buyer, that told her that he’ll let her know on Monday, and this day was Thursday. It's not confirmed, so I'm not quite sure why she would risk a sure deal over a maybe. Nevertheless, she counters the original agreed offer and asked for a bit more money. The reason is because the other “maybe buyer” was going to pay that much more. Not sure if she just got amazing negotiating skills, but I wanted this land and it was still well worth it, so I agreed. She now says that we have to buy it right away in order for her to not sell it to the other potential buyer. I’m new in this country, I didn't know buying land was like checking out at an Express Lane at the grocery store? She now includes her sister, who ask for us to go to a “Registro Inmobiliario.” There we would get a all the Information if this land owes taxes, or has any liens. If so, and it's not paid the new owner will have to cover what's owed. This is important before buying any land. Ok, no problem, how much is it? about $15 (usd). We’re ready to head out right now and get this document, but our agent ask for us to be patient, and allow for him and his lawyer to conduct due diligence.

We have a legit agent that runs everything through a lawyer and now the sellers have a 3rd sister involved. 3 women involved in this deal, but are agent gets word from the lawyer that none of these women's names are on the land ownership. Also, they are missing a document that he's asked for multiple times, and they took until the next day to reply after being asked for it. This missing document is needed or nothing can happen. I just recently seen a video the other day about people being scammed for beautiful land on the other side of the world, so I was very careful with this whole process. Making sure to work with a professional real estate agent, and that might have been what saved me. After being confronted by our agent, now these 3 sisters say that the land was given to their father from another woman. The woman that they claim gave it away is the sole name on the actual ownership of the land. This is what they were hiding and what the lawyer and agent found. The rightful owner was contacted, and it seems as if she does know the father of the women, but she was unaware of the property being sold. The rightful owner said she’s on vacation and when she comes back, she will sort this out.

The agent contacted us, and recommended that we stay clear from this one. He and the lawyer felt there were too many red flags and both agreed that we should move on from this land. We agreed and were obviously thinking the same. This felt like a badly planned scam. From the missing document, the added persons, and the owner nowhere to be found. On the Sunday these women ended up taking down the listing. You got to be careful when buying land outside of your country. People look to scam happy go lucky foreigners all the time. If we bought this land and started building, or worst-case finished building a home. The real land owner could have showed up later and demanded us to get off their property. There would be nothing that we could do about it. I strongly recommend not to cheap it out with this process. Go with a legitimate agent and lawyer, so that they can check thoroughly what’s needed to be, keeping you safe.

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