Rivergirl, originally from Colorado, currently resides in Cancun, Mexico with her husband. She runs one of the most popular blogs on Mexico – RiverGirl A Gringa Writes About Life in Cancun, Mexico. She has been practicing real estate in Cancun for the past year and a half.

Today, I am very excited to have the opportunity to ask popular blogger, Rivergirl about her insights and experiences on moving to Cancun, Mexico. Hola Rivergirl. Firstly, what factored into your decision to choose Cancun as your home?

We chose Cancun for several reasons: One was good infrastructure (shopping and availability of high-speed internet). Another was the close proximity to Mexico’s second busiest airport. The Cancun airport has direct flights to cities all over North America and it serves over three million travelers a year. Another reason was the weather, we love tropical weather and both feel very healthy here.
Cancun and the Riviera Maya also have one of the healthiest economies in Mexico, so we thought there would be a better set of opportunities here for us than in other areas of Mexico.

What was the biggest adjustment you had to make when you moved to Mexico?

This is a hard question. I think that for me, as a motivated and maybe uptight American, the hardest adjustment has been adapting to “Mexican Time.” I don’t do well with inefficiency or bureaucracy or being made to wait. But in Mexico there are lots of situations where rules make no sense or things are so inefficient that something I would expect to take five minutes will instead take two days, or two weeks, to resolve.

What do you like most and least about living in Cancun and Mexico in general?

The things I like most about living in Cancun are the weather and the clean air. Cancun sits between the Caribbean Sea and the largest forest in North America (the Yucatan Jungle). Even though this is a large city we have very clean air here. Also we get more than three hundred days a year of sunshine and we average about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
You cannot beat the weather here, it’s lovely.

The thing I like least about living here is that Mexico is a nearly lawless country. There is widespread corruption in virtually all areas of government. The people generally accept the corruption and, sadly, they even enable it. People here think nothing of bribing police and public officials to get what they want. The result is that public lands and endangered animals don’t get protected, building codes don’t get followed and public safety is always at risk.

How easy or difficult is it to acquire the goods that you need or want?

Each day it gets easier here to get the goods I want. But there are still items I have to bring back from the U.S. most especially books in English. You can find some beach reading in English here but if you want to read classics and books from many genres you need to import them. I also cannot get Saucony running shoes here and for the life of me I cannot find clothing I like here. Clothing here is generally expensive to buy but cheaply made, so I bring clothes back from the U.S.

Anyone considering a move here should understand that the Mexican postal system does not work. It means that you cannot mail anything of any importance through them. If the item matters to you it must be sent by air via DHL or FedEx (UPS is weak in this area). This raises your cost on any items you need to ship here.

How would you compare the infrastructure in Cancun and the surrounding area to that of the US?

Some of my family members live in rural Maine, they cannot get high-speed internet there and the nearest Costco is hours away. But their postal system is totally reliable, they have well-funded libraries and their police and fire departments have the latest equipment.

Cancun has good infrastructure compared to many areas of Mexico but its firemen use hand-me-down equipment donated by fire departments in the U.S. Many of Cancun’s streets and sidewalks have not been repaved in over 10 years and our only library is poorly funded.

Outside of Cancun the infrastructure varies greatly. As you go south toward Playa del Carmen you find decent infrastructure in some areas, but there are still places along the beach between Cancun and Playa del Carmen that are not yet on the electricity grid. North of Cancun in Playa Mujeres and Isla Blanca there is little in the way of infrastructure. Houses are not on the grid and the road to Isla Blanca can get pretty bad when we get strong rain. But the beaches up there are some of the best in the area so that makes up for the lack of services.

In short, you can’t compare Mexico to the U.S. because the two countries are so different. But it’s clear that a lot more money per capita goes into public works in the U.S. than in Mexico.

What areas do you see as having the best opportunity for strong appreciation?

It’s clear to me that north of Cancun, in Isla Blanca and Playa Mujeres, real estate values will continue to climb. Most beaches around here are shrinking or are at risk. But the beaches at the south end of Isla Blanca have been growing in recent years. Isla Blanca and Playa Mujeres are close to Cancun but not much has been built there yet. I’m confident that property values there will continue to rise.

Beaches in Puerto Morelos, which is just south of Cancun, are in generally good shape as well, but real estate values there are quite high already and I don’t see property values climbing much more. Then again, the people who live in Puerto Morelos generally seem to love it there and you never know what the market will do when people get emotionally attached to a place.

I imagine that certain areas of downtown Cancun (on the mainland, away from the beach) will increase in value in the foreseeable future. My own house, which is located in the center of Cancun’s downtown, has doubled in value just in the last four years.

Some people say that the Cancun market is oversaturated and recommend people buy property elsewhere. What do you see for the future of the Cancun area?

I am not alone in thinking that Cancun’s market for high-end condominiums on the beach is over-built. There are so many condo properties on the market in Cancun (and also in Playa del Carmen) that it makes my head spin and I have trouble keeping track of them all. I know of a number of these projects that are falling well-below the sales targets they had hoped for. There are not enough buyers.

It’s worth pointing out that when buying a condo in Mexico, most foreigners fail to consider the risk of poor Home Owner’s Associations. The HOA’s may not be effective in collecting maintenance fees and I know of many condo properties in Cancun that have a large percentage of owners who refuse to pay for the HOA and maintenance fees. Because of property laws in Mexico, HOAs often do not have the power to compel owners to pay the fees they owe. I strongly recommend prospective condo buyers in Mexico to find out as much as they can about the HOA and its effectiveness before making a condo purchase.

What advice would you give to someone who is considering acquiring a primary or second home in Mexico?

As with buying property anywhere buyers here need to learn as much as they can about the market before committing to a purchase. Many real estate agents in Cancun do not encourage their buyers to seek legal counsel in the belief that it’s not necessary, but I usually insist on it. Mexico’s property laws are different from those in the U.S. and the official language here is different. On top of that there is no licensing of real estate agents here so you need to be careful who you work with and even who you believe here.

Foreign real estate buyers have a tendency to come here and fall dramatically in love with the area. People who are in love are not thinking clearly. My best advice is to not make an emotional decision when you purchase property in Mexico, get the facts, seek legal counsel and learn the market. There are plenty of good deals here but if you are not careful you can get ripped off here too.

You can read more about Rivergirl’s experiences in Cancun at her blog Rivergirl, A Gringa Writes About Life in Cancun, Mexico. She can be contacted at rivergirl@hiddencancun.com