House Hunting in ... Aruba

This three-bedroom home, its concrete facade painted bright red, was custom-built in 1995 to evoke a traditional Aruban farmhouse called a cunucu, which blends European and Indian influences.

[laPlaya]

an island is a great place to vacation but think long and hard about buying a permanent retirement home! Will your family really visit you with airline tickets averaging just below $1,000 per person from USA to Aruba? How often will you get back home? Probably not as often as you think. Can you live without stores familiar to you? There's no Walmart or Target down there. Most importantly who will you trust to read the Dutch language contracts that you will sign?
It's the best beaches in the world but no t for more than a month.

[SellMyHouseFast]

Maybe you can sell your house in Fresno and move to Aruba! Lol! http://www.ibuyhousesfresno.com

[Nicolas Carlos]

You want to loose your investment ! then go ahead, most of the properties are lease land, this means you never own the property, and when the government change the rules you have to go without comparison!
Also on lease properties you are not allowed to lease out apartments or rebuilding or make extensions as you wish.
Next is that all valuations you get present are 50% over the existing value, because the * certified architect* will value the property by the wish list of the owner. And watch what value you will see on the lease land, you will be surprised! actually the value is non, cero! the house, this is anyway bad build in construction multiply the m2 by max. 450.-$ then you have the real price.
this is written by an European architect, not an Arubean !

[laPlaya]

Nicolas Carlos wrote:

You want to loose your investment ! then go ahead, most of the properties are lease land, this means you never own the property

This is not unheard of in the USA either. For example in Palm Springs many homes are on land leased from Indian tribes (Native Americans). Same type of arrangement exists when you buy a co-op apartment.

[Gifford White]

Never buy a home in a foreign country without first renting for a year or so.

[Clark Richard]

Never buy a house anywhere inc luding the USA without spending alot of time there. I'm not talking about a week's vacation every year.

[tnt]

First time I heard of Aruba it was when I heard of a killing there.

[Bev and Tom]

We boughtalmost 800 square meters leaseland in 2003, had a small 3-bedroom, patio, carport house built for us in 2004, stay there November through April every year since. Taxes and fees are less than $1000 yearly. One mile from the beach, 10 minute drive to Oranjestad. Medium size supermarket 5 minutes away - many American products available. Got fruit trees in the backyard, bearing bananas, plantains, coconuts, mangos and quenepas. Good friends include Arubans, Americans, and Dutch. It's a piece of paradise and we highly reccommend it!

[Blue Vase]

Bev and Tom wrote:

We boughtalmost 800 square meters leaseland in 2003, had a small 3-bedroom, patio, carport house built for us in 2004, stay there November through April every year since. Taxes and fees are less than $1000 yearly. One mile from the beach, 10 minute drive to Oranjestad. Medium size supermarket 5 minutes away - many American products available. Got fruit trees in the backyard, bearing bananas, plantains, coconuts, mangos and quenepas. Good friends include Arubans, Americans, and Dutch. It's a piece of paradise and we highly reccommend it!

Do you rent out your home in Aruba?

[Michael Turchin]

Bev and Tom wrote:

We boughtalmost 800 square meters leaseland in 2003, had a small 3-bedroom, patio, carport house built for us in 2004, stay there November through April every year since.

I think I would be terribly bored after a month. Aruba is awesome but in small doses. Too far away from home and the airplanes tickets back to Miami aren't cheap.