Buying Property in Nicaragua from Outside the Country
This house is for sale. See it here.
By Joel Stott-Jess
Lately we’ve been completing a lot of transactions here in Nicaragua remotely. Ranging from clients that see the property in person first and then close from their home countries, to a number that have bought without visiting the property in person. This is a guide to buying property in Nicaragua from outside the country.
If you haven’t seen it already we have a great guide on buying property in Nicaragua and everything you need to know. It describes in detail the purchase process from search to offer to closing to registration. For people interesting in investing in Nicaragua without being here, there are some minor changes to how we complete the process on your behalf.
Normally for clients who are out of the country we video the prospective property for them. Then we arrange inspections as requested to provide the most in-depth look possible. Assuming clients like the property we proceed with the offer and acceptance portions of the process. Those are basically the same as in the article linked above.
We take a $1000 refundable earnest deposit to make the offer. The easiest remote option is PayPal although we also accept via international bank wire. Once we have that deposit we write the offer and sign it digitally. For this part of the process a digital signature is valid and we use DigiSign for the initial documents. Assuming we get acceptance the sellers will digitally counter-sign the Private Sales Agreement (PSA) as well and we are moving!
The main difference comes next and it is the signing authority on the official documents. Here in Nicaragua all the publicly registered deeds need to be signed by the buyer, or their representative with a Power of Attorney (POA). For people that are here looking at property in person, and then going home, it’s a simple process.
We get them to sign a POA here in person in Nicaragua. It costs about $60 and normally the buyers endorse it to myself or someone from the law firm. The POA is generally very specific and normally allows the designee to sign purchase and corporate formation documents, not sales. So you can feel secure knowing no one can sell anything. They can only sign to buy the property you chose, on your behalf, and at your specific instruction via email.
If you are outside the country and won’t be visiting prior to closing we do need to get a POA here. In needs to be signed, apostilled, and a physical copy delivered to Nicaragua. The process for that is pretty straightforward for citizens of most countries that are members of the Apostille Treaty. An apostille certification is comparable to notarization in domestic law and certifies that the document, and in this case the signature too, is valid.
What this mean in practice is that after we have an agreement in place, and the Private Sales Agreement signed digitally, we get a physical Power of Attorney signed. We email the text to you which you then print and sign in the presence of a notary in your home country. Or if you are abroad at your nearest embassy. Then that document is apostille stamped. In the US that would be at your secretary of state’s office. In other countries that would be with the foreign office, national secretary of state, or analogous federal office.
If you’re from Canada it will require a slightly different process as the country is not a party to the Apostille Convention. We send documents to the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington, then Ottawa, then to Nicaragua. There is a process we follow with prepaid FedEx envelopes and instructions to make it as simple as possible for my fellow Canucks.
Sound a little confusing? Don’t worry we do this all time, and can tell you exactly what to do to make it easy and smooth. Contact me for any questions.
Once we have that power of attorney here in Nicaragua everything else can be done remotely. The rest of the purchase process is the same as detailed in the 14 Things to Know About Buying Property in Nicaragua article, including the wiring of deposit and closing funds. On closing day we sign on your behalf and the property is yours, and/or registered into the company you form to hold it.
On the date of closing the property is legally yours. We do like to let our clients know that it takes 2-3 months after closing to complete the registration process. Thats because we have to physically register it with multiple government authorities. They have to be completed in a sequential order and each takes a certain amount of time. So the property yours the day we close but the registration takes a little while to complete.
All of those steps are completed by myself and your lawyer. You don’t have to do a thing. You do not need to be in Nicaragua for any of these steps. After closing we can connect you with some excellent property management companies to take care of it and earn you rental income, or just to look after it until you arrive.
This whole processes easy to complete remotely and we do it all the time.
I hope that was helpful. Want to know more about investing in Nicaragua? Contact me!
Joel Stott-Jess
Cell / WhatsApp: (+505) 8176 8624
Skype: joelstottjess
Joel Stott-Jess is a New York Times featured agent / broker in San Juan Del Sur.
Originally from Alberta, Canada he has been doing business in Nicaragua since 2014.
An investment consultant, serial entrepreneur, surfer, and outdoor enthusiast he is an expert on the real estate and business markets in Nicaragua. He also operates The Central Investor, a real estate and investment blog focused on the entire Central American region.
Thanks to his lovely Nicaraguan wife, a medical doctor, he is also well informed on health care services in the country.
