Owning property in Mexico is easier and saber than ever, because now there are established and well defined rules regarding foreigners owning land in Mexico.

These rules are in place to protect your ownership rights and to promote the sale of real estate to foreign investors. The key is a safe, established and perpetually renewable Mexican Property Trust called a Fideicomiso.

         With the advent of the North American treaty agreement, the Mexican government recognized that it was critical to make foreign investment in Mexico safer and easier than ever. Because the Mexican constitution prohibits foreigners from purchasing or owning real estate within 30 miles of the Mexican Coast, a new safe method of holding title was created.

This new instrument, modeled after the one in Monaco, allows ownership through a Mexican property trust, called a Fideicomiso.

This is a trust agreement, much like an estate trust, giving you all the rights of ownership.

Much like living wills or estate trusts in the U.S., the bank, takes instructions only from the beneficiary of the trust.

The beneficiary may also sell the property by instructions the trustee to transfer the rights to another qualified owner, or bequeath the property to an inheritor. The initial term of the trust is 50 years indefinitely, providing for long-term control of the asset.

In the trust document, you must name the beneficiary or foreign owner for the property. This can be you personally, multiple partners, a foreign corporation, an estate trust, a living will, or other entity.

PEI(State Police) apprehends and arrests 9 suspects involved in Laguna Shores strike

By Victor Salazar and Alberto Aldrete Valdez

Puerto Peñasco, Sonora

More than ten ex-workers from the Laguna Shores Real Estate Company in Puerto Penasco blocked off the company building located on the intersection of Boulevard Benito Juarez and Juan de la Barrera due to unjustified dismissal. The PEI has received a warrant against 9 of the persons that were involved in what the order states “aggravated eviction and aggravated unlawful detention”.

A warrant was issued this past Saturday the 19^th of September, when the Rocky Point chief of the PEI, Luis Carlos Villalobos executed the order, of which the folio number is 881/2009II, with the date of the 11^th of September of the present year. The warrant requires the capture and admission to the Centro de Rehabilitacion Social(Social Rehabilitation Centre) The accused were listed as Jesus Cota Castro, Manuel Maltos Campos, Martin Alonso Vega Gamez, Juan Jose Felix Lopez, Juan Angel Reyes Garcia, Leonel Garcia Vargas, Jose Gilberto Quiroz Alvarez, Eliazar Zaragoza Granja, and Pedro Juanes.

The document marks the aggravated eviction and unlawful detention against Laguna Shores, citing damages against Maria Guadalupe Lopez Larios, Michael Roberto Klein, Roberto Irineo Rocha, Roberto Excalante Ramirez, Maria Elena Vaca Cervantes, Hector Manuel Escalante Martinez and Manuel Rodriguez, all of whom reside in Puerto Peñasco.

Judge Leobardo Burgos Calleja supervised the detention of the above mentioned persons. The implicated party was apprehended that very Sunday and put into the Social Rehabilitation Centre, wherein the authorities confirmed their arrest.

Detainees’ relatives criticize arrest; “it is unjust”, they remarked.

Wives and family of the detainees declared the arrest as an unfair violation of labor rights at the offices of this newspaper.

The family members stated that the accusations made against the 9 detainees, “aggravated eviction and aggravated unlawful detention”, do not match the facts. By their own word, they assure that no person was unlawfully treated when the black and red flags were set; they only did not allow personnel to take items out of the building and they did not evict anyone, what is defined within their own labor rights. Amongst the complaints is the lack of payment by the company to their ex-workers. They are quick to point out that there is an embargo upon the property that repays the dropped salaries, other costs and case costs.

Without giving any names for fear of retaliation, the family members indicated that the strike was still standing “because (Michael Kline) has never been willing to negotiate with the employees; he has not even assisted any of the Worker’s Compensation Board meetings”.

They also stated that 2 of the detainees were not even employees, but there for support, for which they ask for help by the authorities to help quicken the investigations, as they could not post bail.

The group indicated that throughout the strike, (Michael Kline) was insulting them and provoking them with obscenities, such as showing them a male sexual organ made out of rubber stating that “this was what he was going to give them”. They successfully did not succumb to these provocations.

The families affirmed that they depend on the 9 detainees and find it unjustified of what they feel is a constitutional violation, that a foreigner can make fun of their situation and to worsen it, that the authorities are on the foreigner’s side.

The detainees’ families have stated that they will pressure the authorities with other methods, because it is necessary that it be known that Puerto Peñasco’s labor rights are non-existent, or in other words that no respect is given due to the authorities’ compliances with others.

Greetings from Big White in Beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Its hard to imagine that it is nearly June and there is still snow on the ground. Here at the base of Big White, the water is running from melting snow, but just a few yards up the hill the snow is still firmly on the ground. It makes me think its time to get back to Mexico!

With the help of my wonderful wife, Latonia, we have opened the Canadian office for Tessoro. We are located at the base of Big White Ski Resort outside Kelowna B.C. We are planning from this central location in western Canada, to provide quality customer service for Canadians interested in a new lifestyle in Mexico.

Kelowna’s expanded International airport will allow us to be a part of Expos and Trade shows in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. The local phone number will also make correspondence a bit easier and also a mail service for expediting printed information and videos.

Coming in the fall of ’09, I will be doing a number of packaged trips from Canadian cities to visit Tessoro in Puerto Penasco. I will be your guide and show you all that our “sleepy little fishing village” and Tessoro, have to offer.

Jim Beam and three of his buddies were drinking in a bar one night and had the brilliant idea of driving their quads across the border and setting up a business in Puerto Penasco renting them.  So one Friday they drove across, parked their vehicles on the beach, and put up a sign saying, “Rentals $25/HOUR”. Business was a little slow  at first, so two of them decide to take a ride down the beach.  Unfortunately they had been drinking a lot of beer and were not very steady drivers.

They rolled over the quads, putting both the vehicles and themselves out of commission.  While they were being treated, Jim rented another quad to a guy on the beach, who took off and never came back.

The fourth quad was confiscated because Jim and his friends had no corporation and hence no legal status to do business in Mexico.

There are several attitudes that cause problems for Americans who are trying to do business or buy property in Mexico:

1.- Party mentality. It should be possible to go on vacation in Puerto Penasco and make some money on the side. Not likely. Jim and his friends made the mistake of trying to mix vacation with business.  This is an (only slightly) exaggerated situation, but I have met many, many Americans who seem to feel that they are on vacation as soon as they cross the border.  This greatly hinders their ability to conduct any sort of business transaction.

2.- Greed. Great bargains in Mexico can be picked up likes shells on the beach.  Not true.  They can be found, but it takes times and effort to make a sound investment.  Larry and Rita Marino had rented a beachfront condo in Puerto Penasco for several years.

They decide if they could buy one.  The owner of the one next door happened to be there one weekend when they were and told them he’d like to sell.  The price was right, and they agreed to buy it.  Rita asked when they could meet with a notario to close the transaction.  The owner said “Oh, we don’t have to do that. It cost too much.  Just give me the money and I’ll have over the tittle. That’s how is done in Mexico.

Three months later Larry and Rita Returned and found their condo occupiedby another family who claimed to have bought it from the same owner.  He had to return to the U.S and could not be located.

3.- Ignorance. That’s the way it’s done in Mexico.  Not if it’s done right.  People who say this are usually trying to cut corners.  Buyers should always check the details of proposed transactions or engage a reputable person to check for them.

Larry and Rita gave money for the purchase of property to a complete stranger without an office or an established business.  They allowed their greed to overcome their business sense and failed to follow proper procedure or even to find out what to proper procedure was.

Buying property in Mexico.

If you are an American or Canadian wanting to buy Rocky Point Real Estate, here are some tips for you.

1.- when you arrive in mexico, turn off your vacation attitude and turn on your business brain. You will do better if you aren’t distracted by margaritas and fun.

2.- when buying property, do it right. In Puerto Peñasco foreign individuals can purchase residential property with a bank trust. A Mexican corporation can own property outright, but only for business purpose.  These are the only two legal ways of doing it.

3.- get a professional real estate agent to represent you, preferably a member of the Puerto Penasco Association of Real Estate Agents.

Las Dunas is the first phase of Santo Tomas, a dramatic combination of 3,360 acres of beautiful Sonoran desert, with 2½ miles of the most pristine swimmer friendly beaches in the state of Sonora. This beautiful setting is located on the edge of a fertile agricultural area where grapes, olives, citrus fruit & most of the country’s asparagus are grown.

Today there are about 20 homes completed and many more in the planning stage in section one. More than two-thirds of the121 custom building lots in the first 2 phases have been purchased. The average size is 11,384 sq. ft., the smallest is 9,600 sq. ft. Section two consists of 9 oversized beachfront lots ranging from 14,000 to 15,000 sq. ft., and 11 hilltop estate lots which range from 16,000 to 28,000 sq. ft. Section two was just made available for purchase, and believe it or not the beachfront lots start out at $350,000. This is a big difference to the pricing in Puerto Penasco which are hovering around a million dollars for beachfront in most any community. This is really special since the lots in Santo Tomas have underground electricity, good drinkable water, and a title available on every lot. This fact cannot be said about any lot in the Puerto Peñasco community or anywhere else for hundreds of miles.