The Roatan Real Estate Guide is designed to give you a wealth of relocation and investment information. Learn from our local experts as they share with you information on real estate, purchasing tips, lifestyle information and so much more. The Roatan Real Estate Guide supplies you with the insiders information necessary for you to make an informed decision about investing and living on Roatan
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** INTRODUCTIONS!**
Mike – Hi my name is Mike Carter, I am one of the owner of Roatan Life Real Estate.
Marci – My full name is Marci Wiersma and I am a Real Estate Broker for About Roatan Real Estate in Roatan Honduras.
Mike – I guess I had to say what my job is it’s helping people get the most out of Roatan, I’ve been in Roatan for over 16 years now, my wife and I were looking for a place in the Caribbean we’ve always wanted to live a tropical lifestyle and once we found out how great Roatan was not only but the people it was just the match made in heaven for us and we’ve been super happy ever since then.
Marci – I move to Roatan 23 years ago when I was 32 and I had my first baby she was nine months old so my husband and I moved here just to get out of corporate hustle and bustle and just for something more peaceful more you know more reduced but something better for our family.
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** WHY IS ROATAN A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE**
Mike – Roatan is a great place to live because of the diversity we have diversity in the flora and the fauna we ‘ve got the reef and the blue water the green hills and the white sand beaches we also have a really cool community in terms of people we’ve got the Caribbean culture, the Latin influence and then expat from all over the world and I really love that diversity that’s why Roatan it’s a great place to live.
Marci – Roatan has a lot of great things about it it’s peaceful its beautiful it’s a lot less expensive than other places that you could go and the cost of living is it really affordable especially if you’re you know an older couple or older person that it has their home paid and their car paid full and you just wanting to retire, the people here are really really nice and there’s really no place I’ve ever been ever anywhere in the world that is like this place. Roatan is definitely an art of its own
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** WHY IS ROATAN SUCH A GREAT PLACE TO INVEST**
Mike – Roatan is really neat because it’s 35 miles long and about 3 miles wide but we have all kinds of different properties, beach front, hillside, ocean view, garden view, people can buy condos single family homes get a parcel of land and make their own dream come true it’s very diverse in that respect we really have something for everybody.
Marci – Roatan is great place to invest because obviously it’s a great place to live so you have that factor but um it’s really for the beauty and there’s really not a lot of places in the Caribbean that are quite as striking and beautiful as Roatan the terrain is pretty flat but it’s mountainous too but it’s only 2 hours from Miami and you know a little over 2 hours from Houston so you’re very close to those entry points of the united states and into Canada and and even to get to Venia that take you to Europe so that that’s a huge factor but the cost of living is is really affordable and it’s English speaking so you know for an older couple that doesn’t you know learning another language can be taxing so um but the people are so friendly here and they most of them all speak English anyway and they’ll always find someone to help you so it’s just really a peaceful relaxed place to be.
Mike – A lot of people are enjoying investing in Roatan because of the diversity they like to get their portfolios diversified geographically and have something you know outside of their home country it’s also a place probably 20 years behind the rest of the Caribbean so we’re still seeing the upswing here as we slowly develop and kind of make Roatan what it’s going to be in the future
Marci – The best thing about Roatan, wow there’s a lot things that are great about it I would say the atmosphere of the people they’re calm they’re peaceful they have a lot a lot of people have a good strong Christian faith here um the cost of living is great and affordable it’s peaceful and it’s beautiful just I love it here yeah,
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** CAN I BUY PROPERTY IN ROATAN?
Mike – its easier for a foreigner to own property in Honduras the law allows you to own 3 quarters of an acre in your own name or you can form a corporation and own multiple properties or larger properties its all right there and ready to do you just need a good attorney to help you through the process
Marci – it’s very similar to the buying process of the U.S so you own the title outright you own your property and um it’s a simple process so what I would say to people that are looking um is first of all choose people to work with that have your best interest at heart choose a person that’s that’s trained and professional and and knowledgeable about what they’re doing having a network here of people that help you after you purchase is important you are not moving to another town in your city, you are moving across the world or investing across the world and there is going to be there’s going to be a learning curve.
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**REAL ESTATE INSIGHTS
Mike – When people ask me for some tips or insight of what they do when they come to Roatan and want to look at property I start with by telling them get to know the island you expand your horizons think outside of what you normally would be comfortable with and get to know maybe the East End were its’s more remote or go down to West Bay and check out kind of the tourist centers there’s places in between too so, spend some time here check out all the areas then you’ll know when the sand feels right between your toes.
Mike – Roatan local market should continue to grow over the next few years the island is putting in a lot of infrastructure and getting itself ready to grow and I think that’s going manifested with better prices and more availability in the future I’m optimistic about the local market in the coming years we’re seeing a lot of investment right now in infrastructure on the island to make it a better place to live better roads new hospital and other things are coming down the pipe and people are going to really enjoy that in the future so I’m pretty optimistic that we’re going to have an even better place in the future
Marci – The question I get asked the most would be crime, uh medical, cost of living um those are kind of the most important things we you know we don’t have a trauma center here like you would in a big city in the U.S but we do have amazing people that handle whatever has to be done we have evacs, we have 4 hospitals with a new one on the way so and we don’t have you know massive car pileups and things like that the other thing that you’ll see most people that move here their health improve because you know we eat better here we eat more natural things where there’s not a fast food restaurant on every corner when you go to a restaurant here they make your food right then and there with the vegetables that are grown from here and I find so many of my clients whose cholesterol goes down and their health just improves so that’s a bonus for being here too and the food is really good.
Mike – It’s funny the thing they asked the most is not about the property it’s about the quality of the food everybody wants to know what we got here to eat and its good news we’ve got really good local produce fish of course things like that but we have imports from the United States and is all restaurant quality so our grocery stores are just like you would have back home and its really really fun to tell people that and see their eyes light up
Mike – Now getting back to business people often ask about how we do financing and that can be a little tricky here because local bank don’t loan like traditional banks in North American, they often ask about taxes which are very low here so that’s a great thing I love to tell people about and they often ask about security and I explain that security like anywhere in the world is something you have to be concerned of but it’s not a big problem here it’s easy to overcome that between communities an alarm system or just a little bit of common sense
Marci – Again choose a team to work for you that has your best interest at heart if you do that, everything else is going to work out, you don’t want any surprises later, you want to know the reality of what you’re doing not the façade of somebody wants you think you’re doing so having that rue picture and getting your education that is the key to the success in my opinion once you can make a true informed decision the rest is easy.
Mike – my main tip for people is do your due diligence do a little bit of reading make sure you find a realtor and an attorney that you can communicate with and ask all the questions don’t get caught up in the excitement of a big move Calm down do your homework and then make the right move for you I personally take an outfitter approach with people I want to give them the tools and the information so they can make a successful decision I love that because it always relieves to repeat business with referrals and other things.
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**ROATAN LIFESTYLE
Mike – well I’m not quite retired but the people I talk to that are lucky enough to be so tell me they really love it they can do as much or as little as they want to it’s a really friendly place and people always find their Niche so you can volunteer do activities or just hang out Roatan is a great place to retire
Marci – So the lifestyle for retirees is in Roatan wow I know a lot of them and they have a busier social schedule than I ever had when I was 21 and single, um so they do all kinds of things because this place is really a lot about your social life and who you socialize with, they do to the beach on Monday and they go to you know the local little restaurant bar and play music on Friday and they do something else on Tuesday and so it really is a sociable place and there’s a lot of retired people so there’s always someone to enjoy your day with and they they build strong relationships of friendships and you know you’ll see 10 of them go on cruises and or there are 10 of them at the beach on Sunday having brunch and so it really is a social place no matter what age you’re at
Mike – For me Roatan is just the perfect combination of things I like to scuba dive, golf fish, I love tropical weather and Roatan has all of that for me in addition to that it has diversity I like diverse people we have Latin Caribbean and great number of expats from all over the world and that makes for always interesting conversations when you’re meeting with friends and family and all getting together and having a barbecue or something on the beach you’ll never be bored in Roatan
Marci – The lifestyle of children is growing um mine were like I said one was born here and the other one was nine months when I moved so you know there’s a saying you can take the child out of the island but you can’t take the island out of the child and that’s very true and my kids had a great great education they went to a private school in French Key called Nuna they actually graduated with a diploma from Missouri University from Mizzou and they went to College one of them is still in college it was a great experience and they were totally prepared and I believe you know it’s like anything in life if you want to get prepared and you want to accomplish the job and you want to be good at whatever it is you’re going to do that comes from within you know I was very fortunate my children were surrounded by not a lot of classmates one had a graduating class of seven the other was five I think but those kids were driven and so that’s you know they were driven they were all driven together and it was a great experience I wouldn’t change it for anything.
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Click here to view the Real Estate Guide Part #1
Click here to view the Real Estate Guide Part #2
