By Ivey bin Duped
The brochure looked great. The real estate agent talked fast and had all of the answers. I was excited – top floor of the building and the associated 1250 sq ft private rooftop terrace with 8 ft privacy walls between the neighbors, a pergola to shade a seating area, and an elevated hot tub overlooking the ocean. Oh Ya Baby. The rooftop set up was perfect for entertaining with a built in sink and space for a fridge and bbq. Below it was a 1250 sq ft condo, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, laundry, fronting on a golf course; no one was going to build in front of me! The golf course ensured it would be both dark and quiet at night. This place was a winner, what could possibly go wrong?
Wait, we already have a condo in Cabo… but this one is sooooo much better. Within 20 minutes I was sold. It ticked all of the boxes on the “must have” list my wife and I had created over the years. I called my wife in Canada and told her I just plunked $10 grand down with my credit card to secure this marvelous new place before anyone else got it since it was the last top floor unit in the development. Construction hadn’t started so delivery was scheduled for 1 year, which gave us time to sell our current place and have enough to cover off the new place. Payments were set at a third of the money when they break ground, a third when the roof goes on and the final payment when the interior is finished and I get the keys. Perfect.
Groundbreaking happened soon after I returned to Canada. I bellied up the first third of the money, happy that our dream had sprung to life. We were both still working full time and could only manage a couple of short trips back to Cabo during the year. Six months later we headed back down expecting to make the second installment. When we arrive, we see that only the first level has been built. There are about 20 guys mixing cement by hand, lifting cinder blocks one by one and one and cutting wood with a handsaw. No machinery, no power tools and not even a cement mixer. Oh oh, this doesn’t look good, they should be much further along. We head home after 2 weeks.
Fast forward 6 months later and we are back down again. We arrive and see that the roof isn’t even done. I contact the real estate agent and ask what is going on. Apparently the subcontractor bid so low they could only complete 50% of the work before running out of money. The developer needed to raise more money to keep construction going to get to the 2nd draw stage. A few months later I get an email with pictures. The roof is on and they want the second draw. I send the money, wondering how much longer it will take to get the place completed. At the 18 month stage we head back down again. They are just plastering the walls on the inside and none of the interior finishing has even started. Well, I can’t back out now and just have to wait. At least the windows are in.
At the 24 month stage we are once again in Cabo, doing a walk through with the developer. I have my note book and am going through the place with a fine toothed comb to create a list of deficiencies. I’ve been involved in home building back home and understand the importance of identifying fixes to be done before signing off. At first, it’s minor, a kitchen backsplash tile is cracked and needs to be replaced. Then there’s another tile in the main bathroom and the bathtub won’t drain. We later learned the drain pipe was back sloped and their workers were cleaning their buckets in the tub and concrete set in the trap; it all had to be taken apart and redone. The floor in the second bathroom shower also wasn’t sloped to drain properly. Unfortunately the original tile was no longer available and it was redone with an entirely different tile that didn’t match anything in the place. I then dumped a 5 gallon pail of water on the main balcony to test the slope. To the developers horror (and mine) the water ran back to the sliding doors, flowed under, and pooled in the living room. They had to build a sill to keep the water out of the condo. OK, what next?
I thought I caught everything and we ended up taking possession after the fixes were completed. But wait – there’s more. The first night after we’d moved in, we heard dripping in the closet. The air conditioning unit’s evaporator pan didn’t have a drain mechanism so it just overflowed; annoying to find out, but, ok – easy enough to fix. Then, after the first rainstorm, the hard ceiling over the balcony, under the rooftop hot tub, collapsed onto the balcony and water was coming through the light fixtures into the living room. Oh joy, the living room furniture and rug are all wet. Apparently the hatch for the hot tub machinery hadn’t been sealed properly. Some of the recessed living room lights no longer worked because they were full of water. We contacted the developer (again) and he says he can’t get that size and style of lights anymore. We have to get all of the lights removed and new ones installed or accept mismatched lighting in the unit.
After two and a half years with everything fixed we finally settled in and started to enjoy the place, only to learn when the new neighbors moved in that our common balcony wall offered no privacy. None. Their conversation overshadowed our conversation. You could smell their supper.
Long story short, the shine was gone from our dream place. We sold it and vowed not to repeat the pre-build purchase experience in Mexico. We did stay in Cabo and bought again, but buying an existing home or condo unit with a thorough house inspection is the only way to go for us from now on. Not every pre-build purchaser will have the same experience, but hey – buyer beware and good luck!
Originally published by the Gringo Gazette, used with permission from the author.