Monthly Archives: December 2022

Waiting and Walking

Real estate closings in San Carlos, Sonora happen quickly. It took 3 weeks each for our purchase and for the sale. We are now at 2 months in Mazatlan. But if I had a choice between the process in either place, it’s Mazatlan. I was a nervous wreck throughout our purchase in San Carlos in 2017 and the reasons why are too numerous for me to want to relive and write about. On the other hand, I feel very comfortable here. Just one example: In Mexico a notario (real estate lawyer) handles all the legalities and we were given an itemized list here of the costs up front and assurances that there would be no surprise extras later. Also, the notario costs are to be paid in pesos. In San Carlos, the notario collected the fees via a US dollar check on a day when the dollar was at its’ lowest and he therefore made an extra $1,000 on the exchange. He also collected from us for a plane ticket to fly to Mexico City to get the old trust released and then didn’t go but wouldn’t give us a refund. The only cost to sell in Mazatlan is the real estate commission. Period. In San Carlos, we paid an extra 3+% of the selling price in various fees and costs on top of a 6% commission. Those costs were paid to the real estate agency who in turn would pay them out to other agencies. All in dollars. And we never had a closing at the notario’s office and don’t even know who our notario was. We don’t have a single piece of paper that we sold our house. But we did get the money…….. less 9.3%.

Each step of the buying process here seems to take about 10 days to two weeks. There are now just two steps left and we were told the final step just takes a few days. We are hoping to close before mid-December because the seller must fly here from the US and flights might be hard to find closer to Christmas.

In the meantime, we walk around the central part of the city regularly. I don’t think I will ever get tired of walking Mazatlan’s streets. Christmas decorations are beginning to appear, there are many more tourists and expats here now vs the summer when we hardly saw any northerners, more shops and restaurants have magically appeared, and we hear more music.

Gaia Bistro at the Plaza Machada for dinner yesterday
Steve and I both had shrimp with mango sauce. This is my third time for this dish.
After dinner we walked to Olas Altas to see the sunset
Next, we went across the road from the sunset to Liverpool Alley
Now we are walking back to the Plaza Machada which is on the way to our apartment
The old colonial district of town has changed so much since 2010, our first visit to Mazatlan. Many buildings have been renovated and are becoming more colorful each year.
Some of the ruins are painted to be more attractive. I take a picture of this one each time we return and each time it is decorated differently.
Picking up dessert at the Panama Cafe to take home
Back to the plaza and past the Angela Peralta theatre and then to Playa Sur and our temporary home

I post pictures on my Instagram account more often than I write posts on this site. My user name there is evelyn_in_mazatlan or account name Evelyn Conley.