Someone once told me most expats are running to something or from something, while I am sure this is true in some cases (actually more than some) there seems to be this idea that you can somehow reinvent yourself into something totally different than what you used to be, now everyone is capable of change on some levels, but the problem here (and across most of south/central America) is there is no system of checks and balances that exist similar to those in the USA, Canada or Europe, so yes, people who have never sold or bought a house suddenly become realtors, people who cant spell insurance are suddenly insurance agents, people who have trouble figuring out which end of a hammer to hold become construction managers or property managers, people who moved here believe that experience, no matter how bad they screwed their own move up suddenly become expat service providers, it is definitely a “BUYER BEWARE” market down here, and no, there is almost no legal recourse to recover damages…so…

• If your expat service provider is also a local tour guide, driver, restaurant owner chances are your issues will not be his/her issues,
• If the only house they ever bought was their own….move along little doggy
• If they are an expat make sure they have a work permit or you may be left holding more than a bag,
• Ask people who they worked for then go look at the work, how does it look 6 months or a year after it was done,
• If you do not speak Spanish, hire someone who does to assist you,

But on every FB page I see these people who are “experts” lawyers who never passed the bar, medical staff who never sat or passed their boards, and frankly picking someone who is not a lawyer to do legal work, someone who is not a medical professional to do medical work, someone who is not a real estate agent to do real estate work is just plain stupid and will result in cash being wasted, you wouldn’t do that in Canada, the USA or Europe, so why do it here.

See you on the beach….
Steve “The Beach Gringo in Chief” Patterson
thebeachgringo@gmail.com