Drum roll Please!

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Actually no drum roll necessary, right?  I already told you that this all works out in the end.  I personally HATE suspense, sorry.
Our future view through neighbor's construction mess
So, during my second evening of conferences. I was reading through the final version of the sales contract when I discovered that one of the lots depicted in the document was NOT one of the lots we had proposed to purchase. Upon further inspection, I discovered that Sebastian had sent the wrong mortgage survey to the lawyer.  It took some screen shots and quickly sent them to our lawyer and Sebastian and Thomas. Needless to say, the closing did not take place at 5 PM as planned.  And Thomas ran out of data on his prepaid sim card the next day - his departure day- before I could inform him that everything worked out in the end.  We had the right lots described and the owners had agreed to one last stipulation in the contract.

Side note (should I call these something?  Like DR Factoids? The purpose of this is essentially to inform...hmmm....):  Buying property in the Dominican Republic is actually WAY easier than here in the states.  There are no banks involved because purchases tend to be all in cash.  However, new laws (well, 2005...so relatively new) now require a pretty high tech 'deslinde' process - think mortgage survey- where GPS markers are set by civil engineers at the lot lines, so there is no discrepancy. That and the fact that foreigners enjoy the same rights as natives when it comes to home ownership. The deslinde process can take anywhere from 6 months to a year from what I've learned. We were lucky that each of the individual lots in this development had been surveyed using the updated process and were ready to go!

 Before leaving Cabrera, Thomas signed over power of attorney and headed back to Santiago in the light of day to avoid a repeat experience driving through what he calls "some scary neighborhoods". And as of last Thursday, Novemember 5th we are Caribbean home owners!  YAY!

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