# Title/Escrow services for home buyers in Mexico



## CoronaSipper (Jan 1, 2021)

For anyone who has purchased a home in Mexico. What title companies do you recommend? How do you verify that the account they want you to put your money in is a real escrow account?

I would really appreciate talking to someone who has navigated this environment before. A million thank yous.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I bought two houses in Mexico and never went to a title company Here the Notarios get the titles.. I am not aware there are title companies and if there are, they have to have notarios as they are the ones providing titles here.


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## [email protected] (Nov 12, 2017)

This was my experience back in 2005.

At the time I purchased my home here in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas ( my spanish was less than elementary at that time ) I hired a Mexican Law firm, an attorney based in both San Diego and Mexico City ( interviewed 3 different licensed attorney firms ). They were my "insurance.policy" ((( I told the firm / attorney that if any irregularities were discovered, we walk away . . . ))) They worked through the local Notaria Publica en San Cristobal de Las Casas to secure my Escritura Publica

All clean title to ownership of seller, no complications, ONLY discrepancy was that my tax bill ( predial ) showed 10 additional square meters verses the property inspection report. I resolved that discrepancy working thru the local real estate office I have a relationship with (and the government admin). Though I paid taxes on more land then I should, there was no refund for the over charge from the government administration . . . grins!

This was money well invested and spent in my view and opinion. Peace of mind plays a role here too.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Title insurance and escrow are really concepts from the US that are not native to Mexico. The fact that there are companies providing those services in Mexico at all is just because there are lots of US citizens asking for them. I am not a lawyer, but I suspect they don't provide the protection that people expect from them. Mexican law is different than US law.

In Mexico, property transfers are handled by Notario Publicos, senior attorneys licensed by the government to handle property transfers. The Notarios handle all of the paperwork. They are normally chosen and paid for by the buyer. There is no escrow. After all the paperwork is ready the buyers and sellers meet at the Notarios office. Everyone signs the papers, the buyers give the money to the sellers. The sellers turn over the keys and the transaction is complete. The notario files the paperwork with the local authority and a few months later the buyer receives a copy of the final registered escritura.

When I bought my house, there were five sellers, four brothers and sisters and an aunt who owned the house collectively. There was no way for all of them to show up at the same time. So the notario acted as an intermediary. The notario had them all come in when they could, made copies of the their identification cards, and had them sign the escritura. When all the signatures were in place, I transferred the money to the aunt, then provided proof of the transfer to the notario, who then gave me the keys and signed escritura.

PS Apologies for errors in gender. I believe the offices are feminine, Notarias Publicas, and the individuals can be either.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

When I bought , I was not a Mexican citizen so I also had to get a permit from SRE to own in Mexico.. I did that myself by applying directly with SRE. Do not count on an insurrance to cover you if there are any mistakes done by the notario or if you are in a jam because you bought ejido land or communal land..
In San Cristobal at least in the old part of town very few properties have the size shown on the title.. When I was interested in buying I had an engineering firm measure the property and tell me what I could and could not do to the house before we bought.... so I knew the exact size of the lot,, I have 40 square meters more than the deed hows and the notario told me not to worry about it as it is very commun there in the old part of town, Since all the adjacent properties were built and there was no way to move anything we went along with what the deed said and what we physically had,
The buyers pay the notario but the notario does not work for the buyer, he represents the State if you want to be represented get a lawyer and make sure he is reputable.
The real estate companies are not reponsable for anything either so when buying in Mexico it is buyer beware..


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## [email protected] (Nov 12, 2017)

citlali said:


> When I bought , I was not a Mexican citizen so I also had to get a permit from SRE to own in Mexico.. I did that myself by applying directly with SRE. Do not count on an insurrance to cover you if there are any mistakes done by the notario or if you are in a jam because you bought ejido land or communal land..
> In San Cristobal at least in the old part of town very few properties have the size shown on the title..


Buenos tardes . . . when you refer to "title" are you referring to the Escritura Publica . . . if so, yep mine shows the lot size. ((( the funny part of my experience is that the "error" was a typo . . . note one's keyboard the location of the numeral 9 and next door is the zero . . . thus the approx. 10 meter discrepancy . . . )))

I think you also misunderstood my use of the expression "insurance policy" . . . chalk it up to error in translation . . . 

con una sonrisa


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## CoronaSipper (Jan 1, 2021)

First of all, thank you for your responses. I do not have experience with this so it is nice to speak to people who are willing to help me navigate the landscape.

My real estate agent sent me an offer contract with a chosen notario publico. This notario publico is from another city. I googled his name and some bad things came up. Accusations of corruption and fraud, court cases, etc..

Why would my real estate agent choose a notario publico from another city when there is a notario publico down the street from the house I want? I googled the notario publico near the house and nothing but good things came up (that he is honest and does his job well).

Is it common for real estate agents to recommend notario publicos from different areas? What was your experience? Did you use a local notario publico?


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## CoronaSipper (Jan 1, 2021)

Also one other question. How do I set up a bank trust? Will the notario publico help me with that? Or do I need to call a bank on my own?


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

In response to your questions, 

Re picking a Notaria Publica. I asked for recommendations from a Mexican friend. She gave me a name, but when I visited the office, I did not get the feeling that they were particularly interested in my business. So I just walked in off the street in several other offices until I found one that I liked. Maybe I was just lucky but I felt like they did a good job. Like Citlali, I had to get approval from SRE because I was a foreigner then. Now I am a Mexican citizen. All of my dealings were with the daughter of the notario. He was an old man and basically retired. He would come in for a few hours every day and sit at their conference table reading a book. His daughter did all the work. None of them spoke English and my Spanish was pretty rudimentary, but it all worked out.

Re a fideo comiso, I am in Guadalajara, far from the ocean or border, so I don't have one. I own the property outright in my own name. My guess is that the notario will not do that for you, but they might be able to help by answering questions and getting you pointed in the right direction. But that is just a guess.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

One additional thought. If a real estate company recommended someone to me, and that someone turned out to have a shady history, I would think seriously about the reliability of the real estate company. And I would definitely not let them pick the Notaria Publica for me. I would want someone independent of them, which is why the buyer gets to pick the Notaria in the first place, so it is independent of the seller.


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## surabi (Jan 1, 2017)

CoronaSipper said:


> Why would my real estate agent choose a notario publico from another city when there is a notario publico down the street from the house I want?


Because it's probably his cousin or something. Definitely do not agree to use a notario who has a bad rep.Choose your own notario based on good recommendations.



CoronaSipper said:


> Also one other question. How do I set up a bank trust? Will the notario publico help me with that? Or do I need to call a bank on my own?


This is all done by the notario. It's not something you apply for yourself.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Some notarios have different opinions on certain point of the law and will sometimes bend.. that is one of the reaon some realestate go to one rather than an other. and of course sometimes the notario is crooked and that is all together a different situation.. In Chiapas, I spoke to a notario about the sale of my house and he indicated ,that since I was a foreigner I would have to pay.. more or someting to that effect.. I told him I was a Mexican Mexican so it did not apply, then he told me I was a foreigner when I bought the house so I would have to be a foreigner when I sold it and I told him it was illegal for me to use ny French passport or claim another nationality than the Mexican one when in Mexico and he backed off.. The Notario are able to interpret the law so having a lawyer to get different options is not a bad idea.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

It is definitely the right of the buyer to choose the Notaria/Notario.


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## alan-in-mesicali (Apr 26, 2018)

citlali said:


> When I bought , I was not a Mexican citizen so I also had to get a permit from SRE to own in Mexico.. I did that myself by applying directly with SRE. Do not count on an insurrance to cover you if there are any mistakes done by the notario or if you are in a jam because you bought ejido land or communal land..
> In San Cristobal at least in the old part of town very few properties have the size shown on the title.. When I was interested in buying I had an engineering firm measure the property and tell me what I could and could not do to the house before we bought.... so I knew the exact size of the lot,, I have 40 square meters more than the deed hows and the notario told me not to worry about it as it is very commun there in the old part of town, Since all the adjacent properties were built and there was no way to move anything we went along with what the deed said and what we physically had,
> The buyers pay the notario but the notario does not work for the buyer, he represents the State if you want to be represented get a lawyer and make sure he is reputable.
> The real estate companies are not reponsable for anything either so when buying in Mexico it is buyer beware..


SO TRUE!!! I had an older retired from the US friend who bought his house from his sister-in-law when she received a "Green Card" for the US... he paid her monthly for the house... the bank that owned the mortgage was bought by another bank...and her payment account was closed - SHE SORT OF FAILED TO TELL MY FRIEND -.. he continued to make payments... she spent the money and made no house payments... One day he received a notice that the house was being repossessed by the bank owning the mortgage. [by this time he has made over 10 years of payments]... it boiled down to he lost his retirement home, hard to return and live with a daughter in LA...the "new bank" was very kind and gave him 24 hours to make up 10 years of payments he had made to his sister-in-law who was the owner of record. MEXICO IS DEFINATLELY "BUYERS BEWARE" COUNTRY!


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

When I bought my there was a _lot _of negotiation of settlement terms with the seller - he kept changing the plan as new requirements came to light. It was because it was a double transaction for him, he was selling me his apartment in order to raise cash to pay for land he'd already bought that he was building a house on, and so there were a lot of moving parts that weren't really my concern but I kept getting dragged into it. He was asking for the deposit to be paid directly to him at first (that put me in alarm mode big time). But in the end it was all on the up and up. 

But for part of the time we were going to use an escrow company to hold the deposit. The escrow company my abogado chose for this was Secure Title Latin America, which is a branch of Secure Title, which is the new name for an escrow company I'd used before in the US for US real estate - Stewart Title. They charges something like $800 to set up the escrow and ensure the deposit money. It would have been a couple thousand if we routed the full purchase price through escrow. In the end we renegotiated how the deposit was handled, and the escrow was cancelled, and I paid the $800 for nothing. 

Generally the Notario handling the sale does most of what an escrow company and title search company in the US would do. Having a separate escrow company is possible, but I think more likely to gum up the process than save you from getting defrauded. But if you really need one, I'd recommend Secure Title Latin America. They're not in Mexico, the office you deal with is on some Caribbean island (I forget which). And you wire money to their account in New York. They had my deposit ($40k) for a while, and I got it back less the $800 when we changed our deal and I unwound the escrow.


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