(855) 851-5000

Call Us (CANADA / USA TOLL FREE)

Facebook

LinkedIn

Instagram

Search
 
MEXLAW > MexLaw  > Closing the Deal – Real Estate in Mexico

Closing the Deal – Real Estate in Mexico

Did you know foreigners can buy property in Mexico without holding resident status?

Although visitors to Mexico can purchase real estate without applying for temporary or permanent residence, holding a resident card will benefit you when it comes time to sell. Claiming the property as your principal residence may exempt you from any capital gains tax on the sale. Obtaining Mexican citizenship will allow you to purchase property in the restricted zone, which refers to properties that are 100 kilometers from the border and 50 kilometers from the coastline, without a fideicomiso, bank trust or a Mexican corporation.

You have found your dream home in Mexico: What is the next step?

From making an offer to closing the deal, a lawyer here in Mexico can guide you through the process and provide sound advice about purchasing real estate in Mexico.

Discuss your plans for the property with your lawyer. Are you buying to retire? Live in Mexico full or part time? Do you plan to start a business or use your property as a rental? These important facts will help your lawyer determine your best strategy regarding the purchase. In any case, be sure to consult your attorney before signing a sale contract or make the contract offer conditional to a lawyer’s review.

Choose a reputable, international lawyer who is governed by and accountable to a professional order in Mexico to assist you will the purchase contract and provide an estimate of the closing costs. If you can not be present for the closing, you may provide the law firm with Power of Attorney to act on your behalf.

 Closing The Deal: What does closing mean?

Closing, also known as completion is the final step in executing a real estate transaction. On the closing date, the ownership is transferred to the buyer. The closing date is the day the property becomes yours, and the title deed is signed. The date is previously agreed on by the seller and the buyer but also determined by the notario, as the notario will review the certificates of non-debt and other documents related to the sale of the property.

Who will be involved in the real estate closing?

  • Buyer and the seller
  • Substitute trustee, Your benefactor, will be named in the fideicomiso as a substitute trustee in the event of death, but it is imperative to have a Mexican will as there are no rights of survivorship in Mexico.  
  • The Notario Público (Notary Public) is a licensed attorney, certified and appointed by the government as an official representative of the government. A Mexican notary has much more responsibility than a notary in the US or Canada. They are responsible for ensuring the legality of the title deed transfer and registering the deed in the Public Registry. It is their legal responsibility to verify the facts regarding the property, record the transaction in the Public Registry and withhold fees and taxes. The notario does not solely represent the buyer, in this case, they are a neutral counsel and represent the buyer, the seller, and the government.
  • The Trustee Bank is the Mexican bank authorized by the federal government to act as trustee (Fiduciario). The majority of foreigners buy Mexican property through a fideicomiso which is held in trust at the bank with the buyer as the beneficiary. As a fideicomiso property owner, you have all the rights and privileges of property ownership. You are free to renovate, rent, mortgage or sell. Properties held in trust are not considered assets of the bank.
  • The buyer’s lawyer: It is strongly recommended that the purchaser has legal counsel during a real estate purchase. Not only will the lawyers ensure your investment is secure, but they will do the leg work, and you avoid the runaround to various government offices collecting and verifying certificates, documents paying fees. Let the lawyers at Mexlaw take care the closing.  Dealing with official agencies will be very difficult if you are not fluent in Spanish. Experience and the right connections enable the lawyers to achieve these requirements quickly and efficiently.

Although the state property registries will issue certificates of no encumbrances, stating there are no liens on the property, if a discrepancy is found after the fact, the buyer will have no recourse against the government for any human errors. Coordinating with the bank officers, the notary public, and the seller’s documentation will be supervised by the buyer’s lawyer. Your lawyer will conduct their due diligence revealing any liens, ensuring a clear title.

  • Your lawyer will submit the permit to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs on your behalf.
  • Research and confirm clear title with title history.
  • Gather non-debt certificates.
  • Set up appointments with the bank regarding your Fideicomiso.
  • Confirm the property is not Ejido land.
  • The title of property or Public Deed with registration.
  • Property tax paid up to date.
  • Active cadastral certificate (survey of the property)

Will I need to buy Title Insurance? A common misconception among foreign investors is that you need title insurance. When you hire MEXLAW, you will not need to buy title insurance. Due diligence performed by our team ensures a clear title deed.

What will a closing lawyer do for me? The closing attorney reviews & coordinates all the legal steps, follow ups with the notary, the bank, and the buyer ensuring all documentation required to complete the sale and deliver the Title Deed.

What expenses do I pay during closing?

The buyer is responsible for the Impuesto Sobre Adquisiciones de Bienes Inmuebles (acquisition tax) of 2%, closing costs, including the notario fees and lawyer fees, the bank’s trust set up charge, and annual maintenance fee.

How long will the closing process take, and when will I have possession of the property?

From making the deal to taking possession of the property will be approximately 40 to 45 days. The closing date depends on many factors; whether the property is pre-owned or presale construction or if there are any obstacles in verifying title and non-debt certificates. It is also dependent on the bank and the notary’s workload.  

When will I receive the Title Deed on my new property?

The title is official the day that the title is signed by all parties. You will receive a certified copy of the deed one week later, the Notario will record the deed in the Public Registry. This process may take up to three months. Mexlaw will follow up to ensure the buyer receives the registered title deed.  

The MEXLAW Real Estate Legal team will provide an estimated closing cost, an insured escrow service, and a guaranteed title deed.

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners.By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policity
Cookies settings
Accept
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookie name Active

Privacy Policy

What information do we collect?

We collect information from you when you register on our site or place an order. When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your: name, e-mail address or mailing address.

What do we use your information for?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways: To personalize your experience (your information helps us to better respond to your individual needs) To improve our website (we continually strive to improve our website offerings based on the information and feedback we receive from you) To improve customer service (your information helps us to more effectively respond to your customer service requests and support needs) To process transactions Your information, whether public or private, will not be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason whatsoever, without your consent, other than for the express purpose of delivering the purchased product or service requested. To administer a contest, promotion, survey or other site feature To send periodic emails The email address you provide for order processing, will only be used to send you information and updates pertaining to your order.

How do we protect your information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information. We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to?keep the information confidential. After a transaction, your private information (credit cards, social security numbers, financials, etc.) will not be kept on file for more than 60 days.

Do we use cookies?

Yes (Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computers hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow) that enables the sites or service providers systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information We use cookies to help us remember and process the items in your shopping cart, understand and save your preferences for future visits, keep track of advertisements and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future. We may contract with third-party service providers to assist us in better understanding our site visitors. These service providers are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf except to help us conduct and improve our business. If you prefer, you can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies via your browser settings. Like most websites, if you turn your cookies off, some of our services may not function properly. However, you can still place orders by contacting customer service. Google Analytics We use Google Analytics on our sites for anonymous reporting of site usage and for advertising on the site. If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics monitoring your behaviour on our sites please use this link (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/)

Do we disclose any information to outside parties?

We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Registration

The minimum information we need to register you is your name, email address and a password. We will ask you more questions for different services, including sales promotions. Unless we say otherwise, you have to answer all the registration questions. We may also ask some other, voluntary questions during registration for certain services (for example, professional networks) so we can gain a clearer understanding of who you are. This also allows us to personalise services for you. To assist us in our marketing, in addition to the data that you provide to us if you register, we may also obtain data from trusted third parties to help us understand what you might be interested in. This ‘profiling’ information is produced from a variety of sources, including publicly available data (such as the electoral roll) or from sources such as surveys and polls where you have given your permission for your data to be shared. You can choose not to have such data shared with the Guardian from these sources by logging into your account and changing the settings in the privacy section. After you have registered, and with your permission, we may send you emails we think may interest you. Newsletters may be personalised based on what you have been reading on theguardian.com. At any time you can decide not to receive these emails and will be able to ‘unsubscribe’. Logging in using social networking credentials If you log-in to our sites using a Facebook log-in, you are granting permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location which will then be used to form a Guardian identity. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile. This will also allow us and Facebook to share your, networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Facebook account settings. If you remove the Guardian app from your Facebook settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a Google log-in, you grant permission to Google to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth, sex and location which we will then use to form a Guardian identity. You may use your picture from Google as part of your profile. This also allows us to share your networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Google account settings. If you remove the Guardian from your Google settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a twitter log-in, we receive your avatar (the small picture that appears next to your tweets) and twitter username.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

Updating your personal information

We offer a ‘My details’ page (also known as Dashboard), where you can update your personal information at any time, and change your marketing preferences. You can get to this page from most pages on the site – simply click on the ‘My details’ link at the top of the screen when you are signed in.

Online Privacy Policy Only

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

Your Consent

By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.
Save settings
Cookies settings