Future Expats' first step: Bought a little house!

So NOW I really need to know if anyone knows of A) someone who makes furniture cheaply in the Cabarete/Sosua/Cabrera area,  or B) The best way to ship some bulky furniture down without our residency-container

Congratulations first!!!! Let the adventures begin.  Shipping cheaply doesn't really happen and there are lots of inexpensive options.

I'll give you an example, I can get on Amazon a solid wood bunk bed with a twin over a full with a twin trundle bed underneath for around $550.  I have seen bunk bed in DR...but almost always of the IKEA quality and look...not very nice.  Even if it costs another $350 to get it to the house... I like that it's solid wood and not like what one finds in  other houses (we're planning on renting the house out)  I'm pretty confident we'll find a queen size bed and mattress for our bedroom.  But we have two other rooms...and this option comes apart, so I could put the full in one room and the twin with trundle in another...or keep them all together for three kids to use...So specifically this one piece of furniture is key.

Congrats and let the adventure begin

Yes there are good quality furniture makers here on the north coast.  We have  guy that we bring him a picture and he will replicate it usually at about 1/2 the cost of what we found.  He is either German or Belgian.  Recently he made and entire mahogany dining room with glass top table for us.  Very happy with it.

Bob K

I would love to contact him... Can you give me his e-mail?  OR PM me his e-mail...calling internationally still not really working...

We are leaving this morning for Santiago for a couple of days. I will see if I can find an email for him and let you know. I am not sure he has one but I will check and I will send his phone as well later today or tomorrow when we get back.

Bob K

Let's see some photos of the house and land

Congratulations!

no idea how to add pics...

can someone tell us how we pay our monthly electric bill from states? can we (should we) have it pulled from a credit card or do we need a bank account?

Are you renting the property while you are in the US?  If not is some one managing it and looking after it?

Paying from the states will be hard.  Maybe some one here can do if for you.

I will PM you the info on the furniture maker (Renee)

Bob K

Here is the information on the wood worker we as well as many of our clients use:

Rene Winkler
Ideas in wood
809 - 857 - 0163
http://sosua-plan-object.com

Bob K

Thanks, Bob K!

You are welcome.

Bob K

If the residence is in Puerto Plata you can pay the electricity in the internet page Edenorte
  www.edenorte.com.do
You register on the page with your personal data and contract data
Then you have to register your credit card
It takes one day about verification process
and you can pay online.

option 2
You can also make payment via telephone

Option 3
Also the payment is made in person

Esanchez  thanks for the info.  Option 3 will be tough if they are not in the country.....

Unfortunately, we are not in Puerto Plata...but, I'm hoping the telefon option might work....

Good luck

Bob K

Hey Brodies!
We have a rustic, but good furniture guy just down the
road from us, 2 clicks from you, who is Dominican.
I do believe you can pay on Edenorte's website.
same company, different town. go on site & ask them!
Whoa, I thought Tom was coming here in 2 weeks?
Tom.

I have a few pieces of furniture that need some help - can you give me the furniture guys info? Thanks!

Catalina knows his name & phone.
She's in Rio San Juan for a couple more hours.

Hey, Arieljoy

Did you make  it to Cabrera? Or will you be there soon? Just curious...and jealous of anyone who gets there before me!

Your time will come grasshopper

Bob K

Sorry, that repair guy did not work out
Does your house have a green steel roof?
Tom.

I'm freaking out because my better half gets to go for two whole weeks! And I only get 5 days this go around...*sigh*  We've entered the 'colorless' phase of the year here...dark, gray, somber...but the Christmas lights cheer it up a bit!

Sorry not for longer for you but remember that is 5 days of no snow, and shorts and flip-flops.

Bob K

Yup  5 days is better then no days!    And you can always "miss" your plane.... hahahahahaha

Hey guys...resurrecting this thread...because newer people might find our journey informative.  We are scheduled for an inspection and appraisal of our investment property here in the US which when closed will pay off what we owe on our little house on the hill.  We paid 30% down and then paid a set amount each month and in December the final amount is due at closing.  There are a couple things I'm trying to wrap my head around before we ask our lawyer to write up the closing docs.  So, bear with me here...

A) We are pursuing the option of purchasing the entire LLC from the owner with the properties.  I'm wondering if this means we will NOT pay a transfer tax on the purchase?...granted we will probably pay something equivalent to the lawyer to do due diligence on the LLC and make sure that only the properties we own will be held in it...but this saves us having to form an LLC, right?

B) Another potential option we're considering is to make an small cash offer on the last two lots in the whole LLC.  There will only be 5 lots left as of our closing.  There were 10 lots (tiny lots) We bought a lot with the only existing house and then the two adjacent lots to build on later.  Since then all the 8 viable lots have been purchased...and of the two remaining only the one next to ours to the north has a triangular usable portion of it (maybe about 8k m2).  There it is relatively flat and has a peek of the ocean to the north...but it is behind the hill and literally wedged between two houses...it's only real value is to us in order to have that view to the north as well as the main view to the southeast...Lot 1 is a wooded lot around 50 ft down the back side of the hill and honestly I don't think anyone realizes it's a lot...We would take both lots as part of the LLC purchase...offering a couple thousand...but, only to maintain our space and view on the hill.  My question is:  What if any advantage would the owner have in selling us the remaining 2 lots with the sale of the other 3 that we are about to close on?  Is it a complicated or expensive process to remove properties from the LLC?  The owner is very motivated to get out completely and this would accomplish that.  I should add the owner does everything through power of attorney here and I'm sure looks forward to the day when retaining a lawyer to maintain and oversee selling of the LLC isn't necessary. 

C) We will be making some kind of offer for the one adjacent lot soon possibly...but, I'd like to know if there are any leverage points in this proposal.  Others have suggested we add language like "option to bid" should someone else ever show interest in the lots...we could then match or beat that price...  Is that really something the seller is likely to agree to?   

Ok...I realize this is rambling...and feel free to ignore me...I'm just thinking out loud with my finger tips...

First congrats on everything coming together.

Most of this you need to ask YOUR lawyer, it's complicated. 

I would buy the property and own inside a corp for protection.

Other lots - you answered your own question - owner wants out, that's the incentive!